Jacob Fudge | McClelland Miscellanea

Ipswich (in white) put plenty of pressure on Whittier netminder Jon Hewey.

Ryan Law (two goals)

(Ipswich) The Ipswich Tigers (#14 seed) boys soccer team dominated Whittier (#19 seed) from beginning to end and defeated the visitors, 4-1, on a cloudy Friday afternoon in Division 3 North MIAA tournament play.

The Tigers (8-6-4) now advance to a First Round game with #3 seed Lowell Catholic on Sunday afternoon (1PM) at Rivier College in Nashua, New Hampshire.

Whittier (7-10-2) qualified for the tournament by winning the small division of the Commonwealth Conference while Ipswich needed to win its last two regular season games to qualify.

Ipswich, playing its final home game of 2012, put shots on Wildcat goalie Jon Hewey early and often. The senior net minder was the reason the final deficit was only three.

The Tigers had goals from Ryan Law and David Dick in the first half. Slater Sullivan and Ryan Law tallied in the second half.

Sean Whooley (14) chases Jacob Fudge (23)

Even though the final margin was three goals, this was a 2-1 game at halftime because late in the first half Jacob Fudge scored for Whittier. Jacob broke free down the right side and beat Tiger goalie Erik Fyrer to the far corner.

In a one-goal game anything can happen. Right away in the second half Jacob had a good look at the equalizer, but this time the Tiger goalie made the save.

Thereafter it was the Tigers back to pressuring the Wildcat end. Ipswich had three corners and two direct kicks in the next seven minutes. Slater Sullivan cashed in the second direct kick (by Sam Benford) at 29:48 to give the Tigers a two-goal edge.

Eleven minutes later (18:49) senior Ryan Law put in a rebound of a shot by David Dick to make it 4-1.

In the first half, Ryan Law opened the scoring for Ipswich (11:44) benefiting from a beautiful setup by sophomore Sam Benford.

David Dick fires a shot.

Two minutes later (9:39) David Dick struck a shot on net low that GK Jon Hewey went down for. The shot bounced over the Wildcat goalie’s hands to give Ipswich a 2-0 lead.

The Tigers were very much in control of the center of the field most of the game thanks to the tireless, aggressive play of Slater Sullivan, David Dick, and Sean Whooley.

Busy day at the site of the game – boys tournament soccer game (2:30), girls tournament soccer game (4:15), and football game (7).

(All of the pictures above and below enlarge considerably if you click on them.)