Johnston breaks through late for victory over Purple

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It’s a tight race in Division III-A girls’ soccer, and as the clock ticked closer and closer to zero Tuesday night, the Johnston girls’ soccer team was bracing for it to get tighter. The 4-4-2 Panthers were locked in a scoreless game with 3-4-3 Classical, in danger of treading water with a tie, or worse, sliding back toward the chase pack with a loss.

Instead, the Panthers delivered two goals in the final 11 minutes of the game and won 2-0. Johnston is now back over .500 at 5-4-2 and is in fourth place, with a four-point edge on fifth-place Cranston East.

“We really needed this game,” said Johnston head coach Tim Sprouls. “Classical is below us in the standings and that’s the kind of game we have to win. Classical has improved a lot, but we kept working at it. I give the girls all the credit. They hung in there, didn’t panic, stuck to the plan.”

The win gave the Panthers something to show for their continued improvement. They’ve been up and down all season, unable to string together more than a two-game winning streak, but progress has been steadier than the results would indicate. On Monday, the Panthers lost by just a 1-0 score to first-place North Providence, who beat them 4-0 in the season opener.

“We’ve been improving,” Sprouls said. “The girls work very hard. This team is so enjoyable to work with.”

It wasn’t easy against Classical. In the first meeting between the teams – which Johnston won 3-2 – possession and quality chances abounded for the Panthers. This time, the game was more even, and the scoreboard reflected it for nearly 70 minutes.

As the second half wore on, the Panthers seemed to be knocking at the door, and in the 69th minute, they busted through. Leah Gravel threaded a perfect through ball from the midfield toward the box that Renee DeAngelis chased down. DeAngelis took a touch, stayed a step ahead of the defense and calmly knocked a shot into the left corner of the goal.

“Great pass and Renee finished it,” Sprouls said. “She was very composed. Three weeks ago, she might have belted that shot over the net. We’ve been talking about placement and not always hitting it as hard as you can. She did it beautifully.”

With the 1-0 lead and just 10 minutes on the clock, Johnston was content to play defense the rest of the way and added an extra player to its back line. But the Panthers ended up making a few charges anyway, one of which resulted in a penalty kick, when Gabriella Scarcella was fouled in the box in the 78th minute. Gravel took the penalty kick and buried it to put the icing on the cake.

Amber Dion and Karina Mattera each played a half at the goalie spot, combining for seven saves in the shutout.

At the final whistle, the Panthers could breathe easy again.

“I’m proud of them for hanging in there,” Sprouls said. “They did a great job.”

Johnston will try to use Tuesday’s win as a springboard as it hits the stretch run, with just five games remaining. The Panthers will get to play four of their last five on their new home field, as a result of playing mostly on the road in the season’s first half, while the field was completed.

Johnston will host Narragansett on Thursday at 6 p.m.

“We just need to keep winning,” Sprouls said. “We’re building toward our Senior Night against Middletown. We just want to keep getting better and working on getting more scoring opportunities. That’s the big thing for us.”

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