4-4-4

The Wildcats won their third game in a row in an exciting Family Weekend match up against Tilton School. The team started strong, with a series of good short passes along the right side, and Liam McKewan, Ben Weise and Kyle Young each had at least one spectacular clear where they headed the ball away from the KUA goal. Trong Phan controlled the ball well in the middle, sending one perfect pass to Jack Lavallee who fired a shot that the Tilton keeper just got his hands on, and Nick Wilder and Cody Nguyen were both very effective at clearing the ball through the midfield. Jon Li put KUA on the board with a strong shot that caromed off the left post across the net and in. Jack created another strong scoring opportunity that the Tilton keeper just deflected, Ollie Cozzi made a series of great passes, Tryder Kulbacki launched a spectacular ball toward the Tilton net, only to have a KUA forward called offsides, Kien Tran made two fierce plays along the left sideline, and then Jon Li scored again off a scramble in front of the Tilton net.
A moderate wind had been blowing in KUA’s favor through the first half, but it became blustery as the second started, and the Wildcats were forced to fight their way into it. David Choung and Yohan Do worked hard to create scoring chances, and Will Haynes was a rock in the midfield, consistently playing the ball up to the strikers. Mid-way through the half a KUA defender was called for a foul in the box and Tilton scored on their ensuing penalty kick. Both teams redoubled their efforts, but then with only a few minutes remaining, Tilton was awarded a second penalty kick. There were a variety of ways the boys might have reacted to what seemed like extraordinarily bad karma, but keeper Max van Dijk followed the most constructive approach. He simply took a deep breath and then made the save, catching the shot and keeping the ball in play. Each team had good chances in the closing minutes, with KUA bouncing the ball off the left post as play ended, but the game ended with a hard fought 2 – 1 win.
The boys have a well-deserved break now but still have five games remaining the in the season. Next up is a game at Cardigan Mountain School on Saturday the 27th.
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