Martlets Hold Off Pelicans

On an overcast Wednesday afternoon is Simsbury, CT, the Martlets faced off against a tough Loomis opponent. Westminster came out hot and jumped out to a 4 - 1 lead in the first quarter with strong dodging, feeding, and off-ball cutting and tallied four assisted goals. Drew Poling '13 buried home the first score off a great feed from Ryan Seymour '14 (1g, 2a).  Gavin Durham '13 (2g) found the back of the net twice on dishes from Drew Simeon '15 and Seymour. Keegan Giordano '15 notched the fourth score off a good look from Charlie Niles '14 (1g, 1a). Niles got the scoring going again in the second quarter on a nice feed from Eli Zempsky '15. Seymour found the back of the net late in the second with a nice shot upper corner off a feed from Sam Pope '12 (2g, 1a). Sam Pope connected with brother Austin Pope '15 to add the last tally in the second quarter. Loomis came out strong in the third quarter and responded to a four-goal deficit added two in the third quarter. They added two more in the fourth, but the finish from Sam Pope in the fourth assisted by Lorin Tobey '15 proved to be the game winner despite a relentless effort and strong finish from the Loomis Pelicans.  Patrick Holowesko '12 anchored the Martlet defense with a strong performance in the net making big saves, and clearing the ball well down field. Austin Pope, Riley Bitterli '14 and Cullen Matt '13 did an excellent job staying on the opponents hands and executing well-timed double-teams. Simeon earned the game ball for his great play all over the field coming up with ground balls, playing solid on-ball defense, and pushing the ball in transition to create opportunities. It was a great effort from both teams, and in the end, Westminster was able to outlast the Loomis surge 8 -7 for the win. The Martlets play again down in Greenwich on Saturday, May 4 versus Brunswick.