In its first road game of the season, the Deerfield Boys Thirds Soccer team made the long trip up to Canaan, New Hampshire, to face off against Cardigan Mountain School’s perennially strong varsity squad. Deerfield had managed to score only one goal on Cardigan in at least the last six years, and the team’s 2019 loss was a frequent topic of conversation at practice this week. The Cougars were as quick and skilled as advertised, but from the first whistle Deerfield showed itself up to the challenge. After 24 minutes of gritty struggle, DA took the lead with a brilliant break-through shot by forward James Kurto ’25. Deerfield let some undisciplined defense give Cardigan the penalty kick opportunity they used to tie the game before the half. But three minutes into the second half, DA got a penalty kick chance of its own, and midfielder Cai Harrison—fresh off his victory in this week’s PK contest—capitalized on it. Cardigan would come back to tie it late in the game, but nonstop heroism from keeper (and captain) Jack Chorske ’22, under pressure for most of the 80 minutes, kept the team undefeated. Every Deerfield played made meaningful contributions to this moral victory. Their coach will particularly remember Harrison’s willingness to jump into the challenging outside back position he’d never played before, Caleb McDaniel ’24 bouncing back from a tough collision to play hard through the end of the game, and how Walter Burkley ’24, Winston Cho ’24, and Kiefer Ebling ’25 seemingly never stopped running. In the week ahead, the schedule does not get any easier with a road trip to NMH on Wednesday, but the team is excited to keep finding out what it is capable of.