Perry, Remmey Come Up Clutch To Fuel Nauset Boys In Tournament Comeback

NORTH EASTHAM – For the past couple weeks, Nauset boys soccer coach John McCully has told his players that their best is yet to come.

 The 32nd-seeded Warriors delivered their best in the second half of Sunday’s Division 3 state tournament preliminary-round game against No. 33 Tantasqua as they overcame a one-goal deficit with a pair of second half goals to earn a 2-1 victory.

 Junior Omari Perry netted the equalizer with 24:23 remaining, and senior Austin Remmey gave Nauset its crucial lead when he buried the game-winner off a corner with 14:05 to play.

 “The second half was huge,” McCully said. “I didn’t think we were very good in the first half. We’ve been saying that our best is yet to come — we didn’t have our best in the first half, but I thought we had our best in the second half.”

 Nauset (10-6-3) found itself in an early hole after Logan Oko scored to give visiting Tantasqua (11-5-3) a 1-0 lead with 13:40 remaining in the first half. 

 Although the Warriors created plenty of scoring chances during the first 40 minutes, it wasn’t until the second half that the team was able to capitalize on a pair of restarts. 

Perry evened the score at 1-1 after collecting a throw-in from junior defender Kauan Gon that landed inside Tantasqua’s 18-yard box.

“I just fully anticipated it,” said Perry, an Eastham resident. “You never know what’s going to happen and anything can happen, so I just took a chance and I was there at the right time.”

With the score tied, Nauset ramped up its offensive pressure to tilt the field in its favor. Remmey nearly scored to give the team a lead before eventually cashing in off a corner by junior Jack Verde with just over 14 minutes remaining.

“(Remmey) just missed the one before that, but he wasn’t going to miss the second one,” McCully said. “Credit to Austin, he did it last year and he’s done it again this season — that’s his fourth or fifth goal this season off restarts.”

Remmey said the Warriors never wavered even after falling behind during the first half. 

“We were down 1-0, but we kept our heads in it,” said Remmey, an Eastham resident. “We knew we had chances in the first half we couldn’t capitalize on, but we knew that we could finish them in the second half. 

“It felt nice to score. I thought the first one was going in, but I didn’t get it. I knew I had to get one.”

Nauset traveled approximately 175 miles to Springfield to take on top-seeded and unbeaten Pope Francis (15-0-3) in a first-round matchup Tuesday evening after The Chronicle’s deadline. 

Despite the long commute, McCully said the Warriors were ready for the challenge. 

“It’s the No. 1 seed, and to be honest, I love that challenge,” the coach said. “I still think our best is yet to come. I just told the guys to play the way we played in the second half, but we need 80 minutes of that.”

 Senior Elizabeth Stewart and freshman Eloise MacMillan scored to propel the 29th-seeded Nauset girls soccer team to a 2-0 victory over No. 36 Ursuline in the preliminary round of the Division 3 state tournament Sunday night in North Eastham. 

 The Warriors (14-3-2) traveled to No. 4 Nipmuc (16-1-1) for a Round of 32 matchup on Tuesday after The Chronicle’s deadline. 

 The 26th-seeded Nauset field hockey team suffered a 2-1 loss to North Reading in a Division 3 Round of 32 matchup on Saturday. Junior Chloe Hand scored with 10 minutes remaining to tie the game at 1, but North Reading answered with the go-ahead goal with four minutes left. 

 The Warriors finished 7-9-3 in first-year coach Tia Raspante’s debut season. 

 Despite earning a 24-22 victory at Wareham on Friday, Nauset’s football team (6-2) was left out of the Division 4 state tournament field. The top 16 teams in the MIAA Power Rankings qualify for the postseason, and the Warriors’ final win wasn’t enough to finish ahead of No. 15 Melrose (4-4) or No. 16 Holliston (5-3). 

 The Warriors will resume their non-playoff football schedule at home against Diman at 6 p.m. Thursday.