THREE STRIKES AND OUT: Ciampa's hat trick has Danvers in the North semis

By Matt Williams
staff writer

November 12, 2009 12:26 am

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DANVERS — The untrained ear figured that the Danvers High boys soccer team was chanting "M-V-P" as it ran across the field to cool down after last night's Division 2 North quarterfinal at Dr. Deering Stadium.

It made perfect sense. The Northeastern Conference Small Most Valuable Player was Falcon Chris Ciampa, a senior co-captain who had just scored all three goals as the Falcons toppled Arlington, 3-0 to advance to tomorrow's semifinal against Concord-Carlisle (5:30 p.m. at Woburn).

But the reality was the Falcons (15-2-3) were exaulting another of their captains.

"Benny P" was the chant in reference to injured senior Ben Pasquariello, who Danvers hopes will finally be recovered in time for tomrorow's contest.

"The big man's coming back. Hopefully, Benny will be back," said Ciampa. "He's been hurt and we've been working to get him a chance to play one more time.

"Most of us, we've been playing since youth; we've been together 10 years. To get him back means a lot to us."

The fifth-seeded Falcons are moving on thanks largely to the play of Ciampa, who's been one of the area's premier strikers all season. He connected three times to bury No. 20 Arlington (9-8-4).

The biggest goal, undoubedtly, was the first. In stoppage time in the first half, Ciampa was hauled down just outside the Spy Ponder box and awarded a free kick from about 25 yards out. His boot tailed up and to the right, tucking into the cage well out of the reach of Arlington's keeper.

"Everybody dreams of having one of those — and dreams come true sometimes," Ciampa said of the golden chance awarded due to the foul. "It was great that it happened in a big game like this."

Getting on the board late in what was a hotly contested first half was a big swing. Arlington was forced to push the pace in the second half.

"That (shot) was right into the corner and upper 90 (degree angle). It's not going to get any better than that," said Falcons coach Antonio Lage. "I was very pleased we scored first, and I think we earned it.

"Arlington is big, strong and physical. If they get up on you any time, life gets very difficult. Since we were able to score first they couldn't sit back. If they'd been up 1-0, they'd have made a defensive game and made life very difficult for us."

The Spy Ponders succeeded in pressuring the Falcons after halftime, but senior keeper Andrew Mikulski and his stable of defenders were up to the task. Arlington was also plagued by shot that were off the mark, the most eggregious of which was a Matt Leone header that sailed over the crossbar.

In all, Mikulski stopped 11 shots and recorded his second straight postseason clean sheet. Tom Conway was especially strong defensively for Danvers as well.

"Our goalie's been putting on a show back there; the whole defense has been strong. Nobody's tired late in the game — it's all coming from the heart now," said Ciampa.

Arlington's incessent pressure opened up the Danvers counter-attack, especially since both Ciampa and fellow striker Costa Hatziioannou have blazing speed. With 12 minutes left, Ciampa iced the game on a goal assisted by Aaron Tye. He completed the hat trick with two minutes to go after dribbling around two defenders.

"Their pressure opened up the passing lanes for us," said Lage. "If we're not ahead, those lanes never exist."

Up next for Danvers — which is in the North semis for the first time since winning back-to-back titles in 2003 and 2004 — is No. 8 Concord-Carlisle (13-3-3), which beat Bedford in the quarters yesterday and squashed Marblehead in the first round of the tournament.

"You can't go by the seeds; it never means anything," said Lage. "Concord-Carlisle played in the Dual County League with Lexington, Acton-Boxboro, Lincoln-Sudbury ... they're in for a battle every day. It'll be another big test for us."

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