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ATTLEBORO - For the past two years, Weymouth High had been a thorn in the sides of the Bishop Feehan girls' soccer team, eliminating the Shamrocks in each of the last two postseasons.

But this year appeared to be different. Feehan played the Wildcats twice in the regular season, defeating them in the fourth game of the season and tying the Wildcats in the regular-season finale. Those three points gave the fourth-seeded Shamrocks the right to host Monday night's clash with fifth-seeded Weymouth in the MIAA Division 1-South quarterfinal, a chance to avenge those past two tournament losses.

But the Wildcats showed that in the postseason they seemingly have the Shamrocks' number, beating Feehan 1-0 to eliminate Feehan for a third straight year.

"They got a goal and we didn't, that's the difference," Bishop Feehan coach Paul Pontes said. "I thought the first 20 minutes, and we spoke about it before the game, that it was important that we came out real strong against them to let them know that we really wanted a match, and I thought we did that for the first 20 minutes but we really didn't create many opportunities."

The Shamrocks came out of the gates on fire, earning corner kicks in the third and fourth minutes and dominating possession early. In the sixth minute the Shamrocks drew a foul on the left side of Weymouth's goal, 25 yards out. Jenna Roncarati bent a low screamer past the feet of the Wildcat wall and toward goal, but the ball had just too little bend to it, missing the right post by mere inches. Unfortunately for the Shamrocks, that would be the closest they would get to a goal, as Weymouth dominated the possession and the scoring chances for the rest of the game.

"Our possession game wasn't as good as it has been, not tonight," Pontes said. "We were off. A lot of times we would have no pressure, we would try to pass the ball and we'd give it right to them. Tonight we were a little bit sloppy, and probably that was because of the pressure they were putting on us too."

After much of the opening 20 minutes was played in the middle third, Weymouth began putting pressure on in the second 20, earning two corner kicks and a free kick between the 22nd and 28th minutes.

The pressure finally paid off for the Wildcats with ten minutes remaining in the half on a long throw-in from the extended 18. Kayla Sullivan let loose a long throw that bounced past the Feehan defense and to reserve Melissa Kimball, who was all alone in front of the goal from ten yards out. The senior calmly half-volleyed the ball past Feehan keeper Melissa Ellis, who had no chance, and the score was 1-0 Wildcats.

"That's a good weapon for us," said Weymouth coach John MacIntyre. "We try to get it in there and run someone in to flick it and go from there and that's exactly what happened."

"They picked it up and then for the next 20 minutes of the first half and the entire second half I thought their intensity picked up and they maintained that," Pontes said. "And you know, one little miscue on a throw-in, it's just one of those things. We lost her as a mark, she was there and right in front of the goal. You can't have that happen."

Feehan tried to create a scoring opportunity early in the second half, earning three corners in the first ten minutes, but the Shamrocks never tested Weymouth keeper Kristen Darling on any of the pieces, many of them going too deep past the far post for Feehan to make anything out of.

With 15 minutes left in the game Pontes took a timeout to change his formation from a 4-4-2 into a 4-3-3 in a last-ditch effort to create more offense, but the Shamrocks weren't able to get any clean scoring looks at the Weymouth goal as the clock slowly ticked down. Roncarati, normally the Feehan catalyst, was held in check by a tight marking job by the Wildcat defense.

"We marked Roncotti tonight, which is something we didn't do in the two regular season games," MacIntyre said. "She's a phenomenal player. We thought she needed that individual attention. Other than that we didn't change our game plan too much but obviously trying to take her out of the game is a big deal."

In the end, it was the Wildcats' playoff experience that played a key role in ending the Shamrocks' season for the third consecutive year. "We have a ton of tournament experience, I think that games like this it's key," MacIntyre said. "The girl who scored our goal plays 10-15 minutes a game, tops. You just never know, in a tournament game you never know who the hero is going to be."