Under gray skies and the constant threat of rain, Deerfield journeyed south for a midweek contest at Wilbraham and Monson Academy. From the first whistle the Big Green enjoyed the lion’s share of the possession, and repeatedly threatened to break through the opposition’s back line. At the 35-minute mark, center-back Isaac Abbott ’22 took a quick restart, delivering the ball forward and wide down the left to midfielder Derek Zhang ’22. Collecting the ball at full stride, Zhang crossed the ball to the far post, where center-forward Skye Bacon ’20 rose to head on goal. The Wilbraham goalkeeper made the save, but in the process batted the ball back to Bacon, who headed again – this time finding the back of the net. Bacon doubled the score in the final minute of the half, chipping the ‘keeper from 20 yards on a breakaway at the end of a build-up which began with goalkeeper Ben Diffley ’20 and continued via center-back Billy Curtis’ 21 and midfielder Nyle Kamil ’22. DA thoroughly dominated in the second half, and the team generated numerous scoring opportunities off of the counter-attack. Captains Luca Antongiovanni ’20 and Zach Davis ’20 roved freely down the flanks, playing numerous balls into the box. The opposing ‘keeper made a number of fine stops, but was again beaten in the final minutes of the half: off of a corner kick, Davis beat his mark near the left-side endline and crossed low and hard. Zhang collected the ball and played it on to center-forward Jimmy Goranov ’20, who drove the ball hard into the back netting. It was a jovial and buoyant DA team that returned to campus with the victory in hand and a second consecutive clean sheet for ‘keeper Diffley.
Deerfield now looks ahead to what should be a challenging home match against a much-improved team from the Williston Northampton School.