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 juniors Matias Cushman ’25, Arvin Mou ’25 and PJ Block ’25. The schedule includes many familiar opponents and the first match was at home against local rival, the Bement School. Kickoff was on Wednesday, September 20th at 3 pm, on a beautiful, warm and sunny fall day. It didn’t take long for Deerfield to score the first goal of the season – in the 10th minute, Vail Brokaw ’27 met a nice Cushman cross in the box and found the back of the net to put Deerfield up 1-0. Before the team could celebrate too much, Bement regrouped and lofted a beautiful shot in the 13th minute that found the upper corner of the net to tie the score. While Deerfield had the better of the run of play for the rest of the 1st half, the score remained tied into half-time. The play in the first several minutes of the 2nd half was even and it looked like neither team would gain the advantage. After a few chances for both teams were left wanting, Brokaw found the back of the net again in the 48th minute to finally regain the lead for Deerfield. Cole Higgins ’26 added an insurance goal in the 64th minute while the defense, led by Ryan Stentzler ’27, kept Bement at bay for the final 3-1 margin. With the win, the team begins the season 1-0 and will look to continue the momentum against another local rival, Eaglebrook School, on September 27th at 3:30 pm on the lower fields.