Without starting goalie, Wildcats drop opener

Lee’s Jack Harding goes for a loose ball against Sabis during the first game of the season.

LEE – With the Wildcats up against a team with great speed from Springfield on Tuesday, Lee knew they would have their hands full, and to do so without all-star goalkeeper Heamon Williams proved to be even more difficult.

With Williams serving a four-game suspension along with some other players for what Lee Head Coach Matt Kollmer called “disciplinary reasons,” the Wildcats dropped their season opener to Sabis, 5-3, in Lee.

“[Sabis’] speed up front was rough,” Kollmer said. “I told the kids that we had to control the midfield and if we don’t they could feed those guys [up front].”

Sabis took advantage early and often with a Wildcat defense that was packing up in the offensive zone creating some breakaway opportunities for the Sabis attackers.

Andrew Berthiaume opened the scoring for the Springfield charter school when he took a ball in the midfield on a breakaway and easily scored with a slight move on Lee’s freshman goalie Nick Wood, to make it 1-0 at the 29:35 mark in the first half.

“If we control the midfield they get maybe a couple of breakaways – but not 10, where they scored [two] goals off them,” Kollmer said.

Sabis added another goal at the 33:36 mark to make it 2-0 when Berthiaume knocked in a rebound in front of the net off a shot by Sabis’ Josh Evans.

However, Lee would come back five minutes later to make it a game when Wildcats midfielder Jose Mejia created his own shot just outside the box, Mejia’s shot hit the post and ricocheted off to striker John Graziano, who headed in his first goal of the season to make it 2-1, Sabis.

Sabis answered in the last ten seconds of the half, when Alon Chappell kicked in a loose ball for a devastating 3-1 lead for the Springfield team.

With the last two goals coming in the last seven minutes, the goals left some wondering whether Williams would have been able to make those key saves and keep the game notched at 1-1. Afterwards Kollmer had nothing but praise for his freshman goalie in his first career start.

“Honestly, I think [Woods] did a great job, he had some key saves and a couple of rookie mistakes that definitely resulted in a goal,” Kollmer said. “I can’t ask anything more out of him, I thought he composed himself considering how fast these kids played.”

The Wildcats closed the gap in the first minute of the second half when Graziano sent a corner kick into the box and senior captain Jake Leprovost found the back of the net to make it a 3-2 game at the :39 second mark.

Sabis again answered as they had all game, with a second breakaway goal to make it 4-2, with Berthiaume scoring his third goal of the game for the hat trick at 6:17 of the second half.

Graziano would add his second goal of the game, as last year’s leading scorer, bending a shot in the corner around a wall of Sabis players, on an indirect kick just outside the box, to make it a 4-3 game.

“We work on technical plays all the time,” Kollmer said. “A lot of soccer is taking advantage of the plays you get, and we actually produced some goals with the opportunities they gave us.”

Evans added another one for Sabis at 34:38 mark to finish the scoring and the 5-3 final for the win.

Despite the loss, the Wildcats had a promising start to their season with some strong play by Leprovost, Graziano, Mejia and Luke Murphy.

“We had some breakdowns but as long as we never give up we will be alright,” Kollmer said.

Posted by Tim Davis on September 6, 2012. Filed under High School Sports,Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry