Knights pg 9 11-10-11
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- Category: Past Issues
Varsity Soccer
Marianapolis 4 Hamden 1
Marianapolis won the day over Hamden Hall with a 4-1 victory but lost its star goalkeeper with 30 seconds left in the match. Senior Jose Rodriguez suffered a serious contusion of the upper femur when a Hamden hall player slid into him desperately trying to score late in the game. The incident happened just before the snows fell in Thompson canceling the girls’ game v. Cheshire Academy. The game started off with Hamden Hall scoring an own goal after a scramble in front of their net. Alex Eun followed the miscue up with a beautiful strike 30 minutes into the half. Hamden Hall rallied to pull within 1 goal but less than 3 minutes later Nick Borowski blasted a left footed shot past the Hamden Hall keeper and the victory was secured. Junior Sam Elizondo finished off the scoring with a late goal. The Knights improved their record to 6-2-1 in WNEPSSA.
Marianapolis 3 Rocky Hill 1
The Golden Knights Improved to 5-1-1 in the SENE knocking off 2nd place Rocky Hill 3-1 on a mud soaked field # 1. The Mariners very skilled attack was limited by a stellar performance by the Marianapolis defense as well as a field that saw many players lose their footing during the match. Senior middy Kyle Higginbottom opened the scoring as a Rocky Hill defender slipped and he rolled a left footed shot into the corner of the net. Junior middy Nick Borowski followed suit with a well-placed right footed shot just 10 minutes later. Junior Alex Eun scored after the Mariners pulled to within one goal, as the Knights never looked back. Neither team scored a goal in the second half although Marianapolis had 3 or 4 breakaways as Rocky Hill came forward in desperation as the game wound down. Jose Rodriguez played magnificently in goal and the rest of the players simply out hustled and outfought Rocky Hill.
Marianapolis 6 Falmouth 0
The boys from Thompson won their fourth straight and improved to 4-1-1 in the SENE winning 6-nil on the Cape of Cod versus Falmouth Academy. The starting lineup opened the game with a brilliant display of passing for the first 15 minutes followed by an explosion of four goals 2 of which were own goals by the Mariners. The scoring opened with Junior Nick Borowshi slamming home a left footed shot into the far corner. Then a lovely high cross from Senior Rafal Lachcik found the back of the net headed in by a Falmouth defender. Junior Sam Elizondo made a mad dash down the end line and hit a swerving shot past the Falmouth keeper for the third goal. The first half scoring ended with Lachcik blasting a shot that ricocheted off yet another Mariner defender. The second string played the remainder of the half. The second half opened with Junior Eric Bordua’s strategically placed shot from 22 out finding the back of the old onion bag, while Junior Alex Eun continued his torrid scoring streak with a breakaway goal with 30 minutes left. The substitutes again saw significant playing time for the remainder of the half. Senior keeper Jose Rodriguez recorded his fifth shutout of the season as the defense played particularly well. Senior Goalie Matt Baronowski kept the slate clean for the second half.
Pomfret School 3 Tabor 1
Nov. 3: The team had not had a full field practice or scrimmage lately yet Pomfret played well enough to win but really did not have its “A” game going. Tim Haggerty was out due to illness and Lucas Gillespie played gamely but is still not 100%. The turf field at Tabor was impressive and after the team changed and admired Ms. Keough’s team pictures in the hallway outside our locker room, they warmed up. The turf is a little longer than ours and the ball runs a little more when kicked. It took the defense some time to get used to it.AJ played well in the net and came off his line quickly as Tabor went long ball with one up top. John Cunningham marked the striker as he and Max King doubled him most of the afternoon. Each backed the other up. John also almost scored off a corner kick but lost the ball is the sun at the last minute. Max had two great blocked shots on the day. Jack Nicholson and Tom Trogele pushed the ball up on the outside and Jack even got in for some nice headers off corner kicks and hit some nice diagonal serves. Pomfret did get on the board quickly as Chris Grandi stepped up and delivered a strike in the lower corner about four minutes into the game. It was nice to see the confidence with which Chris hit the ball. This was a nice combination play from Charlie Gruner and Drew Cobin to spring Chris. Tabor was running the off side trap and caught Pomfret seven times. Pomfret needed to work the outside more. Charlie and Harrison Chase delivered those balls to Diego Briones—who had a couple of nice runs early as he tried to go end line—and Lucas who also came up with some nice moves to the outside and put up some threatening balls to the middle from the outside. As those two got winded chasing the Tabor backs up and down the field, we brought in Shandy Chen and Remy Hatfield. Each of them had some nice plays—but more than that they made some excellent defensive stops. Chris Alves came in on the outside half and then we moved him up to striker with JJ Lee. That combination scored two goals today as Chris threaded a nice thru ball to JJ on the breakaway. He timed his run perfectly and beat the trap and placed the ball lower corner as Tabor players were draped all over him. That was with 15 minutes left in the half.
