In a battle of unbeatens, Barrington High School's boy's soccer team handed Shea High School their first loss of the season, 2-0 Monday night, Oct. 18, at Victory Field.

Jeff Craven led his team to the victory with two first-half goals, the second his 20^th goal of his senior year. Craven's first goal came in the ninth minute of play when he headed it past the defender, challenging the goalie with a one-on-one strike. 

Teammate Brett Sullivan, who leads the state in assists, notched another one when he assisted Craven's second goal in the 33^rd minute of play with a long throw-in in front of the net.

"This was a big win for us," Craven said. "If we didn't win this one, we probably wouldn't be able to finish in first place."

Sophomore goalie Andrew Jones ended the game with 8 saves for the shutout.

Barrington's record now stands at 11-0-4  in Division-One East. Shea slips to 10-1-3.

Coaches and players alike were impressed with the team's performance. "It's about how hard you play, and how much you want it," said Don Denham, Barrington's head coach. And this was something they wanted.

"We prepared more than usual for this game with intensity," Denham said. "Sometimes we can get lazy and we need to push harder if we want to be a championship team."

Barrington has three games left in their regular season before the playoffs. Denham said "nothing is guaranteed yet."

After Craven's first goal of the night, the Raiders had a chance to even up the score with a dead ball kick in front of the net. Jones' quick hands stopped the ball before it could get over the line.

Later in the first half, Barrington had another chance for a goal as Anders Weiss spun the ball past a Raiders defender and fired a shot at the net, only to be picked up by Shea's goalie and punted away.

Craven got his second goal after Sullivan "threw the longest ball I've ever seen and I managed to get a head on it," he said.

 "We played well as a team tonight," Denham said. "Our back four was phenomenal."

Barrington heads to East Providence next where they will take on the Townies at Pierce Field on Wednesday, Oct. 20, at 7 pm.