Laconia, n.h.
Junior Drew Grenier finished off a perfect corner kick with 7:36 remaining to snap a 2-2 deadlock and lift second-seeded Stevens past No. 6 Belmont, 3-2, in the first of two NHIAA Division III boys soccer semifinal contests on Wednesday at Bank of New Hampshire Stadium in Laconia.
“This is huge. This will be our first time in the championship in … I think it’s been 23 years since we’ve been in the semifinals,” said junior Noah Spaulding, who continued his sensational season with two goals in helping the Cardinals earn this first berth in the state title game in 27 years.
Stevens last play for a boys soccer title in 1989, when the Cardinals topped Oyster River 2-0 for the Class I crown.
“We’ve been working on this since we were 4 years old,” Spaulding continued. “It’s been our goal to end the drought.”
The Cardinals (17-2) will get that chance on Saturday afternoon, when they take on No. 5 Hopkinton (16-3) at Southern New Hampshire University. The Hawks stunned top-seeded Derryfield, 2-1, in the second semifinal contest.
Stevens earned that opportunity in outlasting Belmont (14-4-1) in a thrilling semifinal battle.
After Belmont took a 1-0 lead in the opening half, the action picked up in the second 40-minute frame. Stevens got a spark early in the second half and went up 2-1 on two Spaulding goals in a 52-second span. The Red Raiders pulled even with 11:49 on the clock when Zach Ennis netted his second of the game.
The Cardinals responded by executing a corner kick play. Mitchell Parquette lofted the corner for the far post, with every Stevens player crashing the near post. Grenier charged the goal hard at the far post and got his head on the ball for the eventual game-winner.
“It worked absolutely the way we wanted it to,” Stevens coach Jason Stone said. “It’s almost like one that Belmont runs. It’s a set play where we clear it out for him, and Mitchell has a great kick there.”
Belmont, which certainly controlled possession for much of the contest, pressed for the equalizer. The Raiders’ best bid was a header by Corey Derosier that just went over the goal.
For much of the first half, the Cardinals were visibly frustrated as they fell into an early hole.
While the Red Raiders controlled possession, both teams did have scoring opportunities in the opening 20 minutes — though Belmont enjoyed the better chances and finally cashed in with 17:43 left in the half. Awarded a direct kick just outside the 18-yard line, Belmont senior Logan Wilder’s blast was stopped by a diving Tanner Durkee in the Stevens goal. Ennis, though, was there to pop in the rebound for the early edge.
Durkee (10 saves) made a key stop on Chris Marden less than three minutes later, with the ball going off the crossbar and over the goal.
Stone got his Cardinals refocused at the halftime break.
“We were definitely down, and we needed a change in attitude,” Spaulding said. “When it doesn’t go our way, we blame each other and the officials. (Coach Stone) finds a way to get us to realize we’re overreacting.”
Stone didn’t deliver a fiery speech; he just got to the point.
“They were bickering out there,” he said. “I just told them they had no time for that. You are killing yourselves and that they had 40 minutes to fix that.”
And the Cardinals did just that.
After dodging a couple of early bullets, the Cardinals got the ball down deep in the corner and in front, where the Red Raiders committed a foul. Spaulding blasted a shot just past Belmont keeper Jonny Leclair (four saves) with 34:20 remaining. Spaulding put the Cardinals on top 52 seconds later, making a nice move around a Belmont defender and popping it past Leclair for a 2-1 lead.