Whenever St. Stephen’s & St. Agnes and St. Anne’s-Belfield lock up, goals are going to be hard to come by, but getting behind SSSA by any margin can force a team into a nearly impossible hole to climb out of, which was the case Friday night as STAB fell 7-5 in the VISSA Division I state semifinals.
“They play a very possession-oriented style and so it’s very important to not get behind,” said St. Anne’s-Belfield coach Bo Perriello. “It’s tough to play from behind on a team like that and we weren’t able to do that today.”
STAB fell into a 5-3 hole before halftime including several crafty goals including a couple of strong moves from behind the cage. John Aversa scored two goals during that stretch for SSSA.
“We got some good looks and we were able to finish…we felt like it was good for us to have five goals in the first half,” said SSSA coach Andy Taibl. “We talked at halftime about stretching possessions a little bit. They’re pretty darn good defensively so it was tough for us to find good looks and we knew we probably wouldn’t get another five in the second half.”
Those lengthened possessions in the third quarter made things particularly hard on STAB. St. Stephen’s maintained possession for nearly the entire third frame, essentially erasing 12 minutes of the game and making a tough situation for STAB a desperate one without scoring a single goal.
“The best way we can defense is get good long possessions offensively and keep their offense out of rhythm because once they get rolling they’re tough,” Taibl said.
It was a particularly frustrating situations for STAB who committed several turnovers during the third when they did get a chance to possess the ball for a few seconds.
“The third quarter was real tough, I think we had the ball on our offensive side of the field for maybe 20 seconds,” Perriello said. “I was really proud of our defense because we didn’t give up a goal, but at some point we just had to try and stem the tide and get the ball back on the offensive end. We got the one and thought we had a shot there and they obviously responded with two quick ones and put us back in a hole.”
Phillip Robertson pulled STAB within a goal right out of the gate in the fourth quarter, cutting the SSSA lead to 5-4 with 10:30 to play. But SSSA answered, with Drew Wiesman’s third goal of the night followed by a Nate Jones tally that pushed SSSA’s lead to three goals.
STAB couldn’t find a counterpunch until Scott Cathcart scored with 1:56 left. A few seconds later a STAB shot careened off the goal post and SSSA recovered, allowing them to run out the clock and end STAB’s season.
SSSA will face off against St. Christopher’s Saturday afternoon in the state title game.
