Tantimonico, Page help send Pats to semis

By Matt Metcalf
Posted 11/3/15

The second-seeded Pilgrim girls’ soccer team moved into the Division II semifinals with a 1-0 quarterfinal win over No. 7 Chariho on Saturday morning, as senior captain Kendra Tantimonico provided …

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Tantimonico, Page help send Pats to semis

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The second-seeded Pilgrim girls’ soccer team moved into the Division II semifinals with a 1-0 quarterfinal win over No. 7 Chariho on Saturday morning, as senior captain Kendra Tantimonico provided the lone goal late to elude the Chargers’ upset bid.

Chariho accrued a majority of the chances in the game, with Pilgrim’s offensive opportunities coming few and far between, but Hannah Page’s play in net kept the game scoreless long enough for Pilgrim to get on the board in the waning minutes.

Pilgrim head coach Tom Flanders knew his team would be in for a tough test. The Pats had beaten Chariho early in the season, 5-2, but the Chargers were riddled with injuries then. That wasn’t the case this time around. Chariho was healthy and coming off of a 6-0 win over East Providence in the preliminary round.

“Sometimes you’re in a two-seven game, and the other team is a legitimate seven – they’re not a legitimate seven,” Flanders said. “I knew they were going to come in extremely confident after beating East Providence with a good performance. They had injuries the last time we played them. I knew they got back players and were going to be strong.”

It was clear that Saturday’s game wasn’t going to be a walk in the park for Pilgrim from the opening whistle, with Chariho controlling play in the opening stages of the first half.

In the eighth minute, Sydney Allen deflected a shot just wide of the net off of a pass from Kaitlyn Cuddy.

Roughly 10 minutes later, it seemed as if Chariho had struck first, burying a rebound to the back of the goal, but a foul was called on a Chargers’ player to disallow the goal.

As the half progressed, Pilgrim began to put the pressure on Chariho’s back line, though.

Tantimonico had a number of crosses into the box that were either deflected away or gathered by keeper Silvana Terranova.

Pilgrim’s best chance of the half came on a near-post shot from Molly Lynch that Terranova was able to push out of bounds for a corner. The corner kick produced another quality chance when Jessica O’Leary got a shot off through traffic, but that was handled by Terranova as well.

Page made her best save of the first frame just minutes shy of halftime, when she dove to her right to stop a well-placed header from Cuddy. The two teams went into the break scoreless.

Chariho had Pilgrim on its heels in the second half, dominating time of possession. A big part of that was Cuddy, who helped to control the ball at midfield while creating chances with her speed and strength. Shortly after play resumed for the second half, Cuddy cut to the middle of the field and let go a left-footed shot, but it sailed slightly north of the crossbar.

Ten minutes later, Chariho earned a free kick outside of the box to the right of the goal. However, the shot from Isabella Rinne weakly rolled wide of the net after being vastly mishit.

Chariho continued to apply the pressure, but Page was up to the task.

Midway through the half, Page had to make a leaping save on an Allen shot that was labeled for underneath the crossbar.

“On that one where I had two hands over my head, I knew that was mine and I wanted it,” Page said of the leaping save.

“Hannah made two game-changing saves that could’ve put them in the lead and kept us in the game,” Flanders said. “She’s just a tremendous goalkeeper. It’s like having another back four on the field because she understands the game so well.”

After that, Pilgrim capitalized on its lone chance of the half.

Near the edge of the box, Alexis Vieira was able to out-leap a Chariho defender for a bouncing ball, advancing the ball forward towards the goal with a header. Terranova came out to make a play, but Tantimonico was able to get a toe on the ball before the Chariho keeper could get there, as the shot dribbled into the back of the net.

“I always count on [Vieira’s] little head to punch that in and she did,” Tantimonico said. “I didn’t even see the ball go in, but I heard from my fans that it went in. I just gave it all I could.”

The tight victory should benefit Pilgrim this week, as it had to face some adversity against Chariho. In past years, Pilgrim may have breezed through a quarterfinal game, but not this year.

“Usually we just coast through quarterfinal games, so to not is nice,” Page said. “This is good for us.”

Now, Pilgrim will draw cross-town rival Toll Gate in the semifinals at East Greenwich on Thursday at 6 p.m.

The Pats and Titans split their season series 1-1. The winner will play for the D-II title against the winner of Coventry and Scituate on Sunday at 2 p.m.

There’s no question that Pilgrim and Toll Gate will be in for another battle when they meet for a third time this season.

“It’s going to be a great game and I’m sure everyone is going to be amped up for that,” Flanders said of his team’s upcoming matchup with Toll Gate. “We’re going to give them a couple of days to rest and then we’ll get in to practice this week and come up with a game plan.”

“I think people should come and watch because it’s definitely going to be a good, intense game,” Page said. “[Toll Gate] plays well, but I don’t think they’re any better or worse than we are. It’s just going to come down to who wants it more.”

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