Hard End to Strong Season for Boys Soccer

After defeating Scituate 4-2 on Nov. 8 in the MIAA South Division 2 tournament, 's varsity soccer team advanced to a battle against Canton the following night. 

But ultimately,  did not work in Westwood's favor.  

"That Canton game was kind of a heartbreaker, because we played probably our biggest game of the season and we lost in the last 17 seconds or so," said senior Erik Maloney, the team's goalkeeper. 

The team fell to Canton, 3-2, in a loss that ended the 2011 season for the Wolverines. 

"We were hoping to have the opportunity to have a home game," said Head Coach Grant this week. "At the beginning of the season, we were almost our own worst enemies, but the good thing is we kind of fixed that towards the end of the season. Everybody was really excited to get back to where we were last year."

The team finished with a season record of 7-5-6, and a key goal for the team from day one was to make it back to the MIAA tournament. 

"We were able to make the playoffs, so we were pretty happy about that," Maloney said. "Overall I thought the season was great. Everyone seemed to improve every single day. There were no problems on the team. It was really like a family."

Grant was in agreement, though admitted that losing a number of seniors next year (10 in all this season, including Maloney) will certainly pose a challenge. 

"Losing Erik at goalie, he's been very solid, especially at the end of the season, he came up huge," Grant said. "It's hard to replace the leadership you get out of seniors. Every year, people step up. They're stepping up in different roles."

Grant said that where the team lost a number of senior defenders coming into this past year, a number of players stepped up to fill that void, and more younger athletes are beginning to follow suit.

"We don't have to start from fresh," Grant said. "We have a handful of defenders coming."

Grant said one key player coming back will be current junior midfielder/forward Sebastian Lis. 

"The good thing is we have (him) coming back," Grant said. "That's our offensive threat. And then we have some players who came off the bench in Scituate to show they could play. That was a brilliant positive going into next year." 

While Maloney said he doesn't expect to play soccer as a varsity sport in college, he said he will most likely play it as a club or intramural sport. And for those younger athletes moving up in the sport, he said the biggest take away is to enjoy oneself.  

"I've told the underclassmen to enjoy it and have fun out there playing and during practices," he said. "Time passes by, and at the end of it I'm glad I enjoyed it."