A favorable bounce, a friendly post or a tiny touch on a free kick might have been all the ConVal boys’ soccer team needed to earn a trip to the NHIAA Division II finals. Instead, Oyster River turned a scoreless semifinal nail-biter into a runaway 3-0 win Thursday evening after freshman Max Scopel’s second-half goal opened the floodgates.
“I think we all gave 100 percent,” ConVal senior Caden Peck said after the game. “We just got unlucky, and it was one of those games where we couldn’t put it away when we should have. Overall, we all did the best we could. None of us hung our heads after each goal. We all kept going 100 percent until the clock hit zero.”
No. 3 ConVal (14-4) lost to No. 2 Oyster River (14-2-2) in the early stages of the regular season, but both teams looked evenly matched throughout the first half on Exeter’s turf field. ConVal senior keeper Wyatt Beaulieu was on his game, making more of his trademark miracle saves, including a 27th-minute flurry in which he directed an Oyster River shot into the right post and then threw himself in front of the rebound shot for another stop. The Cougars got another lift from senior defender Harry Bernier, who slide-tackled a ball – sitting tantalizingly in the box after a Beaulieu save – out of harm’s way.
“We were lucky, to be honest, not to be down in the first half,” ConVal head coach Scott Daniels said. “Wyatt was phenomenal and made a couple of huge saves to keep us in it.”
But no matter how many stops a goalie makes, there’s no way to win a soccer game without putting the ball in the net, and ConVal just couldn’t find a way on Thursday. The Cougars averaged 2.7 goals per game in the first 10 contests of the season, but in their final eight (including playoffs), ConVal averaged just one goal per game.
It wasn’t for a lack of chances. The Cougars had a few attempts on Oyster River keeper Kyle Butts in the first half, nothing too substantial, but senior Jake Daniels got the ball right where he wanted it early in the second half, lined up his shot, and banged it off the crossbar on the top right corner. The rebound created a scrum and several more ConVal chances, but the Cougars hit the post again and the game stayed scoreless.
“It was really unfortunate to see it hit the bar,” Jake Daniels said. “How did that not go in?”
ConVal got a little luck on an Oyster River free kick that hit the Cougar crossbar, but shortly thereafter, the Bobcats took the ball in the ConVal defensive end, bounced it around, and got it in the air for Scopel, who took a cheeky one-touch volley and drove it home for the game’s first goal.
“We’ve struggled with clearing the ball in the air when it’s in our box all year,” Peck said.
The Cougars came back quickly, taking the ball down on the next possession and setting Peck up with a golden opportunity, but his shot sailed high over the uprights.
Peck got the ball again and got fouled outside the box, setting up a free kick. Garrett Rousseau and Jake Daniels lined up side-by-side for the kick; the plan was for a quick Rousseau touch and a Daniels shot, as the indirect kick required two touches before a goal could be scored. Rousseau passed over it and Daniels sent it towards the net, where Butts threw his hands up and watched it sail into the twine, sending the crowd into a frenzy. But Rousseau had missed his required first touch on the ball, and the shot didn’t count.
“I thought we responded well after the first goal,” coach Daniels said. “We just couldn’t finish a chance.”
Oyster River senior Hunter Perry scored two goals in quick succession to put the game away, waving goodbye to the ConVal crowd.
The game out of reach, coach Daniels emptied the bench, sending seniors Joe Gutwein, Bennett Saxe and Skyler Cope to join classmates Ethan Kinney, Austin Klonel, Bryson Boice, Carter Rousseau, Peck, Daniels and Beaulieu, reuniting the longtime youth soccer teammates for one last run on the pitch together.
“It’s a special group,” coach Daniels said. “It’s hard because they had a goal to win a championship and we just fell short. I was glad to get them all on the field to have that experience, because some of them haven’t had a chance to play a whole lot, and for that to be the way that they get to remember it is special.”
Oyster River plays No. 1 Kingswood for the DII title Sunday at 4:30 p.m. in Exeter.