Dublin Takes Home Opener on the Turf

Darrell Beaupre
Saturday proved to be another beautiful day to play soccer.  Although Leo Barta would still be sidelined, we were happy to have Bleyton Hobbs-Thompson back in the goal.  The boys were excited to play their first game on the turf.
 
The game began and Dublin quickly took advantage.  It took our boys a while to transition from playing on grass to playing on turf.  The ball bounced and moved differently.  While we did take a few shots on Dublin’s net, the game was mostly in our end and our defensive line fought valiantly. 
 
Then with twenty-five minutes left in the half, #9 sprinted up the field, received a pass, and went one on one with Bleyton.  Bleyton was quick to react and dove for the ball, but the ball was well-placed and just out of his reach.  They were up by one.
 
As the time ticked down, Dublin kept the pressure on Jacob Hebbel, Michael Jung, Sebastian Keen, and Aiden Bean.  They thwarted many attempts; however, Dublin still kept the shots coming.  Bleyton was able to shut down fourteen shots on net.
 
It was not until the final minutes of the half that our offense started taking shots.  We saw one play where Ian Surgenor, in the corner, received the ball from Simon Nowlin.  He chipped it in to Ryder Perry who was running in.  Ryder headed it, but it was deflected.  Fynn Bunk tried to finish the play but caught a funny bounce and the ball went wild.  A couple minutes later, Ian sent the ball to Ryder who shot.  The ball bounced off the post and Will Sewell tried his luck, but the goalie made a diving save.
 
At halftime, Coach asked for one thing: “The goal for the second half is for Bleyton to be bored.”  This suited Bleyton, and for the most part, he was pretty idle.  We found our rhythm and were able to maintain possession and take shots.  However, even though #9 was called off-sides several times, he was finally able to safely get behind our defensive line and drive the ball to the far post just out of reach of Bleyton’s fingers.
 
During the second half, we played a much better game.  We took many more shots and Bleyton only had to stop seven attempts on goal.
 
This was a tougher squad than the team we played on Wednesday and our boys rose to their skill.  It was a positive sign.  We face off against Brewster at home on Wednesday at 3:30.
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