Soccer: Belmont Boys' Reach Playoffs, Girls' Back to Winning Ways

After hitting a speed bump midway through the season – a hard fought home loss to Wilmington, 1-0, Thursday, Oct. 3, and a lackluster 1-1 tie with Burlington at Harris Field on Monday, Oct. 7 – and a couple of practices that one player characterized as "really uncomfortable," the Belmont High School Boys' Soccer team punched their ticket to the post season on Friday afternoon, Oct. 11, with a 2-1 win over non-league opponent Cambridge Rindge and Latin. 

Belmont started the scoring with forward junior Luke Gallagher knocking in a rebound from the CR&L goalie who made a spectacular save from a Ben Lazenby header from a corner kick 10 minutes into the game.

With the score 1-1 midway through the second period, junior Norman Kilavatitu scored his first goal of the season from a blast outside 18 meters after receiving a back pass from senior Ben Giber. 

On Thursday, Oct. 10, the Boys' took apart host Wakefield, 3-0, as senior Andrew Strawbridge continued his hot streak scoring for this third game in a row and junior goalie Peter Berens secured the shut out.

The once 19th-ranked Marauders (despite winning both games this week, the Boston Globe dropped them from the top 20 on Sunday, Oct. 13) now sport an 8-1-3 record and are tied with Lexington High at the top of the Middlesex League's Liberty division. But rankings is not currently the top priority for the players, said one of the team's senior leaders.

"We're not concerned where we are ranked. We are just keeping our focus on playing well and working hard. What we want is the league title," said senior Michael Chertkvo, who returned to the game from an injury. 

Girls' Soccer start rush to make post season

Just two weeks ago, Belmont High School Girls' Soccer team was undefeated heading into October. Coming into their home game on Thursday, Oct. 10, the team had just gone through a five game losing streak that left long-time Belmont Head Coach Paul Graham cursing his team's bad luck.

"There were games we dominated and a play here and there and we ended up losing. It was terrible," he said.

Yet it appears that Belmont (4-5-3) is beginning to work together to change the direction of their season with a pair of home wins, 4-1 vs. Wakefield on Thursday, Oct. 10, and a hard-fought 1-0 victory early Saturday morning, Oct. 12, against non-league Medford. 

Junior striker Sophia Eschenbach-Smith scored the game winner in both contests including the only goal vs. Medford coming in the scrum after a Belmont corner kick in the first five minutes of the game.

On Thursday, Eschenbach-Smith slammed home a rebound that came off the left post from a Julia Cella blast 15 seconds into the second half to give Belmont a 2-1 lead. Eschenbach-Smith scored the first goal of the game from her freshman line mate Cella early in the first half. 

After their five game slide, Graham has installed a more aggressive offense, at times placing seven players around the goal on corner and free kicks. That approach has led to three of five goals coming from those "set" pieces including a goal by senior captain Gabby Joyal scoring in close from a free kick by defender Lucia Guzikowski. 

"We're moving in the right direction but now we have to win. Next week we will have Reading (which they tied 1-1 on a last minute goal) on Monday. We have to win those games and especially against the good [teams]," said Graham, whose squad has six games remaining to pick up seven points (a win is two points, a tie one).