After a chilly and foggy morning, the New England skies cleared up and delivered warm weather as Deerfield JVA soccer drove down to their first away game to Loomis Chaffee. The team of 15 faced an uphill battle against a more fully manned Loomis squad, demanding each player to put in plenty of minutes. In the first half, Deerfield struggled to apply pressure on Loomis, as maroons forced greens mostly on the defensive. After Loomis scored in minute 25, Deerfield quickly shaped up. In minute 30, Tommy Govi ’26 and co-captain Luka Kokosadze ’25 passed several give-and-gos before Kokosadze sent the ball in the net. The team entered the second half strong, despite the sun shining in Deerfield’s eyes. In minute 7, co-captain Sammy Sullivan ’25 sent a ball in from deep, which the team shuffled up and Victor Kibuuka ’26 took from the left to make a satisfying shot. Loomis then scored a few minutes later, turning the rest of the game into a series of nail-biting plays that could have secured victory for either team. In the final minute, though, amid a crowded kerfuffle in Loomis’s penalty box, Isaac Shobola ’27 set up a cross, and our attacking mid Jack Webb ’27 finished the goal: an exhilarating finish to the game. As the game went on—just the third of our season—Deerfield played smarter and faster, passed more to each other, and communicated better. With a short bench, some players tried out and excelled in new positions, like Govi, going from his typical striker position to attacking and holding mid. Sullivan and Kokosadze put in a particularly high minute count. We’re looking forward to getting back on a Green Machine on Saturday, when we’ll take our longest trip to play our formidable opponents at Cardigan Mountain School.