KUA falls 9-5 against New Hampton

In their first Lakes Region match-up of the year, the Wildcats clicked early but could not maintain momentum en route to a 9-5 defeat. New Hampton played aggressive, hard-nosed defense in all regions of the field, preventing the skilled Wildcats from connecting on clearing passes and from setting up their settled offense. Despite holding a slight edge on ground balls, a testament to KUA’s work ethic, the Wildcats struggled to possess the ball, and were unable to capitalize on their gutsy efforts.

 

KUA’s Andrew Jarrett and Alex Keiver scored the first two goals but then New Hampton answered with the next four. At the end of the first quarter New Hampton held a 4-2 lead. The KUA defense clamped down and held the Huskies to no goals in the second quarter while the offense scored two (Andrew Jarrett and Ryan Lund) to even the score at 4-4 going into the half. New Hampton went up by two early in the third quarter, but then KUA’s Kevin Vieira scored to narrow the lead to one. New Hampton managed one more goal to pull ahead 7-5 going into the fourth quarter.  Even after new Hampton increased their lead to 9-5 early in the 4^th quarter, the Wildcats never stopped working. KUA’s defense, led by Pat Lynch, Riley Alderman, and Try McDougall and goalie Tim McNair, scrambled aggressively to force New Hampton turnovers and give the offense the opportunities they needed at the other end.   KUA midfielders Ryan Lund (5 ground balls), PJ Tessier (7 ground balls), Mike Powell (3 ground balls) and Andrew Cole (4 ground balls) were especially effective in their efforts to compete for every chance to gain possession. While the ball might not have come out of the stick the way the boys would have liked, they certainly gave their best to win it back and turn the game back in the favor. KUA (2-3) plays their second Lakes Region game this Saturday when they travel to Proctor for a 2pm start.