Peterson Provides Game-Winner for Mashpee

By: Rich Maclone
Published: 10/15/10

“Until you win a close game on the road, you don’t know how,” Coach Ed Furtek explained. “These are all things that this team is learning, and we’re making strides.”

When the year began, Furtek said that the Mashpee High School boys’ soccer team was not “rebuilding,” it was “reloading.” The coach was on to something. The Falcons, who have just one senior on the roster, Matt Jalowy, improved to 6-4-1 on Tuesday afternoon with a thrilling 1-0 victory over Hull, on the road. Before that MHS had won road games, but not any close ones. On this day they pulled it out at crunch time, adding a feather to their cap and a win to their total.

Time was running out on a scoreless game and it appeared that the squad might be leaving town with a tie, but that was before Nate Peterson had his say. The fleet-footed striker put one home in the 77th minute to earn the Falcons the ‘W.’ On the play, Jalowy carried the ball up the middle and fired a shot on the Hull goaltender. The initial save was made, but Peterson swept in and put it home to bring joy to the Mashpee sideline.

So, Coach Furtek, how is that for exciting? “Exciting, nerve-racking is probably more like it,” Furtek said. “We had the best of it for most of the day but couldn’t get a goal. Either (the Hull goalie) was real good, or we were making him look real good.”

MHS owned the better of the chances in the first half but went to the intermission knotted at 0-0. In the second half Hull came out and tested the Falcons, but they struck back to do the same, and neither team could score. Finally, in the end, Peterson put home the winner to send MHS back to the bus with smiles.

It was a stark contrast to the first time the two teams met, in Mashpee, about a month ago. On that day MHS dominated, winning an easy 5-1 decision. “The difference was, that day, we put away our shots,” Furtek said. “But, the thing with Hull is, you can always count on them being tougher the second time around.”

Last Thursday MHS picked up an exciting 5-1 win over Abington at home. The squad came out like gangbusters and took a 2-0 lead into the break, thanks to goals by Jalowy and Peterson. In the second half, though, the Falcons fell apart early on and saw their lead disappear in just three minutes as the Green Wave came right back to knot things up at 2-2.
But the Falcons got their act back together quickly. Mitchell Guzman distributed what Furtek called “the nicest assist of the season” on a play early in the period to give Mashpee the lead right back. Guzman broke up the wing and spotted Jake Van Gelder filling the middle. He waited, seemingly forever, for Van Gelder to get to just the right spot and threaded a perfect through ball that led Van Gelder to the net for a quick strike that made it a 3-2 game.

MHS then cashed in a pair of corner kicks by Peterson later in the half to gain some breathing room. On the first one he lofted one out front that defender Tyler Burtis met and put in for the fourth goal of the game. Burtis came away with the next corner kick as well, but his initial shot was saved. Jalowy came in and cashed in the carom for his second goal of the game to finish things off.

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