Senior Night for Mascoma varsity soccer proved to be a nail-biter of a game!  Seniors and their families were recognized in a pre-game ceremony.  Players honored included captains Justin Andrew (defender) and Lizzie Pelton (goal keeper), along with senior striker Brennen Murphy and left-wing Garret Davis.   The Royals gave up 2 first-half goals on break-away plays to #10 for Winnesquam, giving the Bears a 2-0 lead.  At the half, the Mascoma made a few adjustments, pulling Dylan Pelton from the front line to personally mark the speedy Winnesquam Bear, #10.  Dylan completely shut down each offensive attack aimed at getting the ball to #10, and the rest of the Mascoma defense was able to keep the remaining Winnesquam players in check.  This defensive strong-hold allowed the Royals' offensive players to go to work.   In the first minute of the second half, Cam Stebbins scored off of an assist from Ben Seiler.  At 15 minutes into the second half, Senior Brennen Murphy attacked the right side of the net for an unassisted goal to tie the game at 2-2.  In the 75th minute, Ben Schwarz drove through the Winnesquam defense to score Mascoma's final goal.  After being shut-out in the first half, the Royals finished the game with a second half shut-out of their own to get the W with a 3-2 final score. The Royals finish the regular season 6-10, with a slim chance of still making the play-offs.  The Div III play-off bracket should be determined by Friday, October 19th.  

A Friday afternoon battle ensued as the Royals took on Division III #1 ranked Trinity.  Trinity came out strong in the first half and the Royals allowed 2 breakaway goals, but possession and control for the mid-field and defense was excellent for Mascoma.  Ben Schwarz managed to connect a pass to Dylan Pelton for an assisted goal in the final 5 minutes of the half for a one goal margin at halftime.  The Royals got more and more confident as the game went on in the second half, fighting for the ball, winning 50-50s and holding off Trinity's offense.  When a Trinity defender tripped Dylan Pelton in the box, a Penalty Kick was awarded.  Freshman, Ben Seiler, buried the ball in the net to tie the game.  The soccer played got even more intense with the referees giving Trinity 3 separate yellow cards for rough play and late hits.  Trinity was fouled by Mascoma in about the 68th minute of the game, allowing Trinity to set up a free-kick that was aced past goal keeper Lizz Pelton to give Trinity the edge 3-2.  The final 10 minutes were back-and-forth, but neither team scored another goal and Trinity won the game.  Lizz had 16 saves in net,  The Royals looked the best that they have all season, putting in a solid performance against top-ranked Trinity.  Mascoma's record is 5-6 with 3 games in the next week.    

It was a "Battle Royale" at Friday's game against Berlin on our home field!  Mascoma jumped out to an early lead 7 minutes into the game with a Gabe Sperry goal off of an assist from Dylan Pelton.  Berlin put the Royals on our heels with 2 unanswered goals before the 35 minute mark making the score 1-2 with 5 minutes remaining in the first half. About 30 seconds later Mascoma's Dylan Pelton sank one in the back of the net after connecting on an assist from Brennen Murphy to tie the game at 2-2.  Berlin quickly scored to take the lead briefly, but Ben Seiler put a goal on the scoreboard with an assist from Garrett Davis to tie it up again 3-3 before half time.  This 5 minute scoring rally made for contagious excitement on the sidelines and on the field with a referee joking with the coaches on the sidelines at this point:  "The first team to get to 10 wins!" The second half was a tremendous display of soccer skills with the emphasis on defense.  Berlin scored only 10 minutes into the second half and held that lead for 14 minutes before the Royal's Ben Seiler broke through with a goal to tie the game again at 4-4.  Regulation ended at a tie sending this emotionally charged game into overtime.   At 2 minutes into overtime, junior Ben Schwarz scored the golden goal to end the game 5-4, giving the Royals our first win of the season.  The bench emptied to rush their teammates on the field, burying Ben Schwarz for a winning celebration in front of the goal!  

The soccer team opened the season at home against Belmont on Friday 8/24 with a 0-8 loss against Belmont.  Having Belmont as our opening game made for a difficult start to the season both physically and emotionally - they beat our 2017 team in the first round of the play-offs 5-0; we graduated 10 seniors from that 2017 season and Belmont graduated only 2 seniors.  The coach for Belmont told our coaching staff that they have 13 seniors on the team this year and that they have waited for this very competitive and skilled group of players since they were in middle school.  Belmont expects a deep run in the state tournament this season. A 0-8 loss sounds bad, but the game was actually well played, we just couldn't break through Belmont's defense to get a ball in the net.  Our young and inexperienced varsity team learned a lot as the game progressed and after a first half score of 0-6, the adjustments made on the field held Belmont to only 2 goals in the second half.  We are experimenting with different formation systems in the hopes of finding one that capitalizes on our strengths and minimizes our weaknesses.  The Mascoma team played hard and never gave up, despite the size and skill differences between the two teams.  Lizzie Pelton had 12 solid saves in net, and Ben Schwarz did a fantastic job in the middle of the field with both outstanding defense and offense.   Our next game is home on Tuesday against Fall Mountain at 4:00 p.m.  Hope to see some Royal fans on the sidelines for this first day of school match-up.