That gave Pomfret the lead at the half, but still we could not relax as the physical style of play and the long ball tactics wore on Pomfret. The Tabor players were adept at checking back with the ball and Pomfret was getting a little gaped. Tabor had some trouble finishing (shots were almost the same) or it could have been a much closer game. Drew Cobin was having a really nice game today as his bigger body helped in the middle with the physical play and maintained control. Harrison Chase also stepped up big time in the second half. His physical game was much much better in the second as he went shoulder to shoulder and won a number of 1v1 matches ups. Charlie too was great in the air today. He is a cagey player and that helps judge the balls in the air and challenge. With a little more than ten minutes left, it was Drew again feeding Alves on the outside wing half—making a great offensive run—who got the shot on net that was deflected by the keeper and right to JJ who was the Johnny on the spot putting home the rebound. The Tabor keeper—Ian Horne—was tremendous today making two point blank saves—one of them against Drew—to deny Pomfret. It was a good win by a team that is playing every game like it is a play-off game—because it is. Beating Class A Tabor on its own field and in the physical style that they play with the team being a little rusty was a good team effort.
Pomfret 5 Cheshire 1
Nov. 5: The team was not really ready to go and underestimated the skill and intensity of the Cheshire team. They came in like gangbusters and played shot for shot with Pomfret while the boys figured things out. The play for the first half was a save by AJ Bourdon as he came out on a breakaway and stopped it with a point-blank range stop. It was his save of the year. He had another equally spectacular one a little while later. It lifted the team and only a few moments later Charlie Gruner and Jack Nicholson scored off a dead ball play. Jack touched the indirect ball to Charlie who threaded the needle of the wall and put the ball into the lower left corner. It was the first of two that Charlie scored before he hurt his back in the second half and had to leave the game with spasms.
The defense struggled a little bit as Cheshire had two fast forwards up top that hauled down the long ball. Max King and John Cunningham had trouble with Zerpa Nestor three-time WNEPSSA-All star who they finally wrangled in the second half even then he scored a goal to break the shutout minute streak they had put together. Tom Trogele was playing well but also had to leave due to injury and Remy Hatfield stepped in at the back spot. Chris Alves played a flawless game with John Cunningham. It was the final of four positions that Chris played. Jack stepped up and added a great goal in the second half where he teamed up with Diego Briones on a give and go outside run. Diego dished the ball and went to the outside corner, pulling the defender and then Jack cut inside across the top of the 18 and then smacked the ball back across the grain into the lower right corner for his second goal of the season. Both Will Dana and Jon Pate earned their first starts of the year. Will starting up top had some nice runs and in the second half had a great lefty shot. Jon Pate really played some solid defense at the wing back spot. As the second half started, Diego figured in a goal that started the early part of the second half as we shuffled things around to compensate for Charlie. We dropped both Drew Cobin and Lucas Gillespie back to play the middle spot, and also used Harrison Chase up from his normal spot. All really contributed as Pomfret moved the ball well in the second half. The wake-up call early in the second half was the goal by Cheshire as Pomfret failed to clear and they scored on a rebound. Then Pomfret marched right back as Diego slipped a ball to Tim Haggerty at the corner of the 18 who turned and fired and went bar down. It was a striker’s shot from a tough angle. This gave Pomfret life and a 3-1 edge. Lucas fully recovered from his illness was moving in and out and distributing well and had some shots of his own. Harrison was dominant in the air. Jack then scored his goal from the outside to make 4-1. Mark Kozlowski came in and played some of his best ball of the year with two classic runs to the outside and just seemed to thrive off the fan support. Shandy Chen also got in on the action as he came across from his middle spot and delivered some nice thru balls. JJ fed Tim Haggerty for his second goal of the game with a nice thru ball feed which Tim flagged upper right. It was the final tally of the game.