We traveled to New Hampshire today to play Cardigan Mountain School’s Varsity team. CMS is a junior boarding school for 6-9th grades and their varsity team is comprised of 9th graders, many of whom are quite skilled and speedy. We played on their artificial turf, our first turf game this season. We practiced on our home turf field yesterday and so we were prepared for the quickened pace and true roll compared to our bumpy grass field. We opened the scoring early with a strong left-footed finish from Henry Markcrow (28), who had been workmanlike on the left wing and had slide tackled for repossession only moments before. A few minutes later, Ethan Pang (28) finished a strong righty from outside the box after a beautiful sequence up the left side, pivoted inward from winger Tai Feng (26), then laid off perfectly to Ethan by Nat Niedzwieki (29). Then, soon after, it was Nat’s turn. The team was unselfishly looking for an open shot outside the box, found Niedzwieki (29) who turned though traffic to his right and then to his left into space and hammered a lefty home for the 3-0 lead. This is how we went into the half, easily our best 40 minutes of the season. We opened the second half with another goal, this one from John Rousou (28), who poked in a shot sent initially by Rabi Diallo (29) that was likely to be a goal without John’s help. Michael Hioe (27) had sent in a long throw which Rabi volleyed before John ensured it went in. Oscar Sanford (26) then cleaned up a corner kick that rolled his way out of the box. His strong bounding lefty was within reach of the goalie before John Rousou (28) deflected it in for his second of the day. With a 5-0 lead, the CMS team kept fighting and scored three unanswered, all well-deserved. Our focus had wobbled a bit and we probably could have done more to preserve a cleaner sheet for keeper Zach England (29) who played a great game in goal for us. Overall, we played snappy, crisp team soccer on a slick, small field to secure our 6th victory of this young season. We’re very proud of our progress and look forward to more exceptional play from this group.