Alvirne boys soccer takes down Londonderry in double overtime

LONDONDERRY - Everyone watching Monday's high school boys soccer game between Alvirne and Londonderry thought Raul Stedile was going to shoot, even Stedile.

But at the last second, Stedile saw Alvirne teammate Brett Richardson to his right, and slipped a pass through the box that Richardson put into the far corner to give the Broncos a 2-1 win over the Lancers in double overtime.

It was Alvirne's second straight win in double overtime - the Broncos beat Exeter in extra time last Thursday - and its sixth win in a row overall.

"We've been fortunate to come out with victories because we've given up opportunities where we could have lost some of these games," Alvirne coach Jeff Blackwell said. "At some point this season, we just knew that we were going to have to grind every one of them out. That's what I said to them between the overtimes. They've got to grind it out little by little."

Stedile had the other goal for the Broncos (8-2 in Division I), a strike from about 25 yards out that found its way through the Londonderry (6-4) defense and into the far side of the goal. That tied the game 1-1 in the 27th minute, after Tom Cramner had given the Lancers the lead four minutes earlier.

"They say the first five minutes after they score is the best time to attack," Richardson said. "We didn't get it right away, but we scored. It brought us all back in the game mentally and it was like a new game."

The score was another example of the abilities of Stedile, an exchange student from Brazil, and it refocused the Broncos for the rest of the half.

"We see him at practice, of course, but he's got sneaky quick strength," Blackwell said of Stedile. "You don't always know that it's coming that quickly with that kind of power because he doesn't have a long release. It’s so quick, yet so powerful, and his technique is fantastic.

"We came out a little slow, a little sluggish, but little by little, we started to make our adjustments, we started to come around. We felt good at the end of the first half, especially after getting that goal to tie it, you could see it gave us a pretty good boost."

Both teams had chances to take the lead in the second half, but neither could, and as overtime wore on, the Broncos started to possess the ball more and create more opportunities. Alvirne keeper Jake Schofield (12 saves) and his Londonderry counterpart, Jeff Baroudy (11 saves), each kept his team in the game with several nice stops.

But in the 96th minute, Stedile got the ball near the top of the box and was able to turn toward the goal. Despite having a good shot, Stedile passed the ball to Richardson, leaving Baroudy and the Londonderry defense chasing the ball, and Richardson easily put it back across into the far corner.

"I saw the ball hit Raul, and he did a great job of bringing it down, and I saw his eyes widen and I knew he was going to shoot it," Richardson said. "Then at the last second, he slid it through to me. After the goal, he came up and said he was about 95 percent sure he was going to shoot that. Then he saw me at the last second.

"In the back of my head, I was hoping he’d pass it, so when he did, it put a smile on my face. He set me up for success, which is what you’re teammates do."