Senior Night at Newell Stadium

Monday night at Newell Stadium the Gloucester High School Boys Soccer Boosters honored seniors and their parents before the Fishermen fell by a single goal to the NEC Small champions, Danvers High School.

The two teams played to a 0-0 halftime tie with Gloucester carving out the several goal scoring opportunities from free kicks and the run of play. Chris Peritore and Zach Ciaramitaro combined earlier on to create a few chances to test the Falcons' all-star goalkeeper before Peritore and Anthony LaRocca combined later in the half to trouble the Danvers defense.

The Falcons half-chances were dealt with by Chase Kelly and other Falcons forays were cut out by strong defensive play from Ignacio Farjas, LaRocca and Christian Favalora.

In the second half Danvers took advantage of a Gloucester positional error and miskick to take a single goal lead.

The rest of the game was largely played between the penalty boxes with a few scrums closer to goal but few genuine chances as both teams fought for every inch of mud and grass at Newell Stadium. Gloucester had a penalty shout in the second half when a Danvers foul appeared to have taken place in the box was adjudged to have taken place just outside the eighteen on the left flank.

With thirteen minutes to play Gloucester switched from a 4-4-2 to a 4-3-3 in an attempt to apply offensive pressure but Danvers did well to cut off the supply to the Gloucester strikers.

Gloucester finished the 2009 campaign 6-9-3. Coach Cook would like to congratulate all of the varsity Fishermen for a hard-fought, honorable season. He would especially like to commend the team for its growth in tactical understanding. He looks forward to each player evaluating strengths and weaknesses before setting upon an off-season program of improvement. Finally, he would like to extend best wishes to the players who will depart at the end of the academic year: Ben Hannah, Zach Ciaramitaro, Christian Towler, Isaac Sperry, Ignacio Farjas, Chris Peritore, and Anthony LaRocca.

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Earlier on Monday, the Gloucester JVs played the Falcon JVs to a thrilling 2-2 at Newell Stadium.

Danvers took a 1-0 lead into halftime and a 2-1 into the later stages of the second half when a goal from Fishermen sophomore Logan Horne earned Gloucester its share of the points.

Although Danvers had the bulk of the possession, Gloucester generated just as many clear cut chances as the young Falcons. Patrick Kelley played a strong game in goal for the young Fishermen who finished the season with a 7-6-3 mark and a bright future ahead of them.