Medway shuts down Bedford to reach Division 3 state final

LYNN — Medway needed just one good opening on offense to get past a stingy Bedford back line that had allowed only five goals all season. The Mustangs’ own defense and a timely header proved to be the winning recipe.

Junior center back Troy Newman scored the lone goal of the game in the 46th minute to break up a string of defensive domination from both teams, taking a lob from Luke Fagerson to head it in for a 1-0 win over Bedford on Tuesday night at Manning Field.

Both keepers were outstanding, with a few unlikely saves, but it’ll be the Mustangs (20-2-1) moving on to face Belchertown on Saturday at Worcester State for a rematch of the 2013 Division 3 state final.

“It feels fantastic, obviously,” Medway coach Neill Brandon said. “I think when teams game plan to play against us, they look at our goals, they look at how many we’ve scored, and I think that back four — plus our goalkeeper — gets overlooked sometimes. Chris Nicklas, Mitch Olsen, Ethan Core; Troy Newman was our center back, absolute lock-down defensively and got the goal tonight. Can’t say enough about Troy. … They’re not going to go down easy.”

Both defenses shined in the way that had helped them combine to allow just three goals in the playoffs entering the matchup. Medway did it just one more time that Bedford did, though.

Newman doesn’t get many chances to score, since he anchors the defense, but Fagerson found him at the top of the box by flaring a soft kick over the head of a Buccaneers defender in front of him. With a big jump, Newman tucked home the header.

“I knew I could get a head on it,” he said. “I have no clue what was going through my mind. It was just crazy, just crazy.”

With a 1-0 deficit, Bedford went on the attack for much of the second half after foiling a couple more good scoring opportunities from Medway, and had a few chances to tie it, including a free kick in the 70th minute that Mustangs keeper Kyle Regan (seven saves) dove to his right to save.

Bedford put good kicks forth to keep the ball near Regan’s box over the last five minutes, but Regan and the defense held their own.

“They strung together a few good chances down there,” Regan said. “I was just trying to keep my cool, see the ball right into my hands every time it came towards me. Just trying to make a good play on the ball. … Our defense is great. They cover for each other well.”

Christopher Venuti had four saves for Bedford.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/2OqYma4