RallyNorth.net

ACTON — Junior Mike Moroney had a strong day in net for North Andover stopping 20 shots, but it wasn’t enough. Concord-Carlisle put an early goal past Moroney on a corner kick and that was all it needed as the No. 2 seed beat No. 6 North Andover 1-0 in the semifinals of the Division 2 North tournament. “They are really good at finishing inside the box,” Moroney said about Concord-Carlisle. “They got their foot on it. We tried to clear it but we didn’t clear it out far enough. They got their foot on it and put it in the back of the net.” The lone goal came 5:05 into the game and was scored by Stowe Simonton. Maybe Moroney’s best save came with just under 11 minutes remaining when he caught a ball absolutely smashed at him.  “This was his first year playing varsity soccer,” North Andover coach Bill Tarbox said about Moroney. “He’s a basketball player at heart and soul. I am sure. And his size is just a cool thing. He’s 6-2, 6-3. He’s got a great wingspan. I think he just steps up to the plate.” Moroney missed approximately six games this season with a concussion. “He did a great job (this year),” Tarbox said. “And I am sure that if we had him for the other six games our record would have been a little bit better on the ties and the losses. But hey, those things happen.” Brett Smith added about Moroney: “He fought pretty hard today. We’ve had unlucky breaks on set pieces all year so it was normal for us to give up a goal there. ... And we didn’t really control the ball well but we did our best.” North Andover allowed just the one goal in its three Division 2 North playoffs games. “And two of our defenders are coming back next year,” sophomore forward Evan Dudney said. “We’ve got Zach Karalis and Danny Connelly, and they’re coming back so it (the defense) will be strong again..” Plus, Moroney will be back. Concord-Carlisle outshot North Andover 21-5 (shots on net). “They marked a man on me like the whole time,” Dudney said. “So I didn’t really have much chance to turn or do anything with it. There weren’t many open players on our team to pass to, I guess. They were pretty solid. They knew what they were doing.” Tarbox added: “We showed that we could play a solid game and we did play a solid game. Obviously, defensively we shined.”

North Andover's boys soccer scored in the first half and made the lone goal stick in a 1-0 victory over Wayland in the Division 2 North first round. Evan Boudreau scored for the Knights, who got eight saves from Mike Moroney and a fine performance from defenders Danny Connolly, Nick Kingswood, Zach Karelis and Brett Smith. The Knights will play the winner of today's Northeast-Melrose game, probably on Wednesday

North Andover sophomore Dennis Graef, after scoring his first two goals of the season Saturday, had a hat trick in a 6-1 win over Amesbury. The former defender turned forward scored the Knights' first three goals, including one in the first 30 seconds of the game.

In his first career soccer game, freshman Mark Patinude had 14 saves in goal in North Andover's 2-1 loss to Rockport.

Backup goalie Chris Grimble made 12 saves but it was not enough as North Andover boys soccer lost 2-1 to Wilmington. Starting keeper Mike Moroney suffered a concussion in the game vs. Pentucket on Tuesday and will be out for at least two weeks, maybe more, coach Bill Tarbox said.

Michael Moroney and Chris Grimble combined for the shutout as North Andover topped Pentucket in a battle of CAL opponents that each entered the game with one loss. Moroney made five saves and, after he left with a concussion, Grimble entered and made four stops to clinch the win.

Evan Boudreau had the hat trick and North Andover also got fine play from midfielder Corey Hocking, midfielder Connor Boudreau and defender Dan Connelly in a 4-1 win over Georgetown.

Zach Karalis of North Andover scored his first varisty soccer goal in North Andover's 4-0 win over Manchester-Essex. Coach Bill Tarbox said that Karalis looked very excited to score the goal.

Evan Boudreau fired a pass to Evan Dudney, who beat the goalie one-on-one with 4:40 left in the game to give North Andover a come-from-behind 3-2 win over Danvers.

Nick Kingswood struck quickly, scoring on a direct kick from 30 yards out just five minutes into play, but North Andover couldn't add to its total in a 1-1 deadlock with Lynnfield. The Pioneers were thwarted repetitvely by outside midfielder Jason Keshian and center defender Zach Karalis before finally breaking through to score with eight minutes left in the game.