"It Ain't Over Til It's Over" Yogi Berra
What a day for soccer! The temperature was 70, and the sky was overcast. It was the quintessential fall afternoon. After the short drive, our boys were in positive spirits and ready to face off against Cardigan for the second time this year. Although we learned at the last minute that Aiden Bean would not be with us, we did have Harry Hutton and Lucas Mandel, two players who were on the DL during our last match.
In our last match, we played very well in the first half, ending with a 1-1 tie at the half; then fell apart in the second and lost 2-5. Our plan was to maintain our drive for the full eighty minutes.
A minute and a half into the match, on their first drive up the field, #7 sent the ball to the far post, and the Cougars were on the board. This was not an auspicious beginning. However, a minute, later Adi Lesbek sent a nice corner kick into Devon LeBlanc, who headed it into the keeper’s arms. CMS followed up with two more drives: one went high, and the other Henry Steffen deftly saved. Then we had two more drives: Matt Fussteig passed the ball up to Adi, and his shot was saved. John Guillemot took a shot off a pass from James Lee.
Eleven minutes in, we saw #10 down on the end line in a one-on-one with Henry. Suddenly, we were down by two. In some of our past games, this sounded our death knell, and we would have been in for a long, dismal match. However, this time we did not deflate. Two minutes later, John took a corner kick that deflected off the far post, and James was there to finesse it into the net to cut our deficit by one. Then, four minutes later, James received a pass, in from Adi and again put it into the net. We were all tied up.
Not only were we seeing great places from our offensive lines, but Yiyi She, Lucas Mandel, Theo Korhonen, and Michael Jung did a fantastic job shutting down the advances. Eric Chung, Ryan McPhee, and Sebastian Keen had stellar plays, and Cho Man Bian did a great job on his first attempt as a midfielder. Jordan Garfat displayed his incredible speed several times on a few of our “dump and run” attempts.
These goals gave us a much-needed boost of adrenaline. Devon dogged #10 and forced him to shoot wide or pass off to others. While Henry displayed some great saves, we saw Bryson Tucker spin around after getting the ball from Solomon Holton and make the goalkeeper work to save it. Carter Freund had a shot and so did Mikey Winham off a pass from Marek Girard. Both were saved.
With fewer than two minutes left, Henry made an amazing diving save to keep the score the same. But, in the final seconds, Harry took a corner kick that created a picture-perfect heading opportunity for Devon…and we were up by one! To say we were excited at halftime would be an understatement.
Cardigan came off the bench fired up. In the first three minutes of the second half, #10 had two more close shots that Henry saved. Then, with three minutes retired, #10 was on a one-on-one with Henry again. This time, Henry was able to dive and deflect the ball, but #10 was there to send it in for Cardigan’s third goal.
As the game continued, here are my notes:
Minutes left
34 - #10 in close, shot -deflected
31 – Devon injured and out for the game – Lucas dogs #10
29 - #10 shot – save
27 #10 shot – high outside
25 – CMS earns Penalty kick – #10 shot - miss
23 - #10 shot top of box – high
22 – Mikey blasts a satellite from beyond midfield and just misses the top corner!
21 – Harry direct kick from near the midfield – just wide of the net
20 – Matt throws to Harry in the middle of the field – shot – wide
14 – CMS shot – Henry dives – save
13 – Corner Kick to #10 at far post– they score. CMS up by one
8 – Henry made a great save on a cross
7 – Solomon sends a pass, up to Michael Jung. He shoots and ties up the game!
-5 - #10 shot wide.
-5 - #10 shot – save.
-4 - #10 shot from outside – score – CMS up by one.
In the last minutes, the game was intense. We crashed the net and continued our shots and drives, but when the final whistle was blown, Cardigan had five goals, and we had four. Yet, despite the loss, our boys were feeling good about how they’d played and had more confidence in each other than we have seen in a while. It was a fun match to watch.
This Wednesday, we face off against New Hampton School for the first time. The game will start at 2:30 and will be at home.
