Panthers’ Cinderella run ends in finals

The Johnston boys soccer team took down the No. 3 seed and the No. 2 seed in a Cinderella run to the Division III championship game.
The No. 1 seed did not meet the same fate. Unbeaten Scituate capped a dominant season with a 9-1 victory over Johnston in Saturday’s title game.
It was an unhappy ending but a magical run for the Panthers, who went 8-6-4 in the regular season and earned the No. 6 seed for the playoffs. The championship appearance was just the second all-time in program history.
“It’s an unbelievable atmosphere here and it’s a nice honor for us to be here,” Johnston head coach Yevgen Fedorchuk said. “Nobody expected us to be here, but we’re here. We worked hard. We built from last year. Our seniors stepped up. Assistant coaches, our athletic director, the parents - everybody was built around the team and that’s why we had success.”
Last year, the Panthers went 1-15. The year before, they were winless. This year represented a major breakthrough, even before the title game berth.
“It’s been some time since Johnston made it to the final,” Fedorchuk said. “Last year, we only won one game. We made a big jump.”
The playoff run had its roots in a solid finish to the regular season. After an 8-2 loss to Scituate on Oct. 21, the Panthers won their finale in impressive fashion, by a 3-0 score over Prout. In the playoffs, the Panthers upset No. 3 Davies, winning on penalty kicks to move into the semifinals. There, they rolled past No. 2 Woonsocket 5-2.
“We had a really tough schedule this year,” Fedorchuk said. “We built from that and it helped us become really strong to the end. We had some injuries also. When the guys got healthy and started playing together, we were a lot better.”
Johnston met its match against Scituate - much like the rest of the league did all season. The Spartans were the top seed last year, as well, but were upset in the semifinals. They dominated this season, going 17-0 and rarely getting tested.
The Panthers made the Spartans sweat in the first half. After Scituate took a 2-0 lead on goals by Noah Bradford and Jason Bettez, Johnston’s Sebastian Saucedo got loose on a counter-attack and slipped a shot past Scituate goalie Bryant Amaral.
It remained a 2-1 game into the final minute of the half. The Panthers would have been thrilled to get to halftime down by just a goal, but the Spartans scored a back-breaker with five seconds left in the first half. The tally by Bradford made it 3-1.
“Especially with five seconds left on the clock, that was big,” said Scituate’s Austin Simas, the tournament MVP. “We knew we had to get something, because they had the momentum.”
Scituate made it 4-1 early in the second half. Saucedo was awarded a penalty kick soon after, and Amaral saved it. Johnston goalie Josue Vasquez made some quality saves, but it was all Spartans down the stretch. They finished with six second-half goals.
“This team is young and they were nervous against that team,” Fedorchuk said. They’re really, really good. They were supposed to be in D-II, but they didn’t get moved up for some reason.”

The Panthers will appreciate the title-game appearance as they look to build on it in the years to come.
“It’s always an honor to be in the final,” Fedorchuk said. “They got the experience. I hope we can do well next year and build from this.”