Martlets Fall to Rumsey

We were fortunate to get the opportunity to play soccer on a beautiful fall day on pristine Wilbraham Field in front of a relatively large crowd of supportive fans. We were unfortunate in that our opponent was highly competitive and technically superior to us in many ways. To our credit, we focused on executing a defensive-oriented game plan and kept Rumsey off the board for the first 12 minutes of the game. Then the flood gates opened. Scoring mostly from the wing on effective give-and-go plays and well-struck corners, Rumsey built a 4-0 lead by halftime. No doubt disheartened by the score disparity, we experienced a lull in focus and intensity early in the second half and soon found ourselves down 7-0, although all credit is due to the Rumsey players, who scored several high-level goals. We rallied in the game’s final 15 minutes and played much more competitively, with Jack Fichthorn ‘26 tallying our lone goal on a nice cross from Brody DiBeneditto ‘26. Tom Blouin ‘26 played very well in the second half and created a lot of offensive pressure and had a couple of near-misses. Cole Hadden ‘26 was very effective at center midfield, while Ty Lambert ‘26 had his best all-around game of the year. Evan Francis ‘26 and Liam Murray ‘26 showed a lot of grit and competitiveness in the back wall, and Carter Styspeck ‘26 and Teddy Russell ‘26 ran all over the field as usual. We’ll lick our wounds, regroup, and turn our attention to the season-ending home game against Suffield in 10 days, which promises to be a much more evenly matched contest.