Grafton and Lafayette’s boys soccer teams capped off their regular seasons in style Thursday night, securing victories on Senior Night to clinch a share of the Bay Rivers District title.
After playing to a 2-2 tie back in early April, the Clippers and Rams ran the table against district opponents en route to finishing with matching 8-0-1 records.
Grafton, which last won a district title in 2009, edged York 1-0 at Bailey Field Thursday while Lafayette, which earned its first title since 2005, pulled away to beat Poquoson 3-0 at Wanner Stadium.
Via the annual preseason draw, the Rams will be the No. 1 seed in next week’s district tournament and the Clippers No. 2. Whichever team advances furthest in the tournament, which begins next Friday, will earn the Bay Rivers’ No. 1 seed in the Region I tournament the following week.
“It’s exciting,” Sidhu said Thursday after his team’s hard-fought victory. “Especially for the seniors. They’ve been all business all year long, have worked really hard and earned it.
“But I think their goals go beyond [a district title].”
Said Sorrell, “They guys were pretty excited after the game. I’ve got to hand it to our seniors, they really have done an excellent job all season long of fighting and making sure the whole team is playing hard at all times. They’re a special group.”
Grafton 1 York 0
For the first 60 minutes, it appeared York’s scrappy goalkeeper Ben Kinney had every intention of spoiling Grafton’s hopes of a Bay Rivers District title.
But with roughly 19 minutes left in regulation of Thursday’s contest, Grafton freshman Dylan Lorio-MacNamara made a great play on a deep over-the-top pass from Sean Breen to beat one defender in the box and blast the eventual game-winning goal through Kinney’s hands and into the back of the net.
“Sean [Breen] made a good serve that I think caught [York] a little off guard, and Dylan did a great job to corral it and finish,” Sidhu said after the game. “He plays with much more maturity than a freshman, and has really been great for us all year.”
Lorio-MacNamara, who began the year playing JV before being called up midway through the season, called it “an unbelievable feeling” to be one of the youngest players on the team and provide the defining play of the game.
After Kinney made a series of beautiful diving stops early, York appeared to take a 1-0 advantage after putting one in the back of the net off a corner, but the referee whistled the Falcons for a handball moments prior and waived off the goal.
Grafton (13-0-3, 8-0-1 BRD) made a strong push during the final three minutes of the first half with lots of pressure out its attack, led by Brian Anderson, Aaron Kaye and Nick Dey, but the Falcons held on thanks to excellent play in the back from Philip Cragg, Gavin Homan and Hunter Strack.
After Lorio-MacNamara’s goal gave Grafton a 1-0 advantage midway through the second half, York’s best scoring chance came in the final two minutes off a corner, when Homan’s header appeared destined for the upper 90, but clanked off the crossbar before being cleared away by the Clippers’ defense.
“I thought in the first half we didn’t get the ball forward fast enough and gave them too much time to recover,” Sidhu said. “We pushed a little better in the second and finally managed to put one in, and then our defense just held tough the rest of the way.
“It was a good all-around performance. We fought hard.”
Lafayette 3 Poquoson 0
Alex Emerson needed just two saves in goal as Lafayette jumped out to an early 1-0 advantage and cruised to a 3-0 shutout over visiting Poquoson Thursday.
The Rams, who will hang their first district title banner since 2005, took a 1-0 lead into the half after Jason Eckenrode drilled Kamran Rahman’s cross into the back of the net eight minutes in.
Lafayette (12-0-1, 8-0-1 BRD) continued to dominate the possession and would tack on two more scores in the final 40 minutes.
Anthony Vaccaro scored finished off a header-to-header sequence from Emery Trott off a corner six minutes into the second half before Calvin Mitchell put the game away with a penalty kick in the closing minutes of regulation.
“This group of guys, they don’t like to lose,” Sorrell said after the game. “It’s nice to know we can’t get booted from regionals in the [district] tournament like last year, but that doesn’t mean we don’t want to win it by any means.
“They’ve shown the intestinal fortitude and desire all season long, and won’t accept anything less than a W.”
