After carrying the run of play throughout the first half, the visiting Pelican squad believed that they could sustain a one goal lead going into the half, a finely finished goal served from Abraham to Casanovas for the finish, and potentially even capitalizing upon one or two more of our many chances on the day. Time after time, though, our solid efforts to get the ball forward, attributed to well orchestrated shape in the back by Wasserman and tenacious battling in the midfield by Reese, Chen, and Sailor, resulted in the visitors wanting more as the second goal was not to come. To their credit, the Wild Boars of Choate commanded a great deal of respect as their back four continued to cut out through balls and launch them forward, one such ball found its way to a speedy left winger who gained the corner and slotted a well struck ball to the far post from an angle. LC continued to press to win the game and believed we had as Junior winger, Matt Gomes lifted a shot to the back post from the right flank which all thought would drop in on the back post side netting, however, the outstretched fingertips of the Choate goalkeeper upset the flight of the ball and it grazed the crossbar, bounce back across the goal off of the far post, and was cleared away. Again, the long ball clearance found it’s way to the same speedy winger not five minutes after his first tally and he carried the ball to the box, cut back, and drew blood with a dagger to the near post with but twenty minutes left.

The boys in white continued to believe that there would be an equalizer as we were constantly in behind their defense and in one such foray, a Boar defender handled the ball in the box giving a solid opportunity for the tie with under five minutes left in the game. Again, the host goalkeeper saved Choatie’s day with a solid stop to rebuff the opportunity. A two to one loss does sting heavily on this day, as the Pelicans were the better team and had created so many more chances that would have, could have, should have, elevated the team to a more positive result, a growing necessity as we continue forward. Our final opportunity to produce a result befitting of our talent and effort will come in the unforgiving hills of the Kent School on Saturday; we would appreciate all of the support we can muster.