We will have a short team meeting for everyone interested in playing soccer this fall. We will discuss out of season training, tryouts and the fall season.

Team Meeting in mid May. Watch for announcement soon.

2015 Tryout dates: Thurs Aug. 27th; Fri Aug. 28th & Sat Aug. 29th.

Alumnae Cruise To 6-1 Victory In Soccer Match

Girls soccer: Blue Knights fall in double overtime

CAPE COD TIMES

sports@capecodonline.com

EAST SANDWICH — It wasn't for lack of opportunities or effort that knocked the Blue Knights girls' soccer team out of the postseason. Their opponent just happened to seize of their best chance and capitalize on it.

Emma Gill scored with 7:42 left in the second sudden death overtime period to give 11th-seeded Duxbury a 1-0 victory over No. 6 Sandwich in the Div. 2 South sectional first-round match on Monday afternoon.

The Atlantic Coast League-champion Blue Knights (11-5-3) had the advantage in both corners and shots on goal and maintained a slight territorial edge throughout. But any shots or balls into box were fended off by Duxbury keeper Logan Snelling.

Twice in the first extra session she came out to grab dangerous corners by Becca Mandy. Then just 2:18 into the second stanza, the Dragons chipped the ball over the Sandwich defense to Gill who scored the game-winner.

"If we had put one away earlier it would've been a whole different story," said Sandwich coach Dave DeConto, whose team not only was ACL champion but also recognized by the Cape Cod Coaches association with a Sportsmanship Award. "It's tough no matter if it ends, either now or in the state final. There's nothing I can say to make them feel any better."

Despite a lot of the play being in the Duxbury (10-7-2) the first half, the Dragons had the best bid only to be denied by a great save by Maggie LeVangie.

Becca Mandy was outstanding pushing the pace from the midfield for the Blue Knights in the second half for while senior Caroline McKenna and freshman Sara MacFarland each had scoring chances.

 Sandwich 0, Dartmouth 0: The Blue Knights finished their season unbeaten at home after a scoreless tie with the Indians in East Sandwich.

Goalie Maggie LeVangie earned the shutout with six saves. Center backs Rachel Lake and Hailey Whelan played a strong defensive game, along with outside fullbacks Liz Wegman and Colleen Macdonald.

Senior captain Caroline McKenna attacked the goal non-stop for Sandwich (11-4-3) while Bella Collentro excelled at midfield.

EAST SANDWICH — Sandwich avenged an early-season loss to Silver Lake by rolling to a 3-1 win, staying unbeaten at home at Gerald F DeConto Veterans Memorial Stadium.

Sandwich's victory prevented the Lakers from qualifying for the state tournament.

The Knights (11-4-2) never trailed in the game, taking a 1-0 advantage at the half on a Hailey Whalen score. Sandwich increased the margin to 2-0 early in the second half when Stephanie Briggs finished off a perfect crossing pass from Caroline McKenna just two minutes in. After the Lakers narrowed the advantage to 2-1, Sandwich got the insurance tally from McKenna on a long blast that assured the Knights of staying unbeaten at home (7-0-1).

Goalie Maggie Lavangie had a solid game, as did center back Rachel Lake.

New DeConto Stadium shines

By George Brennan

SANDWICH — The late afternoon sun reflected off the green turf, giving it the look of sparkling diamonds.

The grass is fake, but the moment and the emotion were real.

"I'm so delighted," said Patricia DeConto, sporting a Red Sox cap, sunglasses and a wide grin as her son David DeConto's varsity girls soccer team played the first game Friday at Capt. Gerald F. DeConto Veterans Memorial Stadium at Sandwich High School. "It's been a long time coming."

Jerry DeConto, a Navy captain, was killed in the 9/11 terrorist attack on the Pentagon. The stadium is a tribute to the hometown hero, a star soccer player who graduated from Sandwich High in 1975.

Around the time DeConto was killed, the track that wraps around the high school field was in such bad shape it was condemned by the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association. The DeConto family took on the track and field project to honor Jerry, putting in a $250,000 donation and working to gather community support.

About 200 people, many of them high school students filled with the spirit of homecoming weekend, lined the fence to watch the girls soccer team play the Nantucket Whalers. Everyone who entered the stadium received a sticker with the number 7. Players and coaches from both teams wore the patches on their left shoulders, as did the game's referees.

"That was Jerry's number," Patricia DeConto said. "He was a standout soccer player."

John Wegman, who handed out the stickers as spectators arrived, said his daughter, Liz, a junior on the Blue Knights soccer team, came up with the idea to honor her coach and the DeConto family. "It's the least we could do," he said. "They've done so much."

Sandwich High Principal Ellin Booras and schools Superintendent Richard Canfield joined the crowd, Canfield giving Patricia DeConto two thumbs up and then a hug before thanking her for her efforts. The $500,000 for the turf stadium was a last-minute gift from state taxpayers with the help of Senate President Therese Murray, D-Plymouth, who added the earmark to the state budget just weeks after Sandwich voters rejected paying for it.

Cape Cod Times video: Sandwich Stadium opens

"What could be more fitting than to have the first game with Jerry's brother coaching?" said James Lehane, who helped with private fundraising for the stadium project.

The first game ended in a 5-1 victory for Sandwich over Nantucket, another win in what, so far, is a 10-3-2 season for David DeConto's team. It already has clinched the Atlantic Coast League championship and a berth in the playoffs.

"What a way to christen the field," David DeConto told his players after the win.

The girls surrounded Patricia DeConto, handing her seven white roses.

"This is very emotional for me," she said, her eyes welling with tears.

"What did you think of the field?" she asked the players, and a chorus of superlatives returned. "It's perfect," said one of the players. "We love it," added another.

David DeConto had hoped the high school football team could play its homecoming game on the field Friday night, but a construction problem delayed the lights' being wired.

Football players getting ready to travel to their game at the town's Pop Warner field took turns looking in on the girls' game.

There is still work to be done to the stadium. Work continues on the bleachers and press box approved by voters in May. But the field is ready, and today the boys soccer team will get its chance to play on the pitch for the first time.

Before Friday's game, Taylor Eccleston, 17, a Sandwich High senior, sang a stirring version of the national anthem. "It was awesome," she said of the honor singing at the stadium's opening. "It's so much fun. I loved doing it."

The Blue Knights dominated the play on their new field, but it was Nantucket that got on the scoreboard first.

That is, until Rae Larochelle raced down the left sideline and booted the first Sandwich goal in the history of the DeConto Stadium past the Nantucket goalie. "It was exciting," she said.

"I felt like it gave us some momentum."

When the players were gone and most of the spectators vanished, Patricia DeConto walked across the track and bent down to touch the synthetic grass on the field that pays tribute to her fallen son.