By Joseph Staszewski
Joseph Loboco dropped to his knees and put his head in his hands as the final horn sounded on his St. Francis Prep career and a season that went further than his team could have imagined.
The Terriers went as far as they could go, but were unable to bring home the ultimate prize after falling to St. Anthony’s 2-0 in the CHSAA boy’s soccer state championship game Monday afternoon at Belson Stadium. The crown would have been SFP’s first since 2003.
“The first couple of games were very shaky,” said Loboco, the team’s top defender. “Later on we all came together as a team.”
His squad’s chance at a state crown was severely hindered when senior midfielder Brandon Silva was ejected from the game in the 24th minute when he was given a straight red car. Friars midfielder Justin Carfora fouled Silva, who scored the lone goal in the Terriers’ state semifinal win. Before he got up he kicked Carfora in full view of the official. It left the Terriers a man down for the rest of the match.
“It’s tough losing one of your best players, especially one of our best midfielders” Loboco said.
SFP (14-4-2) was still able to hold the Friars (22-1-1) scoreless in the first half, thanks to the play of Loboco and keeper Chris Kilcarr. The Friars, however, struck quickly after the break. T.J. Butzke put in a 28-yard free kick in the 45th minute. St. Anthony’s greatly outshot the Terriers in the second half and tallied the second goal when Nick Cestaro dribbled through the SFP defense and scored in the 69th minute.
“We came into the game expecting more, but obviously the red card early and your team lost momentum,” Kilcarr said. “We played 45 minutes with no goal scored, but the free kick happened.”
Being in the state final appeared unlikely after a uncertain start to the season. St. Francis Prep was outplayed by Archbishop Molloy and fell to Xaverian. SFP got better as the year went and played its best soccer in the post season. It beat Archdiocesan champion Fordham Prep in the intersectional semifinal, top rival Archbishop Molloy in the title game and fell a win short of the final piece.
“After three or four games this year we didn’t think we were going this far,” Terriers Coach Franco Purificato said. “We had no thoughts of this. Then things started coming together late in the season and we made a nice run.”
