BETHEL – The opportunities kept coming and the Telstar boys’ soccer team proceeded to take care of business as the results spoke loudly in a Mountain Valley Conference game played under sunny skies Monday.
The Rebels received goals from five different players, including freshman Frankie Delduca who also had two assists in a dominating 5-1 win over Dirigo.
Telstar (4-3) , which had lost three games by one goal each, set the tone early by controlling the ball and the constant pressure eventually paid off. A pair of goals by Matt Zinchuk and freshman Doug Costello in a 34-second span proved to be n incentive for the players to strive for more.
“We’ve had a couple of lapses in previous games,” Telstar coach Tim Remington said. “But the team came out on fire today and was hungry to retaliate. They stayed focused on what to do. It was just a matter of time.”
The eventual game-winning goal began with Delduca drilling the ball at Dirigo goalie Lenny Hall. The ball caromed off Hall’s outstretched arms and bounced over to Costello, who was unmarked on the left side of the net. Moments earlier, Zinchuk headed a ball in to an open area. It was Delduca who had set up the play, by drawing Cougar fullbacks Chris Richards and Adam Law (who was playing with a broken thumb) to the right.
Dirigo (1-5-1) have hit hard times since a win against Hall -Dale in the season opener. The Cougars were not going after the ball, so there were few chances for center-forward Gary Holman and wing Wesley Gagnon to break loose.
Telstar was solid in the midfield with exchange student Rodrigo Silva and Dan Kiesel.
“We got great top play today,”Remington said.”The players had been crowding, so we knew that we needed to spread things out and get the proper spacing. It allowed us to utilize our speed.”
Telstar put the game in hand by scoring two goals early in the second half. Silva scored on a penalty kick that found the upper left corner. Louis Thornton passed to Kiesel who hit the cross bar and the ball dropped down behind the line. Charles Haines also scored.
“At halftime, we had talked about not being satisfied,” Remington said. “We knew that we couldn’t sit on the lead. Plus, we practiced and practiced at shooting on net. We had 46 shots against Jay and only scored two goals.”
Dirigo averted the shutout on a goal by Archie Ray.
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