By ERIC BENEVIDES

Sports writer

WARWICK --- The Blackstone Valley will get its dream matchup in Sunday afternoon’s Division II championship game.
Defending Division II state champion Shea High and first-year Division II squad Lincoln High grabbed their berths in the 4 p.m. showdown at Rhode Island College by posting impressive victories in Tuesday night’s semifinal-round doubleheader at Bishop Hendricken High.
The Lions kicked off the twinbill with their fifth straight win, a 3-0 triumph over Westerly High, and the Raiders concluded the night by holding off East Greenwich High, 1-0, for their fourth victory in a row.
Both head coaches, the Raiders’ Pierre Ridore and the Lions’ Victor Alves, are expecting a superb game on Sunday, much like their last regular-season meeting, which took place on Oct. 10 at Chet Nichols Field and saw the two sides battle to a spirited 3-3 draw.

“Lincoln is a very good team,” remarked Ridore, whose club also topped the Lions in their first meeting by a 3-0 score on Sept. 15. “They have some fast forwards, so we have our work cut out for us. Lincoln is definitely going to be a great challenge, but we’re going to work hard in practice this week and we’ll see what happens on Sunday.”
“Pierre and I talked a couple of weeks ago and I said, “Maybe we’ll be the two teams there,’ ” said Alves, who is a 1983 graduate of Shea. “I think it’s great because I played soccer there and I have a lot of great memories, but Shea’s a great team and it’s going to be a very good game.”
The Lions (14-3-1) played a very good game against a physical squad in the Division II-South champion Bulldogs (13-2-3) and won the game by scoring twice in the final 17:39 of the first half and turning in a marvelous defensive performance.
“I knew that they play very physical, and I think we matched up well with what they wanted to do,” added Alves. “At the beginning of the game, we made some adjustments with our players, marking up a little bit better and watching where they were trying to dump the ball. We also had to contain the midfield, and as soon as we won (the midfield), we had to make our threats to the outside and over the top to our two speedy guys.”
One of those speedy guys was sophomore standout Emmanuel Asiedu, and he netted the only goal Lincoln needed 22 minutes into the game by scoring off a pretty pass from Jacob McCall, who won the battle to a loose ball near the side of the ’Dogs’ net and delivered a cross pass to Asiedu, who wasted no time in blasting it to the far right of Westerly goalkeeper Ryan Wilcox.
With 6:46 left in the half, the Lions doubled their lead. Asiedu won a battle for the ball with a Westerly player in the corner and slid a cross pass to T.J. Balkun in front of the net. Balkun momentarily lost his balance, but still tapped the ball to Matt D’Amelio, who dashed in and belted a shot from 15 yards out into the top left corner of the net.
The Bulldogs, who only took four shots in the first half, unleashed seven in the final half and had a few quality chances that were turned away by goalie Evan Walsh, the hero in the Lions’ quarterfinal-round shootout victory over Moses Brown. 
The Lions eventually produced their final goal with less than two minutes to play on an unassisted goal by Justin Florio, who nailed a 30-yard rocket that Wilcox had no chance at stopping. That set off a giant celebration near the Lions’ bench.
“It was just a great game for us and I’m so proud of the kids.” added Alves. “These kids have been doing a terrific job all season long.”
While the Lions were outshot by an 11-9 count, so were the Raiders (by an 11-7 margin) in their triumph over the Avengers, but Shea also got the job done nicely on defense and received some quality saves in the second half by goalie Levidson Andrade that kept it a one-goal game.
The Raiders (14-1-3) only had a handful of quality scoring chances, but they made good on one of their final ones of the contest with 22:44 to play in the game, thanks to Luis Carlos Duarte, who rifled a shot from 15 yards out that glanced off the right post, past EG netminder James Kerin, and
into the back of the net. 
“I moved Luis from the left wing to the right because he wasn’t being really productive on the left and our right wing wasn’t being productive where he was playing,“ said Ridore. “I don’t know if the other players that they were playing against got into their heads, so I tried to switch it up a little bit, and as soon as I made the switch, Luis was able to get to the ball and put it into the corner.”
The Avengers (11-2-5) did their best to produce the equalizer in the final 15 minutes and kept the action in the Raiders’ end of the pitch, but were unable to find the back of the twines as Shea tighten the clamps defensively.
“They have a great team,” Shea coach Pierre Ridore added of the Avengers. “They’re really, really good. After we scored, I kept my fingers crossed the rest of the game. They have a lot of very good players, and we were really fortunate to walk out of here with a victory.”
***
Lincoln  2 - 1 -- 3
Westerly  0 - 0 -- 0
First half: L -- Emmanuel Asiedu (Jacob McCall), 22:21, L -- Matt D’Amelio (T.J. Balkun), 33:14.
Second half: L -- Justin Florio (unassisted), 78:00.
Shots on goal: Westerly 11, Lincoln 9. Goalie saves: L -- Evan Walsh (11 saves), W -- Ryan Wilcox (7 saves).

East Greenwich 0 - 0 -- 0
Shea   0 - 1 -- 1
First half: No scoring.
Second half: S -- Luis Carlos Duarte (unassisted), 17:16.
Shots on goal: East Greenwich 11, Shea 7. Goalie saves: EG -- James Kerin (5 saves), S -- Levidson Andrade (11 saves).