By STEVE MAZZONE

Sports writer

PAWTUCKET – All it took was the first minute and some intense soccer afterwards for Shea High to wrap up another league title.
Sophomore winger Micael Semedo scored just 53 seconds into Monday’s regular-season finale against Smithfield to provide all the offense that was needed as the Raiders blanked the Sentinels, 1-0, in a Division II tilt at the McKinnon-Alves Soccer Complex.
The defending state champion Raiders survived a gritty, back-and-forth contest with Smithfield to finish its league campaign at 12-1-3 and capture its second straight II-North crown. Entering the match, Shea was just two points ahead of the second-place Sentinels (11-4-1).

“We won, it’s great to be division champions again,” SHS head coach Pierre Ridore said. “But our goal is to keep getting better and win another state championship.”
 With the playoffs scheduled to begin early next week, Shea earned a bye in the first round by copping the division. Meanwhile, Smithfield will play a preliminary round game where it will try to get out of a late-season slump.
The loss for the Sentinels was their fourth in the last five games, all of which have been shutouts. Prior to its first defeat back on Oct. 6 – a 2-0 decision to Classical – Smithfield was unbeaten in the league.
“We are playing well, but we are definitely snake-bitten,” said SHS head coach Steve Votolato, whose squad has been out-scored 7-2 in the five-game stretch. “It does concern me because we’ve got to make sure that we have (today’s) kind of intensity all the time.”
There weren’t many opportunities for scoring in Monday’s contest with both teams hustling up and down the turf and playing solid defense. But luckily for the Raiders, they managed to capitalize right away on one of their limited chances.
Utilizing some effective passing by a number of Shea players, sophomore Joao Fernandes managed to get hold of the ball and scooted it over to Semedo, who corralled the pass near the left post, about six-yards away, and booted the ball into the right side of the net.
“For 79 minutes we were even, but in that first minute we were a little bit short,” Votolato said. “We just let him get by. It came from the far corner so maybe my guys thought it was out of bounds. All of a sudden, it was bing-bang and in the back of the net.”
‘That goal was our style of play,” Ridore said. “It was a couple of give-and-goes. We started the give-and-goes from the defense, a couple of touches on the wing and people were running and putting the ball in front of each other. I don’t know if they were ready to play right at the beginning of the game. We just kept doing give-and-goes and Micael shot it and it went into the corner. That was a tough spot to get into to (from where he was).”
Smithfield, which was ousted in the first round of last year’s playoffs, did a good job of keeping pace with the speedy Raiders, most notably Semedo, Fernandes and freshman Ruben Carvalho. In the final 20 minutes of the first half, the Sentinels had a slight edge over their host in terms of possession. Smithfield had six of its 10 corner kick opportunities during that span.
About 15 minutes into the second half, Shea had an opportunity to double its advantage with Fernandes and Semedo hooking up again. But after Fernandes booted a perfect cross-field pass to Semedo, who was about 15 yards in front of the cage, the sophomore’s shot went wide right.
Fernandes had another opportunity for Shea just past the midway point of the half when he fielded a long boot from Semedo at the other end of the field. Fernandes out-sprinted a few Smithfield defenders to eventually create a one-on-one opportunity with Sentinel keeper Aaron Skalubinski, but his close-ranger went high above the cage.
Smithfield nearly scored the equalizer with three minutes left in the contest when senior captain Devin Richard used some fancy footwork to work his way through the Shea defense from the left side. He then unleashed a kick about 15-yards out that just missed the top of the net.
“He’s our leading scorer on the team,” Votolato said. “When it’s crunch time, he’s usually around the ball. He’s not afraid to take a shot. That was an excellent move.”
Ridore liked the effort of his Raiders against an always-tough Sentinel squad, but he feels it has to get better to prosper in the postseason.
“In some parts of the game we looked alright, but other parts we stopped playing,” he said. “Going into the playoffs we can’t give teams opportunities to move the ball around and have too much possession of the ball.”

***
Smithfield 0 0 – 0
Shea 1 0 – 1
First half – 1. S, Micael Semedo (Joao Fernandes) 1:00.
Second half – No scoring.
Saves – S, Levidson Andrade 7. Sm, Aaron Skalubinski 5. Saves – S 9. Sm 7. Corner kicks – S 6. Sm 10.