Martlets Fall to W and M

As we end our season with three games on the road, this is the second of those three. A little confusion on the part of the bus driver (I realized as we were heading north from Springfield he had passed all the exit options for Wilbraham & Monson Academy) as he thought we were going to Williston (not Wilbraham)...the detour was not the cause of the results; WMA is a strong junior varsity team with many juniors on their roster; they are skilled and talented. We were missing a good portion of our usual roster due to outside commitments and family obligations; the Quad Squad (4ths boys’ soccer) did not have a game today and we were able to bring eight Third Formers with us (thank you, boys!). 

The game quickly tilted in the Titans’ favor, even though we had the wind at our back. They scored in both the 3rd and 5th minutes to take an early, and insurmountable, lead. In the 15th minute our goalie and one of our defenders collided while going after the ball which allowed an easy goal for WMA. A nice cross from the right wing to the left post scored allowed another goal and a penalty kick score left us in a deep hole (0-5) at half-time.

Sonny Darnowski ‘28 stepped into goal for the second half and provided a needed jolt to the team's energy! We shifted to a 4-4-2 scheme for the second half and our continuing offsides trap worked well as we caught the Titans offsides 10 times in the game. Third Formers Archie Downing ‘29 and Dylan Park ‘29 both played strongly in the central midfield position. The Titans added two more goals in the second half: At the 15’ mark a missed offsides resulted in a breakaway goal and three minutes later they scored their final on a pretty lofted shot from the left into the right upper corner of our goal. 

Our GRIT & Grace player was Sonny Darnowski ‘28 for unselfishly stepping into goal, providing an emotional jolt to the team, and making numerous saves in the second half. We travel to Kent School on Wednesday for our last game of the season.