{"id":16995,"date":"2012-11-17T21:06:25","date_gmt":"2012-11-18T02:06:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=16995"},"modified":"2012-11-17T21:37:31","modified_gmt":"2012-11-18T02:37:31","slug":"e-p-survives-clinches-spot-in-usoc-state-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=16995","title":{"rendered":"E.P. Survives, Clinches Spot in USOC State Final"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

BOSTON –\u00a0Armando Gomes and\u00a0Kyle Teixeira each bagged a brace\u00a0as East Providence Sports clinched\u00a0a U.S. Open Cup state final berth following Saturday’s 4-3 win over Battery Park Gunners at Madison Park High School.<\/p>\n

Bobby\u00a0Linaberry put the Gunners up in the 5th minute, but Gomes replied with his first goal in the 22nd minute.\u00a0He added his second in the 35th minute before Ben Shuleva leveled it in the 40th minute. Teixeira tallied in the 70th and 80th minutes, while Matt Shea brought one back for Battery Park\u00a0in the 90th minute.<\/p>\n

East Providence goalkeeper Jimmi Underhill made a pair of important saves late to preserve the result.<\/p>\n

Saturday’s semifinal win\u00a0sends East Providence to the Massachusetts state final match, where they were will face the winner of Sunday’s Mass Premier Soccer-Strela Negra semifinal contest. The state final is tentatively scheduled for the weekend of Dec. 9.<\/p>\n

In the opening moments, it hardly looked like East Providence would pull away with the win. Battery Park pressed the issue and tested Underhill right from the first chirp of the whistle.<\/p>\n

Only five minutes passed when the Gunners, the best amateur side in the country by virtue of their 2012 National Amateur Cup championship, fired the first shot. Ryan McDaniel sent it inside the area, where Linaberry launched it\u00a0into the net.<\/p>\n

Shortly thereafter, the match undertook on a physical tone. Players from both clubs\u00a0employed aggressive tackles and shoves to impose and intimidate.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, East Providence mounted a dangerous counterattack midway through the first half. Eddy Lopes played a ball forward to Gomes at the left post, where he tapped it through.<\/p>\n

Gomes\u00a0scribbled his name on the\u00a0scoresheet again in the 35th minute when he collected the remnants of\u00a0a Jimmy Hernandez cross. After a moment of defensive confusion, Gomes\u00a0coolly converted\u00a0near the six.<\/p>\n

The lead would not last before the break. Five minutes from halftime, the Gunners exploited\u00a0the disheveled defense, which allowed Shuleva to score.<\/p>\n

Despite a four-goal first half, the second half remained scoreless for 25 minutes. That streak ended moments after Teixeira sauntered down the left and looked for a teammate in the area. His cross hit the arm of a Gunners’ defender, and the referee pointed to the spot, where Teixeira buried it to reclaim the lead.<\/p>\n

The creative winger moved up to forward, just in time to find his second strike. On another counterattack, Gomes sent it over to Teixeira in front of the area. From there, Teixeira raced through and chipped it over Philip Nelson ten minutes from time.<\/p>\n

Battery Park made it interesting in the 90th minute when Myles Gerraty gave it to\u00a0Shea, who cut the deficit to one.<\/p>\n

However,\u00a0East Providence held\u00a0on\u00a0for five minutes of stoppage time to secure their spot in the state final.<\/p>\n

LINEUPS:<\/span><\/p>\n

Battery Park Gunners: Joe Annese, Joe Germanese, Myles Gerraty, Steve Hepburn, Ernest McAlister, Ryan McDaniel, Philip Nelson, Jason Pan, Ben Shuleva, Joe Vitale, Bobby Linberry.\u00a0SUBSTITUTES: Josiah Marshall, John Orr, Matt Shea<\/p>\n

East Providence Sports: Dave DeMelo, Joaquim De Pina, Miguel Fortes, Armando Gomes, Jimmy Hernandez, Tristan Lewis, Eddy Lopes, Andres Perdomo,\u00a0Anthony Petrarca, Kyle Teixeira,\u00a0Jimmi Underhill. SUBSTITUTES: Peter Maciel<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Armando Gomes and Kyle Teixeira each scored twice to lead East Providence Sports to a 4-3 semifinal win over Battery Park Gunners on Saturday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16998,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nesoccertoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/BPG-EPS.png?fit=486%2C263&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16995"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16995"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16995\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17014,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16995\/revisions\/17014"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}