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State tourney-bound Triton eliminates Port from postseason contention

Saturday, May, 17 By John Shimer
Staff writer

NEWBURYPORT | River Rival clashes don't normally need any extra incentives, but it was the postseason come early at War Memorial Stadium as both Triton and Newburyport were in desperation mode faced with the prospect of elimination from the state tournament with one more loss.

Right from the opening whistle, the visiting Vikings looked the more hungry side, jumping out to a 4-0 advantage in the first quarter and never looking back to earn their third straight tournament with a 12-5 victory.

Triton was able to keep momentum on its side as Carson True had another superb performance in goal, stopping 16 shots despite several decent scoring chances for the Clippers.

"My goalie stepped up big time," commended pleased Triton coach Donna Andersen. "Carson was huge making a lot of big saves even though they had some real good scoring opportunities. A couple of goals quickly by Newburyport here or there, and the momentum could have switched to Newburyport in a hurry, but he stepped up when he needed to shut down their momentum."

At the offensive end, All-League midfieler Chris LeSage (1 goal, 4 assists) was a marked man by Newburyport after his ridiculous nine-goal-one-assist performance against Hamilton-Wenham Tuesday. However, that opened the door for Triton's other offensive stars, specifically Caleb Woodworth, who took advantage of the gaping openings in the Newburyport defense to bury six goals and add two assists.

"We're a really balanced team, when someone gets shut off someone else steps up," said Woodworth. "They were definitely looking at Chris (LeSage) with his nine goals last game, and I was able to sneak open because all the attention was on him."

Moving the ball with patience, waiting for Newburyport's defense to slide out and create openings, and then connecting with the open players, Triton was able to expose the Clippers' defensive game plan.

"Caleb (Woodworth) was awesome with six goals | you can't be unhappy with that performance," said Andersen. "I think what ended up happening was Chris (Lesage) was a focus point for some people, and the tendency is to look at him while ignoring others. But our offense is pretty balanced; PK (Paul Bishop) our other attacker got three goals, and the attack picked up the load."

At Newburyport, the Clippers had to win their final three, including the next two to get in, but the most recent result against Triton was just confirmation of something coach Ed Gaudiano had known for several games.

"We didn't do a lot of the things we've been talking about all year: We didn't do well on ground ball, we didn't do a good job shooting, we didn't do a good job of playing unsettled defense," lamented Gaudiano of the way his team not only performed against Triton, but down the stretch going 1-4 in the Clippers last five.

 "This was a big game and we got outplayed, out-everythinged. We wanted to take away LeSage and we did a decent job doing that, but they were athletic the rest of the field and better than us five on five.

"I don't like losing to Triton, and I wish the kids didn't like losing to them as much as I do."

The one bright spot for the Clippers is the growing emergence of freshman sensation Andrew Sokol, who again scored a hat trick.

"Andrew is a freshmen who is getting good," said Gaudiano of the prospects for future seasons. "He's a student of the game, always has a stick in his hand, and athletically he can compete, too. He's a bright spot if you look at the next couple of years."

For the game other goal scorers for Triton included Josh Arango with one goal, Ben Mantarian with a goal and an assist, Mike Foley with two assists, Ben Mantarian with a goal, and Nick DeFrancesco with an assist. On the Clippers side, Ethan Machurat had a goal, Steven Bajko had a goal and Corey Ruane had two assists, while Derek Cataldo had eights saves in net.