Richmond overcomes Ashland Bobcats’ Harrington nabs goal, two assists

HAMPDEN – Andy Harrington isn’t at his best on artificial turf. In fact, with about 20 minutes left in Wednesday evening’s Class D boys soccer state championship game, the Richmond forward was on the sideline with leg cramps.

But like the rest of the Bobcats, who had lost two straight title games before this year’s matchup against Ashland, Harrington wouldn’t be denied.

The junior was responsible for the decisive goal against the Hornets and assisted on the other two as Richmond dominated in a 3-1 win over Ashland at the Weatherbee Complex.

Harrington cramped up in last year’s 2-1 loss to Van Buren, which was also played on the Hampden turf.

“I’m not gonna lie, I was pretty afraid of this field coming back here. I’m bad on the turf,” he said. “… [The cramping] just came back this year but I knew I had to fight through it. I wanted this bad. My sister’s won three [state titles] and my brother’s won one, and I wasn’t coming out of here without one.”

It was the fourth Class D title and ninth overall for Richmond (15-1-1), including five in Class C. The Hornets (15-2-1) were vying for their first Class D crown since 1997.

Harrington scored his winner with 7:45 left in the first half after Ashland goalie Lucas Belanger collided with another Richmond player and dropped the ball. Harrington was there for the shot.

“It was a 50-50 ball there, so [Belanger] came out,” Harrington said. “If you saw how he played us, he was physical. He fell over, the ball just came out. I knew the ref wasn’t going to make a call on that because he’d been playing physical. All I had to do was just pop it into the back of the net.”

Harrington assisted on Eric Murrin’s insurance goal with 23.4 seconds remaining, dishing off to the streaking Murin who took it in alone on Belanger.

Sam Carter pushed in Richmond’s first goal on a Harrington corner kick.

Belanger was stellar otherwise, especially after he was kicked in the jaw with about 23 minutes left in the first half. He made 11 saves on 24 shots, blocking balls with his chest, punching out corner kicks and coming out of the area to kick away dangerous balls – and, as Harrington said, playing a physical game against the Bobcats.

“He stepped it up today. He kept us in the game,” Ashland coach Kevin Paradis said.

Jeremy Tarr tied it for Ashland with 18:39 left in the first half with a powerful header off a Tyler Cote corner kick past Richmond goalie Joey Scribellito (two saves on five shots), the son of coach Joe Scribellito.

Richmond’s defense drew two Ashland offsides calls and the Bobcat midfielders kept Hornet standouts Carl Nemer and Cote from getting many balls on the wings.

Nemer, a junior, scored 27 goals this season to tie the school’s single-season scoring record and is two away from breaking the school’s career record. Paradis moved Nemer to striker at one point to try to generate more offense.

“Usually the secret to our success wasn’t just getting the ball to Carl or Tyler, it was getting it to them on the lead pass, and we just couldn’t get it to them that way,” Paradis said. “Every time we could get it to them, [Richmond] fought for the ball.”