Last fall, the Hopedale boys soccer team entered uncharted waters in advancing into the Division 5 State Championship game. Entering the tournament as the number two seed, the Blue Raiders dispatched of Boston Collegiate Charter School 2-1, Tech Boston Academy 4-2, Dearborn 2-0 and Keefe Tech 3-2 to get to the finals. Once there, although Hopedale played well enough to win, the number one seed, Boston International, shut them out 2-0 to deny the Blue Raiders of their first ever State Title in boys soccer.

Having played a competitive game against the Division’s top team, Hopedale only graduated two seniors from that team and definitely have very high ambitions this fall. At the time of this writing, Hopedale is currently 7-2-2 and far ahead of last year’s performance that got them into the Division 5 Tournament.

Blue Raider Coach Greg LaBossiere said, “We know its not any easy thing to do but we are focused on getting back and finishing what we couldn’t do last year.”

Hopedale currently finds themselves as the number one team in the recent Division 5 polls, and with only two games remaining in the CMAC C, they are on track to capture the league title. 

Taking the team’s high expectations onto the field, Hopedale is led by five senior captains. LaBossiere rotates the captains on a game by game basis with only three getting the captain band per game. The top two captains are Gui Chardoso and Sam Dalpe. Chardoso is playing attack and middle forward for the Blue Raiders and as a junior was the team’s number one goal scorer with 29 tallies. Thus far, he has netted 12 goals for Hopedale. Dalpe, the team’s center back, is a very vocal leader who brings solid athletic ability that the coach can trust. He is also a one on one defender and good on the ball.

Other captains who will find themselves rotating are goalie Nate Rutkowski, middle Luke Carneiro and Nate Montville, who brings his all around versatility to the team.

In guarding the net, Rutkowski is taking on the position for the first time as a fulltime goalie. According to the coach, he has taken his game to the next level and improved considerably over last year; and this year he is bringing his experience to the table as a big, tall athlete who is covering the goal.

Carneiro is a great distributor of the ball and usually takes free kicks for the Blue Raiders. He is a very vocal leader and on the offensive side of the ball he is usually on the assist side of Chardoso’s goals. Montville is the team’s versatility player and will play wherever he is needed. He brings a pace and athleticism to the game and is the one who has the ability to long throw the ball which gets him a lot of assists. 

In addition to the five senior captains, LaBossiere has a handful of sophomores who saw action last fall as freshmen and thus far have been instrumental in Hopedale’s success.

Brothers Noah and Aydan Westfield, who play left middle and defensive middle respectively, are two of those athletes. Noah sets the pace and has already accounted for a couple of goals, while his sibling Aydan has been the mid-field general for Hopedale this fall.

Two other sophomores who have stepped up with experience are Charlie Oliver and Will Pomovilla. Oliver unfortunately was out for the majority of the season last year with a broken leg and was able to come back for the playoffs. LaBossiere and the coaching staff have high expectations for the sophomore striker, who has already needed seven goals and is the team’s number two goal scorer. Pomovilla, outside midfielder, has had some breakout games for Hopedale already this season; he has already recorded a 2 goal and 1 assist game as well as a 1 goal game with a couple of assists.

One final sophomore to grace LaBossiere’s lineup this fall is Griff Goncalves, the team’s center back. Last fall, as a freshman, he started every game and has developed into a strong, physical defender; and, according to the coach, he has become a major aerial threat on set pieces. Together with Dalpe, the duo form one of the top center back tandems in Central Massachusetts.

Having played so well and gotten all the way to the State Final game last year, the Hopedale athletes have one goal and only one goal on their mind.

“We all want to continue playing well and get back to the State Finals,” the coach said. “Last year was the first time that a boys soccer team from Hopedale got to the finals and, after getting a taste of it, this team wants to get back and be the first team to win the State Championship.”