Following five wins to begin the season, the Saugus Centurions hosted the Sultana Sultans at home for the team’s first non-league match of the season.
By the final whistle, the Sultanas defeated the Centurions 2-1, after a late goal from Sultana’s Ivan Vitela, who scored on a tap-in after going up for a corner kick in the 11th minute of the second half.
After the match, Saugus (5-1, 5-0) head coach Seth Groller spoke on the team’s performance and stated that his team had to do a better job of defending the corner kick as both goals from Sultana (9-0-3) came from the set piece.
“When it came down to was, their two goals both came off corner kicks. Similar plays where they won the header on the back post and then put it back in the middle and then had someone there,” he said. “After their goal in the first half, we were aware of what they were trying to do, but it still ended up falling to their feet and they put it in, but you got to hand it to them all game. They put a lot of pressure on us, made it very difficultfor us to possess.”
Throughout the game, the Sultans held possession and attempted multiple shots on goal. Despite the two allowed goals, Saugus goalkeeper Ethan Murillo made crucial saves, including a direct kick from a Sultana forward that was saved with five minutes left in the first half.
After the match, Groller added that the match’s intensity is exactly what he wanted for his team as it proved to be an early-season test of the adversity a team would face in the playoffs.
“My guys kind of didn’t have a game that I wanted us to have, but still, I think we did a lot of things well, and this is definitely a game that we scheduled so that we could face the competition that we saw to prepare us for playoffs,” Groller said.
As for Saugus on offense, the lone goal in the second half off a penalty was all the Centurions were able to create as the team couldn’t convert any shots on goal during free play.
With the loss, the Centurions record their first loss of the season and will use the upcoming Christmas break to rest to start the second half of the year reenergized.
“What I always say is when you lose, don’t lose the lesson,” Groller said. “There’s a lot of lessons here that I feel like we can look back to for what we can improve or little mistakes that we made … when it comes down to it, I feel like we have to do a better job of playing like that. Every time that you can compete against the top-level team, I think it only makes you stronger, makes you better.”
The Centurions will look to bounce back in the Hart Showcase next week from Monday to Tuesday with the first match against Stockdale.
Groller hopes the showcase can be another opportunity for this team to improve and is eager to get back out on the field and get back in the wincolumn.
“For us, we’re really going to treat that as ramping up for league play,” he said. “I still feel like there are always parts of the game that we can improve upon. And so, yeah, just when it comes down to that Hart Showcase, we’re going to try to put our best foot forward and keep ramping up and getting ready for the rest of our season.”
