Local Roundup: SoRo Boys End Playoff Drought

South Royalton — The youth movement is fully engaged for the South Royalton boys soccer team. The No. 3-seeded Royals beat No. 14 Black River, 2-1, in the Vermont Division IV playoff opener in front of the home crowd on Tuesday afternoon to earn their first postseason victory since 2011.

SoRo sophomore Eric Taylor scored the only goal in first half, an unassisted strike to give the hosts a 1-0 edge at halftime. Freshman Jacob Barry then scored on a feed from Alvaro Sanabrio after the break to put the Royals in front, 2-0. Black River got on the board with 10 minutes left on a Drew Schoenberger goal.

The victory for the Royals (12-1-2) is their first in postseason play since a 2-1 first round victory at Cabot on Oct. 25, 2011. The future is as bright as ever for the program as the Royals were just 6-8 in 2016 and field a roster dominated by freshmen this fall.

“We’ve already achieved everything we set out to do at the start of the season, so this feels really good,” SoRo coach Alex Montano said.

Keeper Sam Fisk made two saves for the Royals. South Royalton will host the winner of today’s Mount St. Joseph vs. Arlington game in the quarterfinals on Friday at 3 p.m.

Woodstock 3, Otter Valley 0

Woodstock — The Wasps erupted for three goals in the second half to beat the Otters in a first round Vermont Division II clash.

Min Purvis broke the scoreless deadlock with a penalty kick goal in the 70th minute. Steven Townley and Cullen McCarthy added insurance goals to put the match on ice. Emilio Montano and Kyle Weirether each had assists. Keepers Stephen Bianchi made four saves to earn the shutout.

“We persevered. We got off to a slow start, but once we broke it open with that PK, it helped us out a lot,” Woodstock coach Tom Avellino said.

The No. 7 seed Wasps will play either Milton or Mill River in the quarterfinals on Friday.

Woodsville 3Wilton-Lyndeborough 0

Wilton, n.h. — The ninth-seeded Engineers went on the road to beat the No. 8 seed Warriors to open the New Hampshire Division IV playoffs.

Woodsville led, 1-0, at halftime thanks to a 26th minute goal by Corey Bemis. Adam Cataldo had fired a shot off the crossbar, where the rebound found Bemis for a header into the back of the net.

Calvin Roy and Brendon Walker each scored in the second half. Bemis and Garrett Olsen picked up assists. Goalkeeper Cooper Davidson had 12 saves.

Up next for the Engineers (10-7) is a visit to undefeated Portsmouth Christian on Friday. Woodsville played the Eagles tough in the regular season, losing 4-2 at home on Sept. 15.

Sunapee 6, Lin-Wood 0

Sunapee — Michael Mullen scored two goals to lead the Lakers in a dominant effort to start the New Hampshire Division IV playoffs.

Mullen scored in the second and 16th minutes to give Sunapee an early 2-0 lead. Carson Garland assisted on both early goals. Darren Hulton and Nick Ducharme each added goals before halftime. Chris Jorgensen and Jackson Cooney scored after the break.

Garland added another assist to finish with three on the afternoon. Keeper Will Palin made eight saves for his fifth shutout of the season.

The No. 4 seed Lakers (13-4) have now won eight of their last nine games and will host No. 5 Littleton on Friday. Sunapee lost, 3-2, at Littleton when the teams met in the regular season on Sept. 8.

West Rutland 6Mid Vermont Christian 0

West Rutland, Vt. — The No. 12 seed Eagles saw their season come to a close in the first round of the Vermont Division IV playoffs. MVCS closes the season at 5-10 overall.

Girls Soccer

Rivendell 1, Hazen 0

Orford — Senior Riley Thomson scored in the 45th minute and the Raptors’ defense held tight to earn a win in the first round of the Vermont Division III playoffs.

Mikayla DeBois setup the goal when she streaked down the right sideline before firing a cross over the Hazen keeper’s reach to Thomson, who deflected the ball into the back of the net off her stomach.

Coach Tim Goodwin praised the play of the Rivendell defense led by a strong effort from backline star Moria Haehnel and keeper Cora Dar (nine saves). The No. 4 seed Raptors (13-1-1) will host No. 12 seed Vergennes, a 5-1 upset winner over No. 5 BFA-Fairfax, on Friday.

Thetford 5, Otter Valley 0

Thetford — The second-seeded Panthers (12-2) were dominant to open the Vermont Division III playoffs, outshooting Otter Valley 37-1.

Sophie Williams and Lily MacVeagh each scored in the first half for Thetford. Arwen Clayton, Ellen Veracka and Lexi Gaetz added tallies after the break. Lily Brown had a pair of assists. MacVeagh added one assist. Keeper Danielle Robinson anchored the Panthers defense and made one save.

Thetford will host either Randolph or Leland & Gray in the quarterfinals on Friday.

Montpelier 6, Woodstock 0

Montpelier — The Solons finally pulled away with five goals in the second half to hand the Wasps a defeat in the Vermont Division II first round.

Olivia Brooks played a strong defensive game for the Wasps, shadowing Montpelier star forward Cricket Basa for much of the game. Woodstock keeper Lydia Howe was busy in her postseason debut to cap a strong second half of the season after she was called up from junior varsity.

Richford 4Whitcomb-Rochester 2

Richford, Vt. — The Mountaineers saw their season come to an end at Richford in the first round of the Vermont Division IV playoffs. Whitchester finishes at 3-9-3.

College Field Hockey

Dartmouth 4, Holy Cross 3

Worcester, Mass. — The Big Green (7-9) scored three goals in the second half to top the Crusaders.

Jocelyn Wulf put the Dartmouth on the board in the 13th minute to answer an early Holy Cross goal. The Crusaders led, 2-1, at halftime. The Big Green scored two goals early after the break with Morgan Phillie and Tatum Schultz each finding the back of the cage. Holy Cross then score to knot things at 3-3 before Dartmouth’s Katie Spanos added the game-winner in the 49th minute.

Katie Persin had two assists for the Big Green. Sarah Tabeek added one assist. Goalie Hailey Valerio made 10 saves.

Men’s Basketball

Dartmouth AnnouncesBroadcast Schedule

Hanover — The Dartmouth men’s basketball team will have five games boradcast in the 2017-18 season, including an ESPN2 showdown at Notre Dame on Dec. 19.

The season opener at Quinnipiac will be streamed on ESPN3 on Nov. 11, with the online channel also hosting the Big Green’s game at Canisius (Dec. 2) and at Illinois-Chicago (Dec. 15). Dartmouth has three games scheduled to be televised by Eleven Sports Network (vs. Harvard, Jan. 20; vs. Princeton, Feb. 10; at Princeton, Feb. 24) and another on SNY (at Columbia, Feb. 3).

Men’s Soccer

Dartmouth Postponed

Hanover — Tuesday’s Dartmouth-UConn game was postponed due to forecasted rain. No make up date has been announced. The Big Green visits Harvard on Saturday at 4:30 p.m.

College Volleyball

Colby-Sawyer 3, Suffolk 2

New London — The Chargers closed strong for the victory by set scores of 25-27, 25-21, 21-25, 25-9 and 16-14.

Colby-Sawyer improves to 12-18 with the win. Alli Lahiff clinched the victory with a match-clinching kill at the end of the fifth set. Lahiff finished with 12 kills, two aces and five blocks. Morgan Flynn had 23 digs. Olivia Goodrich had 47 assists and 18 digs.