PROVIDENCE — The East Providence High School boys’ soccer team closed out its Division I regular season Thursday night, Oct. 23, ending a dubious streak in the process.
The Townies traveled to rival LaSalle to cap its regular season slate and came away with a 2-1 victory, their first over the Rams in nearly two decades, according to EPHS head coach Tony Vieira. The last East Providence win over LaSalle came in 1996. Since, the teams have played approximately 25 times, of which the Townies earned seven draws but no wins.
Alex DoRego’s rebound of a Tyler Pereira shot in the waning moments of the contest accounted for the game winner. LaSalle scored the only goal of the first half off a botched clearance attempt by the Townies. Ten minutes into the second half, E.P. leveled the score on Ryan Costa’s header off a Victor Reis free kick. Nate Silveira was credited with 10 saves in the Townies’ net.
“The kids didn’t know about the streak until I told them after the game,” Coach Vieira said. “Obviously they were elated once they found out. They were excited to be part of the group that ended it. After going 0-17 last year, this is a big win for us. The kids are starting to believe in themselves as much as we believe in them as coaches. Hopefully this spurs us on to a nice couple of weeks in the playoffs.”
The Townies capped their regular season with a 7-7-0 record and with 21 points in the D-I standings, good for eighth place. By virtue of North Kingstown’s 2-1 win over East Greenwich in the finale for both of those teams, East Providence is likely to host its first playoff game since 2002 early next week, according to Coach Vieira. He believes E.G. will travel to Pierce Stadium, though that won’t be decided until the coaches gather for their annual postseason meeting also early next week. The Avengers finished with a 6-5-3 record with the same 21 points as E.P. Host East Greenwich defeated the Townies, 3-0, when the teams met on October 9.
Back to Thursday night’s outing, the Rams capitalized on one of the few E.P. mistakes in the contest to score their lone goal, an unassisted tally by Victor Rey.
Down but not out, the Townies responded early in the second half for the equalizer. Costa ran under Reis’ perfectly weighted free kick to beat LaSalle keeper Anthony Billeri (5 saves).
As the game seemingly headed towards a draw, East Providence caught a break, literally, a break-away by Pereira, who took the shot, which was saved by Billeri, but DoRego properly was making the trailing run and was in position to punch home the rebound for what proved the winning goal.
“This was the best overall team effort we’ve had this year. I thought we out-worked them. We pressured them into a lot of mistakes,” Coach Vieira added. “Soccer-wise, technically, they passed and moved the ball better than we did, but we capitalized on their mistakes. Nate made a couple of saves to keep us in the game. All of our guys were engaged and did the jobs asked of them. It was a great win.”