Strength in numbers

KINGSTON – A third Patriot League Keenan Division title in a row is out of reach, but a nice run in the upcoming Patriot Cup tournament would be a great way for the Silver Lake boys soccer team to close the books on the 2020 season.

“We’ve played our best soccer of the year in the last few games, and hopefully we can bring that kind of play into the Patriot Cup,” Head Coach Dan Correia said after watching his team defeat Hingham High Saturday, 2-1.

It looks like the Keenan Division title will go to either Marshfield or Hingham this season, with Duxbury a longshot to get into the mix.

Silver Lake has a record of 3-4-4 with only Thursday’s game against Duxbury left to play. They started the week with a 2-1 loss to Marshfield when the Rams scored a goal late in the fourth quarter for the win. Brett Ghelfi scored Silver Lake’s goal in the loss.

Senior Day was Saturday, and the Lakers celebrated the accomplishments of Stephen Gallagher, Brett Ghelfi, J.J. Devine, Sam Shirikjian, Connor Willis, Mason Sweeney, Nicholas Garcia, Nathan Hocking, Gabe Pacheco and Jake Lawless with the 2-1 win over Hingham.

Gallagher scored both of the goals in the victory. A nice pass from Willis sent him in alone for a score in the opening quarter. Gallagher was on the board again at the 10-minute mark of the second half when Shirikjian used his speed to break away down the sideline before putting a great pass at the feet of Gallagher for the score.

“You always want to win on Senior Day. All 10 of those guys have worked hard over the last four years to keep things moving in the right direction for this program,” Correia said. “They’ve really made a mark on the program with their leadership and their play on the field.”

The players woke up to a surprise on Saturday, as a coating of snow dropped on the field overnight. The footing improved dramatically as the game went along, but there were some traction and passing issues early when the only areas not sprinkled with snow were the sidelines and a strip across the center of the field.

“The game slowed down with the snow, so we had to play a different kind of soccer than we usually do,” Silver Lake’s Stephen Gallagher said. “It was pretty slippery in the first half. I took a couple of digs, but I was fine. A little snow’s not going to hurt you.”

“The custodians did a great job getting the field ready to play,” Correia said. “We talked in pre-game about how it was going to be a sloppy game and we’d have to adjust to that by making the simple plays and be more direct with what we were doing.”

Gallagher is a captain on the team with Devine and Ghelfi. He believes the best may be yet to come for the Lakers.

“We want to finish strong and see what we can do in the Patriot Cup tournament,” Gallagher said. “There was no way we were going to lose on Senior Day. We needed the win today, and it’s also important to play well in a game like this because we don’t have that many games left together as a group.”

It’s been quite the ride for Gallagher and his classmates, some of whom have been playing soccer together since they were in the youth league. They won league titles in the last three seasons and each year have gone on to win at least one game in the Division 1 South playoff bracket.

While there are no sectional or state tournaments this year, Gallagher said there’s still a chance for the Class of 2021 to leave one final mark on the program by winning the Patriot Cup.

“We’re a hard-working group of players, and I’ll always remember how much my teammates have meant to me as family. We’re a bunch a brothers on this team, and we all work hard for one another,” Gallagher said. “They made it easy to be a captain.”

Pairings for the Patriot Cup should be out Saturday, with the opening round games beginning Tuesday.

Email the reporter at dwolcott@wickedlocal.com and you can follow him on Twitter, @DavidWolcott1.