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- Category: Past Issues
Score!
The NECONN boys' U14 team scores the typing goal versus Vernon. Jenn McGroary photo.
The NECONN Boys’ U14 Soccer Team traveled to Vernon Sept. 25 for their fourth game of the season. In a game that saw Vernon take two-goal leads twice in the game, NECONN felt fortunate to come away with a 3-3 tie despite controlling much of the play all afternoon.
Vernon would start the scoring off at the nine minute mark on a breakaway that saw the NECONN defense step up too soon and let a Vernon attacker in alone on keeper Chris Walker. NECONN would battle back with offensive runs by Marco Suriano, Travis Hayward, Ethan Rogers and Sam Paul, but another NECONN defensive lapse left a Vernon player alone in the goal area, resulting in the second Vernon goal. Just before the end of the first half, though, NECONN attacker Jack Liggett, outhustled the Vernon defense and chipped a bouncing ball just over the Vernon goalie’s head into the back of the net, cutting the deficit in half.
Going into the second half, NECONN midfielders David Redfield, Evan O’Connor, Sean McGroary and Elijah Dufour started off strong by pinning down Vernon in their defensive end, but one transition mistake led to Vernon’s third goal when they scored on a nice crossing pass. With plenty of time left in the game, the NECONN defense of Zach Gagnon, Alec Nystrom, William Liscomb and goalie Chris Walker really tightened things up. It was Liscomb on a nice overlapping run that got NECONN’s second goal off a Jonathan Hummer pass. With less than ten minutes left to play, NECONN stopper Robert Totten took a mammoth throw-in deep in the Vernon end of the field and found Max Paro open in front of the net. Max quickly trapped, turned and fired a top corner shot past the Vernon keeper to knot the score at three.
The final minutes saw some good NECONN chances by Paul and Totten, but the clock ran out before the team could notch the winner. The tie now puts the team’s record at 2-1-1. They next play at home Oct. 2 vs. Hebron at 2 p.m. on the Pomfret School campus.