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- Category: Past Issues
Pomfret School
Boys’ varsity soccer
Pomfret 1, St. Mark’s 2
Sept. 22 the boys hosted the cream of the ISL in St. Marks and played a match to end matches. Though the boys came out on the losing end, (2-1), it was one of the most exciting matches I have coached in recent memory—and that goes back a long way. St. Marks was fresh off beating a very good Berkshire team and were feeling confident. Pomfret stepped onto the field and never backed down. Though we were smaller in most cases than our marks, the boys met them stride for stride. We also were missing key players as Danny Palumbo is out for the season with a broken arm and Ted Driscoll is working back from an injury.
The St. Marks team played with a single striker and a withdrawn forward which meant that we had trouble matching up in the back unless we switched and went with a different formation. This put a tremendous amount of pressure of the backs and they came through. Captain Kyle Lasewicz played a great game all over the place and in control with his feet and voice. He came up with several key sticks and started a lot of balls to the outside on swings. Next to him was Max King whom we pushed up and had to play a stopper/halfback position, and he really has a lot of composure in the middle. We rotated him with our other captain, Matt Bourdeau, who only came out for five minutes all day. Positioned then on the outside we started two players who were injured all last year. Ray Zeek—starting a real game for the first time in two years and Remy Hatfield—fully recovered from a broken back. They rotated off the withdrawn forward and really stuck their guys time and time again. They never seemed frazzled and worked very hard making nice passes up to the wing halfs Diego Briones, Dirt Nicholson and Chris Alves. As Ray—boy was it nice to see him out there—and Remy tired, we brought in Brian Lawler who was marking a guy who was literally a foot and half taller than he. The guy was so annoyed with Brian, that he almost got a yellow card for pushing him down. Brian Lawler typifies the attitude of this year—put me in coach, where you want me to play and I will do the job. Brian played marking back, wingback, striker and inside middies today.
Today it was about winning the battles in the middle. Dirt, Matt, Dave St. Lawrence—another player who missed last year and boy it showed today how much we missed him— and Charlie Grunner really manned up well. They played hard and broke up crossing pass after crossing pass. They used Diego, Brian, Dirt, and Chris on the outside to feed the strikers. As the St. Marks coach said, “You guys use speed and toughness to prevent us from getting into a rhythm.” That is what we have to do and the middle guys did that today. We got away from putting the balls to the outside strikers and tried to gap the defenders and work the ball back. There were times when guys like Dave, Tim Haggerty, and Chris Grandi would just put their heads down and go. It was the element of toughness that we missed last year up front. The speed and quickness made the St. Marks players back off and gave the backs room underneath.
As the half rolled on in a back and forth battle, Pomfret seemed to gain an edge. Off a corner Jack floated a ball in which was rebounded out to Charlie who pounded it back in. It came right back to him, and he saw Dave on the edge of the six and hit him with a pass and Dave turned and fired it home. That lifted us, and the boys worked even harder. Charlie is one of five sophomores who had an impact today. Chris Grandi and Tim Haggerty were two others who were playing up front. Both were playing at a different level than last year and were eating it up. They stuck and passed and shot like veterans. Just as the half closed, St. Marks had a long set piece go their way. We need to mark a little better on our defensive set pieces. The long shot in bounced off Kevin Graces’s hands, and they popped it home. We need to follow our marks for such a rebound.
Pomfret took it to St. Marks in the second half. Charlie rang one off the cross bar and other players like Matt, Dave, Tim and Chris had great shots. Chris Alves also had some nice runs down the end line. Even Kyle had a nice shot on net from about 35 yards out of a dead ball.
St. Marks scored with 4:00 minutes left off a dead ball from about 25 yards out.
Marianapolis
Boys’ varsity soccer
Marianapolis struggled Sept. 21 against a much improved St Thomas team in the early minutes but Senior (Captain) Trevor Ouellet’s beautiful header off a Ben Gustavson corner gave the Knights the lead. St Thomas quickly recovered and drew a penalty kick but senior Peter Boguszewski turned it away with a diving save to his right. Junior Samuel Elizondo was fouled in the box shortly thereafter and Gustavson sored the PK. After some minor adjustments at half the chancellors broke through on a broken play in the back but the Golden Knights rebounded when senior Zack Morin lofted a great shot over Chancellor goalie Paul Knudsen to give the knights a solid lead they would not relinquish. Junior Samuel Elizondo and Justin Howland tallied late for the knights and senior back Jason Tata picked up his 1st varsity assist. The Knights improved their record to 3-0 overall and 1-0 in both the SENE and WNEPSSA.