Finally a Victory at Home
On Wednesday, we faced off against Holderness for the second time this season. We first met during their Family Weekend and played a 0-0 tie on their turf. The boys and coaches were optimistic since we had played our best games this year on turf. The weather was a chilly 38 degrees with a steady wind out of the west.
Within one minute of play, Aiden Bean set the tone and blasted a long shot from about a quarter into the Bulls’ defensive zone. The keeper was there to save it, but he set the example for the rest of the team. Two minutes later, Lucas followed suit and a minute after that, Michael Jung got in close and blasted a shot. We were determined to stay on the offensive.
Ten minutes in, we saw Eric Chung send a pass up to Matt Fussteig, who shot and kept the keeper busy. We were democratic in our attempts and kept the pressure on. Mikey Winham tried his skills two minutes later but sent the ball a tad wide. Again, Aiden took a nice shot that Marek Girard followed up by crashing the net, but although we were closing in, the Holderness goalie kept us from scoring.
Meanwhile, on our end, Henry Steffen – although not that busy – did show off his skills in the net by making some nice saves. The skills of Sebastian Keen, Ryan McPhee, Cho Man Bian, and Theo Korhonen helped keep Henry idle. Meanwhile, we tried Bryson Tucker up front with John Guillemot, and he proved quite versatile.
Twenty-six minutes in, Harry Hutton had four opportunities to assist a goal.
Three of them were corner kicks, and he got closer to scoring each time. Lucas Mandel, again, sent in two grass burners, and James Lee tracked down one deflection and used his left foot to shoot, but again, the keeper was there to retrieve the ball.
Finally, with eight minutes left in the half, Carter Freund sent a ball curving in from the right corner and deflected it off a defender into the goal, and we were up by one.
One of the hardest things we have faced this year is maintaining any lead, especially in the minutes following halftime. If the crowd was looking for us to give up our lead again, they were not disappointed. One minute into the second half, we were too lax about setting up for a Holderness throw-in at half-field. The Bulls took advantage, threw it past our defensive line and ran unopposed down to the goal for a one-on-one with Henry. They got so close that Henry didn’t have a chance. We lost our lead, and all was tied up.
The game was back and forth for the next twenty-three minutes. Then Yiyi She took a long shot, and Marek, again, crashed the net. The approaching Marek distracted the goalie enough that Marek’s shot bounced out of his hands and went in. We were back on top!
In the last minutes of the game, Marek took a beautiful shot directed at the top corner, and it was only through a fantastic dive that the keeper was able to deflect it out of bounds. All in all, it was a fun game to watch.
Today, we travel to New Hampton to play our last game of the year.
