On a beautiful sunny Saturday, we set sail in the new DEERFIELD bus to compete at Choate’s three-school tournament. We played our first of three short-ish games against Hotchkiss’s J.V. team, and they surprised us with a quick goal off the mark. We rallied with two consecutive goals assisted by Josh Freedman ’26 and completed by seniors Thomas Unkles and David Peirce. Our third goal featured a nice series of passes: from Thomas to Captain Sammy Sullivan ’25 and then to Jeanlukas Meza ’26 in the end zone. The half ended with Hotchkiss up by one, but we took the entire second half with a clearly improved offense and a a final win of 10-6.
Over the course of the game, we had additional assists and goals from the following team members: Thomas, Zohan Subhash ’26, Hazel Secker ’26, Josh, Albert Yuk ’26, Captain Elena Tskhvitaria ’25, Julia Horobets ’26, and Esther Lee ’25. Actually, goal #5 was caught simultaneously by Zohan and Brandon Smith ’26 (it was pretty funny when they just stood there looking at each other holding the disk), but Brandon was willing to concede that it was Zohan’s disk. The final goal was also special in that Josh threw a scoober to Thomas for that point.
Shoutouts for this first game go to David for his cuts and receptions, Thomas for great running and catching, Josh for playing through, Zohan for two goals, Elena for catching a disk that an opponent hit to almost cause a turnover, and Albert for sprinting down the field at top speed.
Our second game, which was against Hotchkiss’s Varsity squad, was also a good game in that we worked hard from start to finish. Josh and Hazel teamed up for our first two D.A. goals, each with one assist and one goal reception. Our final goal of that game was a nice three-person play from Josh to Jean to David. In our Spirit Circle at the end of the game, we received these shoutouts from Hotchkiss players: “To Thomas: You can REALLY move. I only regret that I did not guard you.” “To Hazel: You cut deep and have a really good throw.” “To the [3-person] cup: You were working really hard.” “To Esther on the wing: You made Hotchkiss work really hard.” “To Hazel and Josh: Immaculate throws and great cuts.”
Our third and final game of the day was with Choate’s Varsity. I must admit that some of our players looked tired, but they reapplied sunscreen, hydrated well, and went out to the field with spirit. We took the first goal (Josh to Jean), lost the next two, came back with a Jean-to-Thomas goal, and then lost six goals to Choate. But the game was far from over. D.A. rallied and earned all three of the game’s final goals, with Esther, Brandon, Josh, Jean, and Hazel contributing assists and/or goals. Needless to say, we ended on a really positive note!
In that final game of the day, Elena stood out for her great wing coverage to drive up the stall count. Hazel shone for their excellent knockdown D in the endzone. Jean had a great catch midfield, with a pass to Josh and then a touchdown reception. Nicely played!
We finished the day with a Spirit Circle with Choate (how often does THAT happen?) and compliments all around. We feel great about this first tournament, and we look forward to two even longer tournaments before the end of the season.