Deerfield Academy Junior A Soccer lost a disappointing match to a strong Westminster team on a brisk Wednesday afternoon. Deerfield began the game with good movement, working the ball from sideline to sideline and up the field. Eric Wang ’21, Jared Faux ’20, and Elliot Flagg ’20 used give and goes to push the ball up, leading to an opening shot by Wang. Deerfield pressured up, earning corner kick after corner kick from Tait Kline ’22 and Adrian Yao ‘20, leading to shots taken in traffic from the box by Wang and Faux. On the counterattack, Westminster looked to use speed to break through the defensive line, but keeper Crawford Rice ’21 and defenders Ben King ’22 and Alex Strait ’20 held Westminster scoreless for the first half. Finally, defender Shane McCarthy ’21 send a long pass from midfield all the way across to Will Schoelkopf ’21, who sent a shot low and away to put Deerfield up 1 – 0. After some back and forth play, Westminster found themselves moving carefully down the right sideline, ultimately sending a ball bouncing off DA and into the goal to tie the game 1 – 1 at the half. After play resumed, Deerfield pushed back with energy. Sam Lauer ’20 found an opportunity in the right corner, sending it to Schoelkopf at the top of the box. Will dumped it off to Nate Zucker ’22 for a strike, but the ball went wide right. Arthur Yao ’20 continued to play with good touch and movement from the back line, making his presence felt both on defense and offense. As the game became more physical, Westminster demonstrated good touch, sending the ball past several waves of DA defenders for a final shot to make the game 2 – 1 despite strong effort from the DA squad.