Brooks 2 - Thayer Academy 1 - Official Game Summary

10/3/2012 - Brooks 2 at Thayer 1

Game Notes:

Adam Cowie Haskell started Thayer off in great fashion with a cracker of a strike in the fourth minute. Brooks gradually found their legs and began to retake control of the midfield. A number of chances went by the board owing to both a resolute Thayer backline and magnificent goalkeeping by Dom Quade. Brooks finally equalized in the 37th minute as Andrew Bruno ran down a long service and managed to stuff it in while lying on his back. More fine play ensued in the second half with both sides showing skill and determination. Brooks had the better chances and were rewarded when Zach Vieira hit a scorching drive into the net off a set from Alex Wagner at the top of the box. Both teams fashioned chances in the final half hour and the match ended with no further scoring. It was a very well contested match on a soggy pitch. Both teams should be proud.

Brooks Stats

Scoring

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Scorer	Minute	Assist
Bruno, Andrew	37	Conrad, Greg
Vieira, Zach	62	Wagner, Alex

Thayer Stats

Goalkeeping

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Scorer	Minutes	Saves	Goals Allowed
Quade, Domenic	90	0	2

Brooks 2 - Thayer Academy 1 - Dad's Game Summary

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!

Brooks 3 - Groton 0 - Dads (late) Game Summary

Dads, game notes: (A little late as I didn't hit the publish button on Saturday night and it just saved as a draft)

Zach didn't know it but Grandma was coming to watch today.  As we walked over to the field from the parking lot I could see the teams were ready to go at the center line.  The ball kicked off like any other game.  We were still 50 yards from the field, now right behind the JV net.  Brooks had an early corner and the ball was played in.  All of a sudden I see a shot from right in front and the ball rockets to the top corner of the Groton net!!  Who Scored it?  Not sure, oh wait...Zach running to the corner flag screaming YEAHHHHH (or whatever he was saying)!!!  Teammates surround him...cool, I guess Zach scored it 45 or so seconds into the game.  Grandma, not even seated yet, got a thrill!!

The game settled in a bit, with Brooks looking very good in the ball control area.  Lots of great combination play from the green kept the Groton keeper pretty busy.  Shots were zipping just wide.  Greg got his head on another corner and it went just over the net.  Zach trying a little to hard, lost the ball inside the 18 a couple of times after being mobbed by 4 defenders.  A little chirp from Dylan at Zach about giving it up must have made sense.  Zach made a few great passes to Alex, his new striker partner but nothing materialized.  Strong Brooks play continued with an occasional run by Groton.  This team has a tendency to hang around and end up tying games.  Luckily, Sam took a nice pass from Brian and deposited the ball with another good shot.  It was 2-0.

After that, Groton stepped it up a bit, only to see Sam take a hard low shot right off the post to the keepers left.  He thought it was in.  EVERYONE thought it was in; except the referee of course.  Lots of chatter at the referee resulted.  The ball ended up on the sideline for a Brooks throw in and Alex must have said something.  The linesman was wildly waving his flag to get the referees attention.  After a short discussion, Alex was given a yellow card and sent to the sideline.  Not sure what he said, but it must have been good!!

After half, Alex remained on the bench.  Play was being dominated by Brooks, but Groton would make the occasional run up the field and on a few of those Mattie had to make a couple of really difficult saves.  On one, he flew almost up to the cross bar and snatched it just before it went in the net.  Now this was great because Mattie is the new sophomore starting keeper and stands all of 4'11".  Maybe he's 5'.  On the next run up the field, Zach took a long ball down at center, played it over the defender, took the long but speedy route around the defender to collect the ball near the corner and then drove right across the top of the 6 yard box.  I'm watching thinking what the heck is he doing?????  Well he knew what he was doing.  He continued across the front of the net to the far post and then rolled the ball into the net after leaving the keeper behind about halfway across.  Nice goal!  Crowd cheered!!  Grandma yelling all the way across the net for Zach to shoot!!  3-0 Brooks.

There was still about 25 minutes left, but the game was about over at that point.  Mattie stayed in for another 10 minutes and then many of the starters were pulled to allow the younger guys some playing time.  Zach, Sam and Greg remained in almost to the end.  Groton had a few more chances, but in the end they had a 0 on the board.  

Brooks finally looked good.  Hopefully it wasn't due to a weak Groton team. Grandma was happy!! On to Thayer on Wednesday.  Another team that Brooks has had some trouble with in the past.  Go Brooks!!