SACO — The Thornton Academy boy’s soccer team grinded out a tough 2-0 win over visiting Cheverus Thursday at Hill Stadium.

After jumping to a 2-0 lead in the first half, the Trojans began to feel the pressure from the Stags in the second, but managed to hold on in the final minutes to secure the shutout.

“We had to gut it out – I think Cheverus was the better side in the second half,” said TA coach Andrew Carlson. “We’ve been struggling all season to play complete games but we’re fortunate enough to have the talent and have been converting the opportunities.”

Eric McCullum put TA on the board at the 26:33 mark in the first on an impressive corner kick that curved over the head of the Cheverus goaltender.

The Trojans would get another goal at the 12:04 mark, when Noah Niles sent a pass to the middle of the field to Alvaro Saenz de Santa, who would boot in TA’s second goal.

Cheverus began to apply greater pressure in the second half, pushing the TA offense throughout the entire 40 minutes.

As the physicality increased, so did the injuries, as a handful of Trojans appeared to be banged up in the second half.

“We got knocked up a little bit, had some injuries. It’s the middle of the season, no one is fresh, no one is 100 percent healthy,” said Carlson. “The guys have to be mentally tough enough to play through those things. Adversity happens in life, adversity happens on the field … we need to respond to adversity.”

TA would do just that, not allowing the Stags to gain any traction as the Trojans fought for the win.

Carlson was pleased with his team’s grit in the second half, and was also impressed with the fight that Cheverus showed as well.

“(The Stags) never give up – and I think we may have relaxed a little bit in the second half and they were right there to put the pressure on us,” said Carlson. “Our guys had to dig down deep. Our back four had to make some plays, Colin in goal made a couple of key saves for us and allowed us to run out the clock, then the reserves came in played pretty good for ten minutes and we closed out the game.”

As the Trojans push through the middle of their schedule, Carlson believes the key to success will be for his team to play tough for all 80 minutes.

“We need to learn how to play a complete game. If we play a complete game start-to-finish we will be all right,” said Carlson. Next is Bonny Eagle and hopefully we can give them a game, then next is Gorham and we’ll see if we have a real side or not. If we have an unblemished record coming out next Thursday night, then maybe we’re a legitimate side.”

— Sports Staff Writer Alex Sponseller can be reached at sports@journaltribune.com or at 282-1535 ext. 323. Follow the Journal Tribune Sports Department on Twitter @JournalTsports.