Scores 6 goals in the final 30 minutes for a 7-1 rout of Burlington
In what turned out to be a positive omen for Somerville’s Boys of Spring, the heavy rains that were emptying the Saturday afternoon sky came to a near complete halt less than a minute before the opening kick off.
Entering the game with an impressive 3-0 record, the Blue Machine had its hands full in the first half with a tough Burlington team. In goal, Zach Logonov made a couple of outstanding saves to prevent Burlington from gaining a significant edge – though they were the first team to score.
Somerville came right back with a beautiful goal that started with a nice corner kick by Elliot Rippe which found Jamie Keegan right near the net. Jamie did a fine job of chesting it in –which tied the game 1-1.
The rest of the half was a back and forth contest with neither team able to put a goal up on the scoreboard. But Somerville was able to regain some of its offensive flow as a result of the energy provided by Jesse Aronson and Marcelo Brociner – energy that seemed to carry over to the second half.
The Blue Machine jumped out of the box – big time! – in the second half. After benefiting from an own goal, Somerville took complete control of the game. Jamie came through with his second goal after Ethan Sweeting sprinted down the pitch with the ball, crossed it on the ground as Jamie one- touched it into the back of the net.
Another second half highlight was when Jesse Griffin scored two scintillating goals within minutes of each other! The other two goals of the half were also beauties as Eliott and Danny Portilo put up two more points for the Blue Machine.
Other important contributions were made by Henry Salazar who consistently kept the ball away from our goal and Jonathan Sands who made a number of clever passes. RJ Guardia played a fine all –around game and had a number of powerful, on-target shots on goal. Iladro Sauls came within inches of scoring when his excellent shot bounced off of the post. Tough defense from Issac Saron and Jonathan Sands helped keep Burlington off the scoreboard in the second half. In the end, Somerville won a convincing 7-1 victory and now stands undefeated at 4-0.
As always, the team’s rooting section was loud and enthusiastic. And after the game, parents and friends kept up the cool tradition of creating a tunnel for the kids to run through – which they did not once – but twice!
The only missing ingredient in the post game festivities was that Coach Phil wasn’t there to pull off another one of his legendary “hair tricks.” But there is little doubt we’ll be seeing Phil do his thing more than a few more times before the season is over!
Thanks to Ken and Marcelo Brociner for the recap.
