No cramping his style: Dede scores game-winner as Blue Devils fend off Raiders in city rivalry game

QUINCY — Nolan Dede wanted to join the celebration, but that required getting to his feet and ignoring his cramping right calf.

“It was such a conflict of emotions,” he said. “There was the pain and there was the excitement.”

And there was the magnitude of the moment.

Dede’s header off an Evan Sohn restart with 29 minutes remaining in regulation Thursday night gave the Quincy High School boys soccer team the lead in its crosstown showdown with Quincy Notre Dame. The Blue Devils made the lead last, winning 3-2 at Advance Physical Therapy Field for their first victory in the city series since Sept. 19, 2019.

“Even through the pain, it was still one of the best feelings ever,” Dede said.

He just couldn’t stand up to enjoy it.

Dede’s teammates mobbed him as he sat on the turf before realizing why he couldn’t get up. So they helped him stretch the calf with senior co-captain Josh Stupavsky working the cramp out so Dede could walk to the sideline under his own power.

Once to his feet, Dede gave QHS assistant coach Travis Dinkheller, who had come onto the field to help the senior defender to the sideline, a huge high-five.

Dede returned to the lineup a few minutes later and helped the QHS defense ride out the one-goal advantage for his only victory in the city series in his final game against QND.

“That just makes it 10 times better,” Dede said.

Dede put himself in position to score by understanding the circumstances.

On a ball the QND defense was trying to clear, Raiders senior forward Leo Cann was whistled for a handball after it landed with a lot of spin and popped up and hit his right forearm. Cann kicked the ball away and was given a yellow card.

“I overreacted, hit the ball, got a yellow, got sent out of the game and couldn’t help defend on the restart,” Cann said.

His absence enabled Dede to move up into the mix before QHS senior forward Evan Sohn played the free kick from the left wing.

“I saw there were no strikers at midfield, so I took the opportunity to go into the box and I just happened to be at the right place at the right time,” Dede said.

Instincts and surveying the scene led to that opportunity.

“It was all on his own,” QHS coach Ron Bridal said. “He saw the ball, he attacked it and he scored a terrific game-winner.”

The opportunity doesn’t exist unless the Blue Devils (7-10-1) show some resiliency.

With 16 minutes remaining in the first half, Cann drove hard up the left wing and ripped a left-footed shot out of the reach of QHS goalkeeper Lucas Shepherd and into the far side of the net for a 1-0 lead. Less than 90 seconds later, the lead was gone.

The Blue Devils’ Andrew Brown played a ball through the box to Sohn, who had gotten behind the defense on the left wing and toe-poked the ball into the goal for the equalizer.

“That’s happened a couple of times this year,” Cann said. “We score fast and they counter. It’s annoying, but we have to be ready. We have to play with a lot more urgency and be ready that the opponent is going to be gunning to take away that lead.”

Answering so quickly is a sign the QHS coaching staff points to as having turned a corner.

“Sometimes, because it’s been a bit since we beat them, that goal goes in and they maybe would put their heads down,” Bridal said. “But this group of kids didn’t. This group of kids battles. They’re building that confidence in themselves and they believe.”

Three minutes later, Sohn took a flick from Biruk Rosen, made a run up the left wing, split two defenders and blistered a shot into the far netting for the lead.

“It was an amazing ball,” Sohn said. “I was talking to our midfielders the whole game to play that ball, because it allowed us to get behind them and slot a ball into the goal.”

Cann nearly tied the game before halftime when he made a run straight up the middle of the field and rocketed a shot that clanged loudly off the left post. Finally, nine minutes into the second half, he did get the equalizer after getting fouled in the box and converting the penalty kick.

“I hadn’t lost to them in my career, so I really wanted that final win,” Cann said.

Try as the Raiders (8-10-1) might to snare the lead or answer Dede’s goal, it didn’t happen against a defense determined not to surrender.

“You have to give them credit,” Cann said. “They earned it.”