WEST CANAAN — With about 5½ minutes left in the contest, Kasey Morin played hero for the Stevens High boys soccer team by ripping a shot from the top of the 18-yard box to put his squad ahead as the Cardinals claimed an eventual 3-1 win over Mascoma High on Tuesday.
After a strong start, the Cardinals hit a rough patch as the match progressed but ultimately sealed the win.
“It was ups and downs; we were strong right off the start — we held possession the majority of the game,” Morin said.
“In the second half, we started to go downhill a little bit. We missed a few shots, got on each other, but at the end of the day we put one in, then we all got together, put another one in. And tomorrow is a new day, and we’ll build from there.”
In addition to Morin’s scoring, Owen Chapman and Joey Ruffin also found the back of the net for the Cardinals, while Jaxon Churchill picked up an assist.
Matt Kinson, who is in his first season leading the Cardinals, acknowledged his team needs to get more of its shots on target, estimating that only about a quarter of their shots were on net.
However, he praised his squad’s ability to keep battling when the going got tough.
“I think the boys showed grit to stick with it. I know we got in the mud a little bit toward the end. It’s tough to concede one goal on one shot. … They fought. I love that,” he said.
Stevens got on the board early, as Chapman put his squad up 1-0 about a minute and a half into the game, set up by a nice through ball from Churchill.
It was pretty much all Cardinals from then on, as the visitors owned possession for most of the half and mounted scoring chances. However, all of those opportunities went past the net, hit the crossbar or found the mitts of Royals goalkeeper Nic DeFelice.
Despite the lack of possession, the Royals did have some opportunities to even the score in the first half. The best came with about 13½ minutes remaining when a throw-in found the feet of Bryce Porter at the top of the six-yard box, and he sent the ball over the net.
The Royals eventually tied the match, though, in the second half. About six minutes into the frame, an attempted clearance from Stevens bounced off the face of Ian Massecar to the feet of Porter, who shook a defender, made a run and put a shot into the back of the net.
As the half drew on, the Cardinals continued to hog possession and mount chances, but DeFelice kept coming up big for the Royals.
Mascoma head coach Stuart Kinsman wrote in a score report to the Valley News that his keeper’s performance was incredible: “He kept us in this game.”
Eventually, though, the dam would break as Morin put the Cardinals ahead, and Ruffin added to the margin in the waning minutes to clinch the victory.
Tuesday’s win was the second in a new era for the boys soccer program at Stevens High.
Kinson, who previously coached middle school soccer in Claremont and at the club level, replaced longtime head coach Jason Stone, who was not offered a contract to continue coaching the team this fall.
Stone, who now serves as an assistant for the girls team, has largely criticized the decision, the circumstances around it and how it was handled on social media. At the same time, other community members have shown their support for the longtime coach.
Kinson acknowledged that the way he came into the program was “a little abnormal,” noting that usually you find a junior varsity spot.
“Coach Stone has been around for a long time. I think that he is a pillar of our soccer community in Claremont, and I think losing him is not only tough for the program, but I think it’s tough for our town, and rightfully so, there’s a lot of noise behind it,” he said.
“Lucky for me, I have a group of guys that have done nothing but fight through adversity for four years — last year we had a budget crisis, this year it’s coaching turnover. For them, they’re ready to get to work … Grass isn’t always greener, but they were ready for something else.”
Regardless of the noise surrounding the program, Morin said he and his squad will stick together.
“We all kind of stay together no matter who they put with us or whoever they put against us. Our team stays together as a whole no matter what — we’re all on the same team at the end of the day, so we just got to keep going forward no matter what obstacles they put at us,” he said.
The Cardinals (2-0-0) will look to keep the winning going on Friday when they visit Raymond for a 4 p.m. matchup. Mascoma (0-2-0) visits Monadnock on Friday for a 4 p.m. contest.
