Brawl Mars Cape Cod Soccer League Quarterfinal At Nauset

NORTH EASTHAM – A Cape Cod Soccer League quarterfinal match last Sunday between the top and bottom seeds in the postseason tournament ended with a skirmish that left one player on the ground bloodied.

First-place Nauset Storm and last-place visitors Napoli Hyannis were headed toward the finish in the waning late-night minutes of overtime during the opening round Davis Cup game when two opposing players collided near the sideline in front of Napoli’s bench. 

Nauset’s Colin Riley-Perec and Napoli’s Robert Dasilva thereafter approached each other, becoming physical, and multiple Napoli players converged on Riley-Perec. In the ensuing scuffle, Nauset’s Pat Phelan was struck by a Napoli player, which sent him to the ground. Nauset players kneeled next to Phelan, a former New England Revolution player, as he continued to lie on the turf for a few minutes. Officials called the game at that point, a 1-0 win for Nauset.

Afterwards, Nauset head coach John McCully criticized Napoli head coach Hugo Dutra, as two referees separated the two while Phelan stood nearby and held the side of his head above his eye, blood staining his yellow uniform.

Recalling the altercation, Phelan said he went over to try to pull his teammate from a Napoli player who had “steam blowing out of his ears all game” and a hand on the neck of the Nauset player. 

“As soon as I got a hold of my player, I didn't even see it,” Phelan said. “I just turned to the side, and all of a sudden I'm on the ground. And not surprised, unfortunately. They tend to be one of those ‘if you can't beat them, beat them’ teams.”

McCully said it was a sucker punch, a cheap shot; he was “livid,” and it was “sad that it happened the way it happened.”

“As soon as we went up 1-0, then the sh*tshow started really to begin, and that's the way it is with those guys,” McCully said. “They shouldn’t even be in the f**king league.”

Dutra declined to comment after the game. Napoli players left the Nauset soccer field quickly after the fight.

“It's just disappointing, because that's not how this league wants to be represented, by a group like that,” McCully said. “We are how the league wants to be represented, but not by those guys.”

The following day, league president Keith Clark said Napoli’s manager and coach had been cooperative in identifying the players involved in the “assault.” A complaint had been filed to Eastham police, he said.

There had been much jawing between Napoli players and the officials throughout the match. Napoli Hyannis, in its first year in the Cape Cod Soccer League, earned the second-most penalty cards among eight total teams.

“They were pretty hot-headed the entire game,” Phelan said. “Officials did the best they could, and the league will take care of what happened after the fact. It's unfortunate. We'll see if they're back in the league next year.”

In the wake of the brawl, an off-duty officer will be present at the league’s semifinal and championship matches, and a fourth official will be added to the referee crew for the semifinal games to help manage the players and benches, according to Clark. The league had typically only used fourth officials for the finals, he said.

“It’s up to the player to decide how they want to play the game,” Clark said. “It’s not up to the officials.”

The quarterfinal match was the third meeting this season between Nauset and Napoli. The teams first drew 2-2 in June, a game that featured a post-match altercation between Napoli players and the officiating crew. Then about two weeks ago, Nauset, the league’s top regular-season team for the third consecutive year, blasted Napoli 9-0 in the penultimate game before the postseason. 

On Sunday, the two sides played a scoreless regulation, though Nauset handily controlled possession but failed to convert chances repeatedly. Nauset finally broke through in the first half of overtime after Charlie Cushing scored after a throw-in. The ball found Cushing right in front of the net, and he ripped it low and left. He had anticipated a bounce, he said.

“At the end of the day in the playoffs, it's just survive and advance, and that's what we did, so it felt good,” Cushing said. 

Nauset finished the regular season 8-1-5, first in the league for the third year in a row. Napoli finished 3-9-2 for its inaugural Cape Cod Soccer League season. Nauset was scheduled to play fourth-seeded Scorcha FC in the semifinals Wednesday.

For Phelan, who — having appeared in 80 games for the Revolution from 2008 to 2011 — has played a lot of high-level soccer, it was clear from the beginning that Napoli’s goal was to get under the skin of Nauset and keep the match scoreless. Understanding how to keep cool and deal with it is wisdom that Phelan, 40, tries to contribute to his teammates in a league filled with younger players. But imparting that can be tough, as evidenced by the brawl, which made for a sour nightcap of the Davis Cup’s first round.

“There's no place for that,” Phelan said. “I mean, I'm pretty experienced. I've been through a lot of games like that before, and when the game's over, win, lose or draw, there's just no place for that, especially in a summer league game.”