Kate McNee
Copy Editor ’11
On Friday, Oct. 16, the Staples Boys Soccer team beat Ridgefield 2-0. The team now has a record of 10-1 overall, and 10-0 in the FCIAC.
Although they won, and didn’t let any goals in, the players did not come into the game thinking it would be easy. The game was played at Ridgefield’s Tiger Hollow Stadium, an extremely fan filled and “intimidating” place to play, as Quad-Captain Mike White ‘10 explained it. Friday was Ridgefield’s homecoming game, so even more fans than usual came to see it.
“We knew it was going to be one of the roughest games of the year,” White explained.
As a result, the players came out strong and forceful at the beginning of the game
Matteo Marzoli ’10, played the central midfield position in place of quad-captain Alan Reiter ’10 who was college visiting. Only five minutes into the game Marzoli sent a great ball through to White on the offense. Unfortunately, Ridgefield was able to thwart that play, but two minutes later Marzoli passed the ball to Mike Scott ‘11, who brought it up field and scored the first goal of the game in a break away.
For the rest of the half, Staples midfielders and offenders created many scoring opportunities, but none were executed. Ridgefield defenders stopped the ball more than six times in the first half. In particular, Ridgefield Goalie Sean Ceponis made a great save three minutes before the end of the half.
During the second half, Staples continued to supply offensive pressure, but also strengthened the defense. Staples defenders Steven Denowitz ’11, Quad-Captain Jack Hennessey ‘10, Frank Bergonzi ‘11, Mikey Fitzgerald ‘10 and Sean Gallagher ‘11 tightly marked the Ridgefield offenders, and worked together to keep the ball away from the Staples goal. Ridgefield’s major weapon were their long, diagonal balls that came from the defense, as Staples limited Ridgefield to mostly long distance shots.
Midfielders Scott, Quad-Captain Andrew McNair ‘10, and Jake Krosse ‘11 covered the outside mid line, and dominated the plays there. Brendan Lesch ’11 frequently brought the ball up, and initiated plays many plays on offense.
Just as it looked like as if it would be a 1-0 win for Staples, Krosse ran the ball down the wing, and crossed a ball into the center of the defense. A Ridgefield defender was not able to handle the hard-kicked ball, and knocked it into his own goal, leaving Staples at a 2-0 lead right before the end of the game.
“As a team we thought we played very well,” said White, “everyone played very hard and intense.”
The team’s next game is on Tuesday, October 20, at 4 P.M in Greenwich.