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Salem avenges loss in tourney

SALEM — This time, Andrew Fichera and the Salem boys soccer team was ready for defending champion Pinkerton.

Back in September, Pinkertion had snapped the Blue Devils' four-game winning streak to open the season, with a solid 1-0 victory. Six weeks later, Salem got some revenge at the most opportune time with a 3-1 victory in the first round of the Division 1 tournament.

"This was definitely a big win for us," said Salem first-year coach Justin Golden. "It feels great to beat Pinkerton now."

Fichera was a big reason why the Blue Devils turned the tables on the Astros. The junior forward scored all three Salem goals, giving him 17 for the season, which is a stunning 15 more than he scored last year.

Fichera's first two goals came in the first half and then he added the final for a hat trick before Pinkerton could get on the board. Christian Moreno, Andrew Doucette and Mike Wakim had the assists.

Pinkerton certainly didn't go down easily and applied plenty of pressure during the game but sophomore goalie Drew Hailey (10 saves) and the Salem defense were up to the task.

"Drew had a couple of great plays on corner kicks — he was incredible for us today," said Golden. "And center back Zach Brady played one of the best games I've seen him play in his career."

For Pinkerton (8-7-2), which started the season slowly but gradually built momentum, Ryan Forkey scored the lone goal. It was a disappointing end to a strong second half of the season.

 "I'm incredibly surprised at our performance today," said Pinkerton coach Kerry Boles. "We made so many self-inflicted mistakes today and it cost us. We had multiple opportunities today but squandered them with silly errors.

"Give Salem credit for grabbing a lead and packing it in. When you have a consistent goal scorer, you're able to get away with that. It's what we lacked all season long and it showed today."

Salem (10-5-2) now advances to Saturday's quarterfinals at Londonderry, which edged Dover 1-0 in its Wednesday opener.