Great Match-up on Family Weekend

On Friday, after scrambling from class, into gear, and onto the field, we faced off against Holderness School during our Family Weekend.  The day was a bit more overcast than others, but the temperature was again pleasant at 66.

 

This game was played like a tennis match: back and forth, back and forth.  In this match, the whole field was utilized and both goalkeepers put forth their A-game.  Although our defensive lines of Sebastian Keen, Jacob Hebbel, Aiden Bean, Michael Jung, Eric Chung, and Cho Man Bian did an incredible job keeping the ball away from keeper Bleyton Hobbs-Thompson; however, Holderness has some fast forwards and skillful midfielders, so they were able to take many shots on net.

 

Four minutes into the match Ian Surgenor drew a foul just outside of the box.  He cunningly took advantage of the early confusion of setting up a defensive wall, by immediately shooting on goal.  The Holderness keeper reacted quickly and was just able to redirect the ball from the net, but Ryder Perry had anticipated Ian’s attack and followed up the deflection with a finesse shot into the back corner.  To say the coaches were proud would be an understatement! 

 

Nine minutes later we made a mental error on a throw-in on our end.  This time Holderness took advantage and skillfully moved past our defensive line and shot point blank on Bleyton.  The score was tied at 1-1.

 

Up front, we saw many attacks from Ian, Will Sewell, Alvaro Olivo, and Daniel Pimentel.  But we were not able to put any more goals in during the first half.  Holderness proved to be a bit more aggressive in getting to the ball, so we knew that we needed to set up our efforts in the second half if we were to gain any more goals.

 

At the second half, we saw more from our midfielders: Devon LeBlanc, Matthew Fussteig, Adi Lesbek, Mikey Winham, Angus Spence, Simon Nowlan, and Finn Bunk.  They moved more aggressively for the ball and set up many opportunities.  Shots were taken by Devon and Simon, but many more attempts to assist goals occurred.

 

At the twenty-sixth minute, Ian (yet again!) drew the foul inside the box and earned the PK.  He sent a hard shot in to put us ahead.  Then, again nine minutes later, Holderness earned a Direct Kick just outside of the box.  The shot went up and into the top corner – out of Bleyton’s reach.  Holderness had tied it up for the second time that day.

 

We pushed hard for the remaining fifteen minutes.  Even with seconds left, we did not give up.  The last play of the game saw Alvaro sending a sweet shot across the middle.  The keeper stretched out full and with his fingertips, was able just barely redirect the ball outside of his net.

 

All-in-all, it was a great match-up.  It’s unfortunate that this is the only time we play against Holderness this year.

 

This Wednesday, we travel down to Northfield Mount Herman for a match at 3:00.