By ERIC BENEVIDES
Sports writer
PAWTUCKET – The magic Lincoln High weaved through last year’s run to the Division II state championship appears to be alive and kicking again this season.
For the third time this season, the Lions found themselves being dominated for the better part of a game with three-time Division II regular-season champion Shea High, but unlike the 5-2 and 4-1 defeats they suffered during the season, the Lions were able to bus home with the upset of the state tournament on Thursday afternoon.
Junior forward Cody Furtado scored a pair of goals in the first 22 minutes of the second half to wipe out a one-goal deficit, and the Lions’ defense made their slim lead stand up by holding off a furious Raider attack in the closing 18 minutes before celebrating a hard-fought 2-1 quarterfinal-round victory at the McKinnon-Alves Complex.

The Lions, who survived a memorable shootout with Moses Brown in last year’s quarters and went on to take a 2-1 nailbiter with the Raiders in the title game, will face Central High, which defeated Westerly High in its quarterfinal-round game, next Wednesday at 8 p.m. on Bishop Hendricken High’s turf field.
Not many folks gave the Lions, who were 7-7-2 and tied for fourth place in the standings, much of a chance to make it out of Pawtucket with a victory, and for good reason.
Not only did the Raiders roll into the match with a 15-1 record, but they had two strikers (Emerson Barros and Micael Semedo) that teamed up to net more goals than Lincoln did during the season and a stingy defense that gave up just 11 goals.
But in the ‘second season’ known as the playoffs, records and statistics drop back to zero and anything can happen, such as quarterfinal-round victories over teams that couldn’t be beaten during the regular season.
“Lincoln showed up and played hard,” offered Shea coach Pierre Ridore before boarding his team’s bus. “It doesn’t matter what happened during the regular season and it doesn’t matter who outplayed who, it’s the goals that count. Today, they scored two goals and we scored one, so they’re moving on and our season is done.”
“Like I just told Pierre, they have a tremendous team,” noted Lincoln coach Victor Alves, whose crew was outshot by a 16-4 count. “They had an outstanding season, and for us to win this game, we needed luck, and today, luck was on our side.”
The opening half of Thursday’s game looked like the first two meetings, with the Raiders working the ball around the Lions’ end of the turf and peppering goalkeeper Evan Walsh with several shots.
Luckily for the Lions, only one slipped past Walsh, and it was a shot by Semedo that was set up by Barros at the 18th minute and was the junior standout’s 20th goal of the season.
At halftime, Alves made a few adjustments, and the biggest one was giving Tyler Florio, one of his fastest midfielders, the responsibility of shadowing Barros, a quick sophomore who led the division with 26 goals, and Florio did a great job marking him.
“You almost have to play that back line to defend him because he has tremendous speed, but we thought that if we put just one fast guy with him, we would make it hard for him to get him to shoot with his strong leg,” said Alves. “Most of the opportunities he had in the second half was with his left foot. We kind of pushed him out to the outside, so if he was going to take a shot, we didn’t want to give him the inside.”
Alves also placed two forwards up top and three midfielders in the middle, and the move paid dividends 8:40 into the second half when Furtado netted his first goal.
Furtado reeled in a go-ahead feed from fellow forward Emmanuel Asiedu just outside the penalty area, spun around a Shea defender that fell to the turf, and slipped a low shot past the dive of goalie Levidson Andrade that zipped into the far left corner of the net.
After that goal, the Raiders quickly brought the ball back down the field, but at the 22nd minute, it was the Lions who capitalized on the game’s next scoring opportunity.
This time, Jeremy Rhault looked to set up Asiedu for a goal with a pass near the sideline, and after Asiedu sidestepped a defender and raced toward the net, he unleashed a 20-yard shot right at Andrade that he stopped. But the rebound went right to Furtado at the side of the goal, and he wasted little time in firing the ball into the top left corner of the net.
Those two goals were only Furtado’s sixth and seventh of the season because he missed eight games near the end of the year with a thigh injury, but they were clearly his biggest.
After that goal, the Raiders turned their play up a notch and kept the play down the other end of the field throughout the remaining 18 minutes. And the opportunities they had to net the equalizer were numerous.
First, there was a long 30-yard shot from Jonathan Almeida that clanged off the crossbar. Minutes later, Semedo lined a shot off the right post. Gerson Gomes fired a shot on a nice give-and-go that just sailed wide of the net.
An indirect kick in the penalty area also went for naught, as did seven corner kicks in the final 15 minutes. And the shots the Raiders got on goal in that remaining time (six) were stopped by Walsh, who ended up with 15 saves.
“We needed some luck,” said Alves. “The post, the crossbar, and that stuff definitely was the luck that we needed.”
Alves, who also didn’t substitute much during the contest, needed blue-collared ironmen performances from the 11 players he had on the field in the second half and he got what he wanted. 
“We have a young squad and our depth is not as much,” admitted Alves. “I log a lot of minutes with these kids and I demand that from them. They were hanging out there, but they stuck it out and I’m very proud of the boys.”
“They really showed up to play in the second half,” Ridore said of Lincoln. “They were more physical and moving the ball better, and they believed they could win.”
The loss only marked the third time in 12 straight postseason appearances that Shea did not advance to the semifinals, but unlike their early exits in 2005 and ’06, the Raiders were eliminated with a regular-season title and the North’s No. 1 seed under their belts.
“You play the regular season to be in our situation,” added Ridore. “You want that first-round bye and you want to be able to play your first game at home. For me, the regular season doesn’t count -- it’s who’s going to show up in the playoffs and who’s going to win. Hopefully, we’ll rebuild and get back at it next year.”