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Valentine's Day for Pinkerton soccer

Wednesday, November, 03 By Jeff Hamrick
Staff writer

EXETER — Nick Valentine wasn't expecting to be called upon quite as early as he was, but the Pinkerton senior didn't hesitate when his turn came.
Scoring on the seventh — and what turned out to be the last — penalty kick, Valentine provided the final margin in the Astros' 3-2 victory over top-seeded Concord in last night's Class L soccer semifinals at Exeter High School's Bill Ball Stadium.

With the victory, fourth-seeded Pinkerton will chase its second state title in three years and third since 1995 against second-seeded Manchester Central in Sunday's 6:15 p.m. championship match at Southern New Hampshire University.

The Astros (15-2-1) defeated Central (16-2-1) 3-2 during the regular season.
Against the Crimson Tide (14-2-2), Pinkerton twice rallied from second-half deficits to force overtime with 6:54 left on a goal by Trevor Carignan. But after 40 minutes of scoreless soccer, the decision came down to penalty kicks. Both teams made four of their five kicks in the first shootout before the Astros got scores from Dan Barker then Valentine.
"I had no idea I was going out there," Valentine said. "I found out right before I went out for the kick. I was kind of nervous a little bit. I was a little surprised because I was expecting one of the other defensemen to go out before me. I was just thinking don't miss, but I knew it was going in the whole time."
Valentine's game winner was set up when goalie Peter Siragusa stuffed an attempt by Concord's Joshua Freese with a diving stop to his right. Siragusa, who made nine saves during regulation, also denied Bienvenu Kaneza on Concord's second penalty kick attempt.
"I knew (the first one) wasn't going to be enough," Siragusa said. "I knew I'd have to make one more. I knew the other goalie was really good, so I knew."
Siragusa, a junior, also connected on the fifth penalty kick, keeping the Astros alive. He was the only underclassman to have an attempt.
"I really wanted to pay tribute to the seniors to be perfectly honest," Pinkerton coach Kerry Boles said of his choices for the penalty kicks. "The reason we had an underclassman go in the first group as far as Pete is that he's just automatic. I was hoping it wouldn't get that far. But just because Nick was the (seventh) shooter doesn't mean he isn't just as good as the first shooter."
Concord, which defeated the Astros 2-0 in the regular season, took a 1-0 advantage into halftime, but Pinkerton tied the score on a nice goal by Sean Smith from 45 feet two minutes into the second half. The Astros watched the Crimson Tide take another one-goal lead midway through the half, but Carignan erased that, rounding up a bouncing ball and lofting it over goalie Joseph Graffy.
"We knew that we were down and just had to kick it into gear," said Carignan, who also connected on a penalty kick. "We've been down in almost every single game this year, and we knew we could do it again. We just came out with fire and put them away."
PINKERTON 3, CONCORD 2

Division 1 Semifinals

Pinkerton   0   2  (7) — 3
Concord    1   1  (6) — 2
Goals: P — Sean Smith, Trevor Carignan; C — Derek Thompson, Nash Osgood.
Shots: P — 24; C — 23
Saves: P — Peter Siragusa 9; C — Joseph Graffy 9