When Rich Brannigan brought his team together right before kickoff against the Falmouth Clippers Monday afternoon, the boys soccer head coach delivered a simple message to his team.
“No heads down, go through the peaks and valleys, and have fun along the way,” he said.
The quote proved to be a very timely and valuable piece of advice for the Whalers given how the beginning of the match would unfold when the Whalers found themselves in a 2-0 deficit 15 minutes into the first half. But Nantucket was able to turn its coach’s words into action on the field and demonstrated an understanding of what he was saying by scoring five of the game’s final six goals to secure the 5-3 victory.
“Every game, every practice, every season you have highs and you have lows so you just have to roll with it,” Brannigan said. “We talk about that a lot. You are never going to stay up high all the time and you want to minimize the time you are down at those lows. So it is about just playing through the peaks and valleys.”
“We found ourselves in a valley early on, which I didn’t expect especially given the tempo of the game. I just loved how we competed. A lot of teams that go down 2-0 will just pack it in. They will get down and sulk but there is no quit in these guys. They just move onto the next play and continue to compete by moving on to the next opportunity.”
Yeison Gregorio Castro got the Whalers on the board with a shot that trickled past the right side of the Clipper goaltender to cut Falmouth’s lead to one.
David Lemus-Castro took care of the rest of Nantucket’s first half scoring with two goals, including one off a corner kick where he received a pass and ripped one to the top left of the net to make it 3-2 Whalers going into halftime.
“David is going to get his goals even though he didn’t score any until today,” Brannigan said. “I talked to him yesterday at practice where I told him his chances are going to come. He is a great player who can do so much with the ball whether it is going to his left or right. He has the strength and a great overall package.”
Falmouth scored the equalizer midway through the second half off a penalty kick. Whaler goalkeeper Justin Ho-Shue made an excellent initial save but the Clippers were able to score off the rebound to make it 3-3.
“Justin has been great for us and there was nothing he could have done on that one,” Brannigan said.
Just minutes later Yeison was dribbling the ball in Clipper territory, drawing four defenders to him. As soon as the fourth defender got to him Yeison executed a simple but perfect pass to Alejandro Chacon who came streaking towards the net, creating a one-on-one opportunity for Chacon with the Clipper goalkeeper. He slipped it underneath the goalie’s right side just inside the right post to give the Whalers their lead right back.
“Alejandro continues to prove himself,” Brannigan said. “It was his first of the season and a very important one because the tide was beginning to swing back towards Falmouth after that penalty. It was really nice to see the guys answer.”
Brannigan said it was a great combination play too, which they needed to execute given the man power Falmouth was keeping in their defensive end.
“I mean, we had so much of the play down in the offensive end where they had so many guys defending us so for us we have to figure out how to break the team down,” Brannigan said. “It is going to be combinations, give-and-go’s, one-twos and run, and that is how that goal by Alejandro was able to happen.”
David Lemus-Castro scored another goal to complete the hat trick and pad the Whaler’s lead. Nantucket sailed home with a 5-3 victory, improving their record to 2-1. They will travel to take on the Nauset Warriors on Thursday at 4 pm.
In other Whaler sports news from Monday and Tuesday:
Girls soccer drops home match against Falmouth
The Whaler girls soccer team was unable to get much offense going in their match against the Clippers yesterday, losing 3-0.
“It was a real battle,” Whaler head coach Brian King said. “Our girls held their own against a bigger, more physical team. We still just can’t get the ball in the back of the net but we had opportunities. We took seven corner kicks and a couple of free kicks just outside of the 18 (yard mark).”
A non-call on an apparent offside allowed the Clippers to enter the offensive zone and score, which was an unfortunate break and precursor for how the game would go for Nantucket.
The Whalers will look to pick up their first win in a home match against the Nauset Warriors on Thursday at 4 pm.
Field Hockey scores first goal of season in loss to Monomoy
The Whaler field hockey team is still searching for their first win of the season after losing to the Monomoy Sharks 3-1 on Monday, but they did pick up their first goal of the season, which was scored by Ally Bamber.
“Ally is probably one of the most selfless players on the team,” Weber said. “There aren’t many players who deserve a goal more than her but for our team as a whole it was nice to see one go in the back of the net. Hopefully that is the jolt we need to start scoring some goals.”
The Whalers gave up two quick goals in the first quarter, which Weber said wasn’t his team’s best quarter. But Weber said he believed his team was the better team for the final three quarters.
“We had a great conversation between the first and second quarter and the girls came out and carried it onto the field for those final three quarters,” Weber said.
The Whalers will look to earn their first win today when they travel to take on the Sturgis West Navigators at 3:30 pm.
Cross Country scores late to trickle in
The girls and boys cross country teams were expected to compete in a dual meet with Riverview Tuesday afternoon, but the meet ended up being between five teams, causing scores to trickle in late.
Boys cross country head coach Gary Allen said the girls won their meet, but the boys results were going to be very close. Check out our sports Instagram page (@NantucketCurrentSports) for the final results when they become available.
