SOUTH DEERFIELD — The skill of the Frontier boys soccer team was on full display Thursday night.
The No. 5 Redhawks found themselves in a 1-1 halftime tie with No. 12 Lynn Tech in the MIAA Div. 4 Round of 16, but Frontier’s talent took over in the final 40 minutes of play.
Aidan Valderrama made a looping cross pass to Brady Burch to give Frontier the lead in the second half. The Redhawks then converted a penalty kick, and Chanhee Son and Matt Sicard closed things out by blasting in shots from well outside the box as Frontier ran away with a 5-1 victory to move on to the quarterfinal round.
The Redhawks will host No. 20 Assabet Valley — which pulled off a 4-2 upset against No. 4 Rockland in the Round of 16 — on Sunday at 5 p.m. with a spot in the Final Four up for grabs.
While the final score against Lynn Tech might have been 5-1, the score didn’t truly reflect how close the game was, and Frontier coach Evan Horton said he’s expecting a similar test on Sunday.
“To play a team that good in this round shows us it won’t get any easier going forward,” Horton said. “The reality is once you get into the top 16 teams left, there won’t be a lot of separation. I told the team it’s going to be about who shows up. It’s going to be 80 minutes and at the end, someone is going home and someone is moving on. Rankings don’t matter at this point.”
Chances were few and far between in the first half Thursday, but both squads made the most of limited opportunities. Frontier kicked off the scoring in the 18th minute, with Devin Niles taking a corner on the right side and curving it toward the goal.
With traffic in front, Tigers goalie William Martinez was unable to make a play on it as the ball looped into the goal untouched to give the Redhawks a 1-0 lead.
It didn’t take long for Lynn Tech to answer back, as the Tigers drew a free kick from outside the box in the 20th minute. Alexander Pojoy lofted the ball in to Gregoire Amissi, who with his back turned to the net, put the ball on his foot and flicked it past Frontier keeper Owen Babb to knot the game, 1-1.
“They’re a lower seed and from out east so we didn’t know much about them,” Son said. “The first half was about getting to know who they are. Once the second half came, Coach told us they were going to come hard and we had to play our game. That’s how it played out.”
The Redhawks regained the lead in the 44th minute off the pass from Valderrama to Burch. Valderrama took the ball 40 yards from the goal on the sideline, saw Burch streaking toward the opposite post and fired a pass that a sprinting Burch was able to leap up and head in to give Frontier a 2-1 lead.
“We’ve been working on that all season,” Horton said. “We tend to get caught in one-on-one matchups far from goal. We talked all season about if you’re 30 yards out and can knock it across, we have guys who can finish it. We really needed that. It changed our confidence level. It felt like we were on the back foot. We got a little timid. We finally started getting a push. Some of the goals today showcased our talent. When we get to those spots and things are clicking, we can put in some nice goals.”
Just like after the first goal, Lynn Tech nearly answered the Redhawks right away. The Tigers had numbers on a break but Amissi’s shot dinged off the post, keeping Frontier in front.
In the 54th minute, Burch got the ball behind the Lynn Tech defense and was tackled in the box to draw a penalty kick. Son took the kick, putting a hesitation move on Martinez before knocking in a shot into the bottom right corner for a 3-1 lead.
“I have to thank Brady for giving me that,” Son said. “It’s always a lot of pressure but you just have to breathe and do your thing.”
Four minutes later, Son made the play of the day. The midfielder stole the ball 35 yards outside the box, turned and rocketed a shot that Martinez had no chance on, as it whistled into the goal to break the game open and give Frontier a 4-1 lead.
“I don’t even know how that happened,” Son said. “I just shot it and it was a beautiful goal. I’ll take that any day of the week.”
The Tigers picked up a red card in the 61st minute, ending any hope of a comeback. The Redhawks closed out the scoring in the 70th minute after the ball kicked out to Sicard on a corner. Like Son’s shot, Sicard blasted in an attempt from over 30 yards out to make it 5-1 and put a bow on things.
Now in the quarterfinals, Frontier has its eyes set on making a second consecutive title game run, knowing it has the pieces to accomplish that.
“We’re ecstatic,” Son said. “We’re ready for the next one. There’s only three more games left but that’s on us to decide if we get three more.”