Vaccariello leads West Holmes to season-opening win over Madison

  • By Bill Houston
  • August 24, 2010
  • 313
                        
After losing nine seniors to graduation from a team that went 6-10-2 a year ago, West Holmes boys soccer head coach Nic Fioritto thought 2010 might just be “a rebuilding year” for his program. After their Tuesday, August 24, season-opener against Ohio Cardinal Conference foe Madison in Millersburg, it looks like somebody forgot to tell Fioritto’s players they’re rebuilding, as junior forward Andrew Vaccariello pulled off a hat trick to lead the Knights to a 3-1 win over the Rams. “He is a heck of a player who really understands the game,” Fioritto said about Vaccariello, who scored the first of his three goals near the end of the first half from just inside the box, burying the ball in the lower left corner past the diving Madison goalkeeper, to send the Knights into the intermission with a 1-0 lead. Vaccariello added two second-half goals on assists from Brendan Lynch and Collin Galbraith. Meanwhile, the Knights played steady defense all night, standing up to Rams’ possessions on the Knights’ side of the field throughout most of the first half and eight Madison corners during the entire match. Anchoring the defensive effort, junior goalkeeper Marshall Overholt had several spectacular diving saves to preserve the Knights’ lead, blocking six of the seven shots he faced throughout the night. Coach Fioritto has been stressing fundamentals like “foot skills and crisp passing” to his young team early on this year and his lessons seemed to pay off in the opener as West Holmes strung together some excellent passes, especially in the second half, to setup a number of scoring opportunities which resulted in seven shot attempts and Vaccariello’s three goals. Fioritto’s goal for the season is to finish in the top four of the OCC standings. Tuesday’s opener was the first step toward accomplishing that goal. The Knights travel to Dover to take on the Tornadoes, Saturday, August 28, at 7 p.m., before heading over to Ashland to face their next test against an OCC opponent, when they match up with the Arrows at 7 p.m.


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