Young Monomoy Boys Soccer Team Faces Early Adversity

SANDWICH – A pair of quality second-half goals last Thursday acted as a resilient effort for a young Monomoy boys soccer team that’s playing with an entirely new back line.

The Sharks trailed 2-0 more than halfway through the second half when junior captain Tate Laramee broke right, then ripped a strike left from about 15 yards away to bring Monomoy back in the game. With just a couple of minutes remaining and Sandwich up 3-1, junior Aiden O’Keefe headed in a free kick from sophomore goalkeeper Tyler Layton to bring Monomoy back within one. 

The two scores were great finishes but ultimately not enough to keep up with Sandwich in the 3-2 loss for a Monomoy team that, after the game, felt resolved to learn from it.

“They need to just realize this is when you come together,” head coach Keith Clark said. “It's easy to be together when you know things are going great, but when you have a little bit of adversity, that's when we need to come together, and that's also a time to really take a look at what you did, to be a little bit more introspective about how you could play, not necessarily criticize anyone else.”

Monomoy graduated 10 seniors from last year, including the team’s four-year scoring leader Ryan Laramee and all four of its backs. That group went 12-4-2 last season. And only two years ago the Sharks compiled a run through the state tournament to the Division 4 championship game. This year’s team, with just four seniors, doesn’t have that amount of experience.

“It's not easy to rebuild like that in a young team, like our whole back line is fresh, but we stayed resilient,” Tate Laramee said. “We were down 3-1, 2-0, and we can still fight and compete.”

Going into the season, Clark knew it’d be challenging for the group but he was optimistic. The team is fueled in the midfield by Laramee (Ryan’s younger brother), who is strong technically, aware tactically, good on the ball and is the team’s leader, according to Clark. He was one of the best players in the league last year as a sophomore.

“I think he's quality in every way — tactically, leadership, intense, works hard,” Clark said.

Laramee also attracts a great deal of attention from the opposition and is a constant scoring threat — evidenced by the goal against Sandwich.  “Find 8,” Sandwich’s goalkeeper repeated to teammates. Clark even wants Laramee to shoot more often, earlier.

“I'm always looking for space to run in and find my teammates when I can't see the best option, and at that moment, it was like we needed to go,” Laramee said. “We need the team spirit to lift. I just thought I know I can hit this, and I just did.”

Defensively, the Sharks have been vulnerable to the counterattack and have been getting beaten by direct balls, which has become a problem, according to Clark. Laramee said they seemed to be starting games slow and had to be better on the ball and in the back.

“We're just a tight-knit group, so our best attribute is being together and staying together and being resilient to the end of the game,” he said.

The Sharks fell 6-2 to Mashpee on Monday, which dropped them 2-5 on the year. They were set to host Dennis-Yarmouth on Wednesday and Nauset on Friday — part of a stretch of four games in nine days that will test Monomoy’s depth.