South Kingstown shuts out Portsmouth
CRANSTON — Perennial power South Kingstown High School, the top seed out of the Southern grouping, had little difficulty dispatching upstart Portsmouth in the Division One girls’ soccer state semifinals Wednesday night, Nov. 4, at Cranston Stadium as the Rebels defeated the Patriots, 3-0.
South Kingstown, 16-2-0 overall, advances to the state championship game Sunday, Nov. 8, at noon opposite unbeaten (18-0-0) and defending champ LaSalle. The Rams, the top seed from the Northern subgroup, shut out East Greenwich, 5-0, in Wednesday’s first semifinal game.
The Patriots, seeded second out of the North and making their first-ever semifinal appearance in four seasons playing in the state’s top tier, saw their fall come to a close with an overall 10-5-3 mark in league games.
“We had a good season, made it to the Final Four for the first time in Division One,” said PHS head coach Jim Blaess. “We only have three seniors on the team, so the future looks good. If you look at the goals we set for the season, we exceeded those. When it gets to this level it’s tough. South Kingstown is well coached. They have a lot of good players. So do we, but it just wasn’t our night.”
The Rebels took advantage of their first-best opportunity to score, coming in the game’s ninth minute. The Patriots failed to clear a long through-ball, the rebound falling at the feet of South's Amanda Graham. Graham took a touch, settled and ripped a left-footed shot high over the out-stretched arms of Portsmouth keeper Amanda French.
Now on the front foot, the Rebels continued to pressure the Patriots, forcing a defensive mistake, which led to their second tally. Chelsea Gates stripped a Portsmouth defender of the ball deep in the Pats’ end just outside the six-yard box. Gates took a dribble then slipped a shot by French to make the score 2-0 South in the 17th minute.
“The first goal was just a good shot,” said Blaess. “There was nothing (French) could do about it. The second goal was just a bad touch on a clear, a bad bounce. They just got lucky on that one. Trying to get that equalizer and get back in the game, it just kind of eluded us.”
The Rebels, the all-time leaders in state championships with seven, are a typical South Kingstown side — fast and skillful and willing to play physical. The Rebs maintained their possession edge through the break, taking the two-goal lead with them to intermission. Save a meek shot midway through the first half, handled easily by South goalie Nikki Gorman, Portsmouth mounted little to no attack.
South seemed satisfied to counter Portsmouth’s push out of the break, waiting for another chance to take advantage of any opening. The Rebels did so in the 61st minute when Gates received a long through-ball just on the Portsmouth side of midfield, went 1-v-1 with a Pats’ defender then caught French leaning to her left, sliding a shot into the open right side of the net for the third South Kingstown goal.
“It was tough to contain the speed of South Kingstown,” said Blaess. “They’re an extremely fast team. We’re a fast team, too, but we made a couple of mistakes and we paid for them.”
In truth, the Patriots never looked like scoring for most of the run of play. Portsmouth did have one noteworthy sequence of attack late in the match.
In the 68th minute, Ashley Blaess put a heavy foot on a direct kick from 30 yards out, forcing Gorman to make a play on the ball. In the 70th, the Pats had their best chance to avoid the shutout. Megan Sewall pressed deep from her midfield spot, passed to Lauren Bulk, who then delivered a feed to DonAndrea Myette at the top of the six. Myette’s chip, however, fell directly into the midsection of Gorman with no rebound.
South Kingstown finished with a 19-10 shots advantage, a 9-5 edge in on target attempts and had five corner kicks to none for the locals. French made six saves, Gorman five.
“Overall, looking back on our season and our time in Division One, our fourth year, going this far, the girls did all they could,” Coach Blaess added. “They left it on the field. We had a better result than the last time we played them (a 5-1 S.K. win on Oct. 5). We just couldn’t put a lot together offensively tonight.”
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