By BRANDEN MELLO

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WEST GREENWICH — The Exeter-West Greenwich High boys’ soccer team knew that the 2008 season would be a rebuilding one replete with freshmen and sophomores learning the varsity game on the fly.

   But, in yesterday’s III-South game with West Warwick, it was the Wizards who turned to two underclassmen to earn a point with the Scarlet Knights. After an injury to all-division goalie Matt DeBlois, the Wizards turned to freshman Nick Paolantonio, while sophomore Kyle Silva delivered a perfect squared pass for the Wizards only goal.

“In the second half (Paolantonio) really stepped up for us, he stepped up big time for us,” West Warwick head coach Richard Grenier said. “I know he had a lot of butterflies and that young man was very nervous and I’m sure he didn’t expect to be called upon, but we moved him up on varsity for a reason.

“We believe in him and I’m sure he’ll make some mistakes if he has to continue to play there, but I’m sure he’ll play well.”

Paolantonio was forced to make his varsity debut because DeBlois, who had a streak of three consecutive clean sheets coming into the match, was forced to leave the game in 14^th minute when he injured the middle finger on his right hand.

The injury couldn’t have come at a worse time for the Wizards because they were defending an E-WG corner with the likes of Cristofer Lopez, Dan Paniches and Will Petit all in the box looking to open the scoring. The Wizards managed to clear the ball and Grenier went with one forward to protect his stand-in keeper.

Eventually, the move paid off because Silva, who had been playing excellent soccer on Greg Gonsalves’ jayvee team, beat two men before he made an excellent pass to Kowalik. The lanky forward beat E-WG goalie Anthony D’Antuano to the ball to open the scoring.

“I was so pleased to see Kyle Silva do what he did,” Grenier said. “He’s just a sophomore that swings (between junior varsity and varsity) for us and he has tons of potential. He stayed wide and we spent a nice ball to him. He squared the ball perfectly yin the box for Ben to score.”

The Wizards’ lead lasted all of 10 minutes because one of the Scarlet Knights’ senior captains, Bourassa, was well placed to follow up on a shot saved by Paolantonio. Bourassa managed to get off a left-footed shot which went through a bunch of traffic before nestling in the net.

“This season was difficult at first because we didn’t have high expectations,” Bourassa said. “But the guys came in and we told them we wanted them to work hard and they are doing that. We had that rough game against Rogers, but in the last two games, we’ve really started to click.”

How young are the Knights this season? Head coach Matt Savoie has seven freshmen and four sophomores on his varsity roster. And, there are just four seniors on the roster. The problem for the Knights is the four seniors are all major contributors.

Along with Bourassa, Dean Waterman, Matt Carruccia and Emerson Bookbinder all played integral roles in yesterday’s game. Carruccia could have handed the Knights a victory on many occasions, but his four shots were either saved or went agonizingly over the bar.

“I’m happy with any result we get because this is a developmental year,” Savoie said. “We have a lot of freshmen and we’ve earned three draws in a row, which is better than three losses. I just want them to learn the game and learn the speed of high school soccer. This is going to be a solid team coming up, but they’re young.”

E-WG nearly took a second-half lead in the 41^st minute, but Carruccia saw his shot deflect off the crossbar and out of danger. The play started with an excellent corner kick from the left side.

The Wizards could have left West Greenwich with their third win of the season if it wasn’t for a fantastic save by D’Antuano in the 58^th minute. Richard Lizotte, who played in the center of midfield and at sweeper, made a great run down the right wing before crossing the ball to Tim Parente. The junior didn’t take a touch but instead one-timed a shot which D’Antuano smothered to save the point.

“I have to be honest with you, we all looked at each other as if we lost this game,” Grenier said. “We expected to come in here and get a W. But, we knew we had to work hard to get it and then we lost our keeper and had to change our formation.”