Natick boys soccer heads to Div. I final with win over Newton South (video)

WOBURN – Tuesday night, Natick boys soccer had a chance to right their wrongs from earlier in the season and reach new heights that the program had only dreamed of before.

Facing off with Newton South in the Division I state semifinals, Natick delivered, beating the Lions 2-0 and advancing to the state championship.

“So proud of these guys,” Natick coach Danny Joseph said. “Newton South, I have all the respect in the world for them. Their head coach is terrific and obviously a six to one loss earlier in the season to them, we knew exactly what we were getting into, and we knew it was going to be a dogfight from the start to the end,

“God, I’m so proud of these guys.”

Over the past four years, the Redhawks have steadily increased their expectations and production on the field. When this year’s seniors were freshmen, they won one game. The next year, Natick had six wins, last year in Joseph’s first as head coach, the Redhawks won 10.

Heading into this year, the squad had their eyes set on the ultimate prize.

“It feels amazing, we’ve set goals before the season and our one goal is to get here and it just feels so great to accomplish that,” Natick junior Cole Boggis said. “Everybody on the team, we have such a tight bond and everybody’s just so happy, it’s a dream come true.

“As a kid, you always dream of winning the championship and just one more game, it’s crazy to think about.”

Before the Redhawks secured their spot in the state final however, they had to hold off a potentially lethal Lions squad.

South gave Natick quite the check earlier in the year with a 6-1 win and entering Tuesday’s contest, Joseph was well aware of the danger his opponents posed.

“The first 20 minutes was extremely shaky and even before the game we said to them, ‘you gotta ride out the first half of the first half,’” Joseph said. “They’re gonna throw everything at us and if you can withstand that then I like our chances. I don’t want to say I’m a soothsayer, but it worked, it worked.”

Following the loss to the Lions earlier in the year, the Redhawks switched from a 4-3-3, to a 3-5-2 formation. While that change has benefitted Natick in its 12 games since, it was particularly effective on Tuesday.

“They don’t have an insane amount of offensive power but when they find the opportunity they’re able to capitalize,” Joseph said about Newton South. “Our three center backs … that was one of the best performances I’ve seen all season from any team.

“Just header after header, second ball after second ball. The thing that changed was those second balls. The first balls obviously are important but what they are waiting for is that 50/50 ball to come to them, then they break out.”

After Natick held off the counter play of South to begin the contest, the Redhawks began to impose their own will on the contest. They became the aggressors and made sure the Lions would be less willing to try to spring counters after facing their willing tackling.

“We started going through our tackles harder, 50/50 balls,” junior captain Luca Tavilla said. “Cal Masse is an absolute dog in the midfield, going through all of them. He played the whole game too.

“I feel it was just the aggressive, the passion to want to win that got us the drive to win that defensive battle.”

After a stalemate for much of the first half, Boggis got a chance to break things down for the Redhawks.

“I did a move called an Eden Hazard step, where I stepped one foot over their body, and it’s not a foul, and that’s exactly what I did,” Boggis said. “I’ve done it before and he fell and then I beat the keeper.”

Boggis knew that his goal to put Natick up 1-0 was especially important after how the Redhawks started their last two playoff matches.

“It was huge, we knew that that’s what we needed, the first goal,” Boggis said. “The other two of our playoff games, we went down early, this game we knew we can’t go down early. That’s the one thing so it was huge.”

In the second half, Natick continued its control over the contest. The defense held down its end of the bargain while the offense continued to spring chances on net.

As the time was winding down however, the Redhawks still held just a one-goal lead. In the 79th minute, Tavilla changed that after receiving the ball down the left wing.

“I was thinking in my head if I should go to the corner or not but then I looked up, saw one defender and I was like, ‘I could probably take him on,’ and put the cap on the game, just seal the deal,” Tavilla said. “So I decided to go to goal and be able to finish and it just felt great. It let us settle down for the last like three minutes.”

When the final whistle blew, Natick boys soccer became the second Natick team to advance to the state finals on Tuesday. In the previous game at the field in Woburn, the Natick girls punched their own ticket to the title game, something Joseph wanted his own team to take part in.

“I don’t know the official number, I don’t know if Natick’s ever been in the finals for boys soccer,” Joseph said. “The first teams they’ve just been consistency since the year 2020, right? They’ve been terrific and we were a little envious.

“So I said, ‘you know what, let’s join the girls.’ Once they saw that three, four, whatever it was nothing win, I said, ”I want that same feeling, I don’t want us to be crying on the bus ride home.’ I want to play on Saturday with the girls, it’s very exciting.”

Next, Natick will face No. 1 seed St. John’s Prep who is coming off a 4-2 win over Concord-Carlisle on Monday. For Tavilla, facing the Eagles was always the goal.

“That was the goal from the start of the season, to make it here,” Tavilla said. “A lot of challenges along the way but from the start, I’ve said, we want SJP, any chance we can get to play them. We’ve worked so hard to get here, it feels amazing.”