On Wednesday, the BVS team faced Holderness school for their most important game of the season yet. In order to keep their playoffs hopes alive, the boys needed to come out with the victory. The beginning of the game belonged to Holderness, who took control from early on. The importance of the game overwhelmed the hosts, as they had trouble controlling the ball and exchange accurate passes. After 10 minutes of the game, once the nerves calmed down, Winchendon slowly started playing their game, spending more time with possession on Holderness’ half, and taking over the control of the game. As a result, Winch got on the board first. Noah Beaupre ’20 sneaked behind the line of defenders, where he was found with a through ball from the middle of the field, and with a good first touch he delivered a low pass across the box to Javier Morejon ’20, who placed the ball in the back of the net for his remarkable 24th goal of the season, putting Winch up 1:0. The boys kept pressure on the opposing team and created a few more chances but were unable to convert. In the last 10 minutes of the first half, the crowd gathered at the field, saw Holderness pushing the play to Winchendon’s half. Most of their opportunities came from long throw ins and corner kicks but the Winch defense prevailed, holding on to the 1:0 lead at the half.
The second half started with Winchendon dropping back and protecting the lead. Just like towards the end of the first half Holderness couldn’t get through an organized and team defense from the home team but were dangerous from long throw ins and set pieces. Winchendon, meanwhile, was awaiting breakaway opportunities to extend the lead. As the time was passing by and emotions were raising, Winchendon took a blow as two of their starters had to come out from the game with injuries. That didn’t demoralized the home team as substitutes, in form of Mostafa El- Bendary ’22 and Logan LeBlanc ’21, connected on Winchendon’s second goal of the day. Great hustle by Mostafa allowed him to block a clearance by one of Holderness defenders and, with a good bounce the ball, found Logan one on one with the keeper. His initial shot, from 20 yards out hit the post, but the rebound ended in the net putting Winch up 2:0 with 9 minutes left in the game. About 5 minutes later, Holderness was able to cut the lead when they took advantage of one of a very few defensive miscues from Winchendon. Three minutes into extra time, when everyone was waiting for the final whistle, Holderness broke through again, equalizing the game at 2:2. A long throw in from the left side finally worked for the opposition, who were able to connect and score with the head shot. Soon after, the game ended leaving Winchendon players and the crowd stunned.
It was a heartbreaking tie for the boys who took this as a loss. Their tremendous effort and sacrifice were not rewarded today, but they should be proud of the game they played, and despite a few hiccups, the season that they’ve had. The playoff dream likely goes away, but this team should be an example of how important teamwork, friendship, and good chemistry is in building a team.
The boys will close out the season with their last home game on Saturday when they will scrimmage Putnam Science at 1:00.
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