There will be no three-peat for the Waynflete boys’ soccer team this fall because of the cancellation of the postseason due to the pandemic. The Flyers, however, continue to impress by taking on, and beating, all comers.
Waynflete, which has won two straight Class C state titles, played Deering, a strong Class A team, for the first time in a regular-season game Saturday at Memorial Field. The Flyers did just enough to stay unbeaten.
Patrick Shaw scored twice, Aidan Kieffer added a goal, and the Flyers (3-0) held on for a 3-2 win.
“I’m very fortunate to coach (this group),” said Brandon Salway, Waynflete’s longtime coach. “They love playing the game. Try telling them this season doesn’t matter. They’re excited to get out here and play. It’s great to play city schools in countable games and show we’re as competitive as anybody.”
The Flyers carried play for most of the first half, but couldn’t finish.
Deering went ahead in the 29th minute when Adilson Vidal took a pass from Benjamin Chatterjee and fired a shot past the dive of Waynflete goalkeeper Ben Talpey.
Waynflete soon grabbed momentum, however, and tied it when Alex Vest set up Shaw, who beat Deering goalkeeper Sam Spach with 31.4 seconds left in the first half.
The Flyers forged ahead with 23:58 left when Kieffer got to a loose ball in front after a scrum on a corner kick and converted the rebound.
“It was just a big scramble down there,” Kieffer said. “I saw the ball and I hit it. We’re a big team, so we pride ourselves on winning balls in the air.”
Shaw scored his second goal, with an assist from Joey Ansel-Mullen with 13:48 remaining. But Deering wasn’t done.
Three minutes later after a Flyers’ foul, Muntasir Ahmed placed a perfect 20-yard free kick just inside the near post to make things interesting.
The Rams had one final free-kick opportunity with just over a minute to go, but Kieffer cleared it and Waynflete held on for the win.
“Being here with all the kids I’ve played with the last couple years, it’s nice to finish (this season) off as a community,” Shaw said. “We want to be the best team we can be and play as well as we can.”
Spach made four saves for Deering (1-1), which couldn’t put together a consistent 80 minutes.
“I expected Waynflete to play the way they did, but I didn’t expect us to play we did,” said Deering Coach Joel Costigan. “We kind of lost that game in the first 10 minutes. You could see our energy was down and our lack of discipline. Most of the game, we defended on our heels, not what we worked on in practice. We weren’t able to put it together until the last 10 minutes of the game, defending as a team and pushing the ball forward, but it was too little, too late.”
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