The boys junior B footballers began the season with a good mix of new and returning players. The captains for this year’s team are Brendan Butz ’23, Morgan Haisman ’23 and Ethan Li ’25. The schedule includes many familiar opponents and the first match was a ‘home’ away match against local rival, the Bement School. Kickoff was on Wednesday, September 21st at 3 pm, on a beautiful, warm fall day. During the first 20 minutes of the 1st half, Deerfield controlled the run of play, but were unable to put one past the Bement keeper. Finally, in the 20th minute, Jack Keller ’26 got Deerfield on the board with the first goal of the season to take a 1-0 lead. From there, the floodgates opened to some degree and a tight match turned into a comfortable lead within a few minutes. In the 23rd minute, returner John Mandiamy ’25 poked home a rebound to give the visitors a 2-0 lead. Five minutes later, Matias Cushman ’25 found the back of the net for a 3-0 lead going into half-time. Deerfield continued to dominate play in the 2nd half, limiting Bement to only a handful of chances on goal, thanks to a strong defense led by sweeper Tucker Gongaware ’26. Bement hit the post in the 49th minute, but that was as close as they came to cutting into the lead. Three minutes before time, Read Kitchell ’26 made a great individual move and closed the scoring at 4-0 with a beautiful shot from distance. Keeper Butz maintained his first clean sheet of the season and the team moved to 1-0. They’ll look to keep the momentum going in their next match: September 24th at 3:30, on the road against Avon Old Farms.