With the foliage on the Pocumtuck Ridge ablaze in color, Deerfield tallied its seventh win of the season against the Williston Northampton School’s JV B squad on Wednesday afternoon. Beginning the game in a light rain, both teams struggled with their touch and turned the ball over frequently for the first 27 minutes. But Deerfield kept the pressure up and kept pressing on Williston’s goal. Holding midfielder Finn Knight ’25 pressed up inside the 18’ and skied the ball off a defender thirty feet into the air. When it came down, attacking midfielder James Kurto ’25—whose ability to cover ground defies the laws of physics—was right there to send it in. Three minutes later Kurto got himself in position to finish another play, this one beginning with a beautiful outside bullet from fullback Preyas Sinha ’24 which slipped out of the keeper’s grasp. Spirits and confidence were high coming out of Deerfield’s halftime huddle, but Williston’s well-coached team redoubled their efforts and repeatedly gave themselves lots of chances early in the second half. They got on the board first after their forward’s collision with Deerfield’s keeper that did not result in a penalty but did cause Deerfield’s backs to stop play, allowing Williston to tap in a shot. After an injury timeout, Williston brought it right back down the field and slipped in another shot, stunning Deerfield with fifteen minutes left to play. But this team has proven itself mentally strong when losing leads and falling behind, and they turned the momentum around and started to force Williston to play on their own half. The winning goal began with Kurto’s brilliant cross from the right side which found left wing Bryan Gianvecchio ’26, who lasered it into the goal. The whole roster played well today and saw the increasingly heads-up decision-making and clean execution from forward Tommy Govi ’26 and defensive backs Theo Deinard ’22 and John Patton ’22. And the whole team rallied around goalie Leo Ma ’25 at the end to celebrate his difference-making play. With Choate Day appearing on the horizon, the team faces a big test this weekend when they head to Andover to square off against Philips Academy.