Looks like my summary will beat the official game summary this time!!!
So a rainy, dreary day in Braintree today. Took me far to long to get to the field and I ended up arriving 15 minutes late. Looked at the scoreboard and it's 1-0 Thayer. I quickly poll the parents and every one says, a great goal by Thayer. The player just turned and shot from about 10 yards out and Mattie had no chance on the perfectly placed top corner shot. Consensus was that the team didn't come out very well. The field at Thayer is small to start with and the slick turf was being torn up on every cut. People falling all over the place and ball control was surely tough.
The play continued in Thayer's favor for a bit longer and then you could see Brooks starting to adjust and begin to control the ball better. Passes began to connect. Movement across the field and back looking for the openings. Still some errant passes due to the ball just skipping away or not coming off a foot as you would expect a dry ball to. But the pressure was starting. Jory sent a great corner kick into the box and Greg got it off his head. Somehow the ball found it's way into the net but the referee signaled no goal due to a hand ball. Evidently it went from Greg's head to his arm/hand before going in. Plenty of time but the parents were getting a little nervous. Thinking this might be another of those strange games that might not go our way.
Shortly after, Brooks tied the score on one of the strangest goals you'll ever see. Greg lofted a nice ball over the top to Water-bug Bruno (Andrew). Andrew initially missed it then ran on to it, touching it away from the keeper to the right. As he ran by the keeper to get it back it looked like he was going to run right by the net with the ball and miss the opportunity. Somehow, while falling away from the net, he stabbed his left foot at the ball directing it just inside the post as 2 defenders converged and he hit the ground. With the ball just over the line, the defenders both kicked at it. All they did was hammer it deeper into the net for Bruno!!
Brooks missed a couple of more opportunities but controlled the play until half. The second half was total domination of the ball and field by Brooks but nothing was happening. Jory appeared to have sprung Zach in alone on old friend Dominic in the Thayer net. Zach put the ball away behind Dom, but somehow the play was called off side. Dusty and Willie were not happy with the call. All the parents just looked at each other and shook our heads. About 10 minutes later, after another heavy assault by Brooks, the ball started on the right and worked it's way across to the left from Pat to Greg to Alex to Zach who rifled a shot to the top corner for the 2-1 lead.
At this point the game could have been 4-1 but the score was close and it continued to be nail biting time for the parents. Brooks controlled the ball in the Thayer end, and occasionally Thayer would make a run up the field, but Brooks calmly turned things back on offence. Not much except a good number of throw ins from the side for Thayer for the balance of the game. At the final whistle, the Brooks guys put up a great cheer and got a fine round of applause from the parent group!! 4-0 with only playing 1 game really well is not a bad way to start the season.
Official summary to follow as soon as it's published!
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