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Acton-Boxborough 0-2 Lincoln-Sudbury
42'
70'
Lineup: Smith, C. Li, Bloomstone, D. Meagher, Cadogan, Davis, Rentschler, Lush, Karkantis, Conwill, Kollm
Subs used: T. Meagher, Tripathi, Goldman, Kashin, Paolino
The best lessons are always learned the hard way. The memories of Acton-Boxborough's best performance of the season quickly disappeared in their encounter with Lincon-Sudbury. The passionate play that had been so evident for the Colonials in recent games gave way to tentativeness and uncertainty. The Warriors were afforded way too much room in the first half and were able to establish a rhythm to their play that they never relinquished. In spite of their subpar performance, AB limited LS to very few chances in the first half while creating a few good ones of their own. The best chance of the half fell to Andy Rentschler in the 13th minute. Niko Karkantis gained possession in the defensive half, cut inside and released Rentschler down the left flank. Rentschler volleyed the bouncing ball with his first touch narrowly missing wide. Neel Tripathi saw some solid minutes in the Colonial midfield and almost put his team ahead in the 26th
minute. His toe poke in traffic could not be the Lincoln-Sudbury goalkeeper, though.
Neither team asserted themselves in the opening period. With the game there for the taking it was the Warriors who took the lead. Lincoln-Sudbury had the kickoff and buried themselves by playing the ball to the left back. AB moved in to pressure the ball but, as was the case all afternoon, they could not get close enough to put any pressure on the ball. Three easy passes and LS was out of the pressure. Acton-Boxborough gained possession in the midfield third but promptly gave the ball away for an LS throw in on the left side. The AB back was too easily turned and beaten by the throw in. LS crossed to the near post for a streaking forward who was not marked tightly enough who tucked the ball into the near post for the 1-0 lead only two minutes into the second half.
It took a few minutes for the Colonials to regroup. Rentschler lead the team forward in search of an equalizer. Acton-Boxborough heaped the pressure on Lincoln-Sudbury for the next 15 minutes. There were several times that the ball was bouncing around in front of the LS goal but none of the AB players were able to pounce on the loose balls. The Colonials seemed to try too hard to make the perfect play and generally rushed every chance that they had. They took shots off balance, played one touch when they did not have to or made the difficult choice instead of the simple one. The best chance for an equalizer came with 10 minutes left to play. Oliver Davis swung a corner in from the right side into the box where it was met firmly by Karkantis. His header towards the right post was parried away with the fingertips of the Warriors goalkeeper. LS cleared the ball out, made three passes and had an opening on the right side inside the
AB penalty box. The ensuing shot effectively put the game out of reach as it managed to find the back of the net. This sequence plays itself out in many games. The team that is down misses a great chance and the team that is ahead marches right down the field to put the game away. The emotion of almost scoring triggers a loss of focus that gets exploited by good teams.
Next match: at Newton South
Wednesday October 1
4:00 Kickoff | |
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