Senior Hunter Granville (number 4) high-fives junior Brian McCullough after Bromfield’s win against Maynard. (Photo by Vishwa Rasania)
The Bromfield boys soccer team celebrated the careers of its seniors with a 2-0 win over the Maynard Tigers on “Senior Night” last Wednesday at Harvard Park.
Bromfield had nine 12th-graders start their last regular season home game of the year. The final senior, striker Jason Mandozzi, was sidelined with a concussion. He will return in time for the district playoffs.
Just five minutes into the game, senior stopper Colin Nygren put a high header behind the Maynard defense, but junior striker D’Vonne Williams was unable to beat Maynard keeper Ryan Fowler to the spinning ball on the ground.
Bromfield kept the ball in Maynard’s zone throughout the first half, and their pressure paid off midway through the half when senior captain Andy Tabrizi took a hard foul inside the penalty box. Tabrizi stepped to the line to take a penalty kick, and buried the shot easily, fooling Fowler, who dove in the opposite direction.
Senior keeper Will Nocka stepped up in Bromfield’s only defensive lapse of the quarter. The ball got behind his defense and he was left alone with an oncoming striker in the open field. He stayed back, however, and fully extended to his left to knock the ball out of bounds. Off the ensuing corner kick, defender Brian McCullough slid to kick the ball out of the box.
Bromfield went into halftime with an unconvincing 1-0 lead. Senior midfielder Hunter Granville, though, jumped into the second half with new life in his legs. He capitalized on his quickness when he received the ball at the midfield line, and sped up the sideline toward the Maynard goalie. He put a hard shot on goal from 25 yards out, beyond Fowler’s reach, and the shot bounced off the far post into the goal. It was Granville’s fifth goal of the year.
The Trojans finished the game with that 2-0 lead. It was their first game against Maynard since last season’s disappointing loss to this same Tigers’ team in the first round of the district playoffs.
Bromfield coach Tom Hill said that it was “great to win the game, but still too inconsistent… We just need to play at a higher level going forward.” His team’s five offside calls frustrated him, and the best way to improve on that, he said, is to “head the ball better and pass better.”
Hill would like his team to work on their quick one-touch shots to put more pressure on the defense. He went on to say that in order to win games in the future, his team will have to eliminate the opposing team’s chances.
Hill did, however, praise Granville’s goal, saying, “That’s what happens when you take chances and put those far shots on goal.”
Bromfield lost to the undefeated league champion Sutton last Friday by a score of 1-0, but rebounded with a 4-0 defeat over Lunenburg the following Monday in their final regular season game of the season. That game was Nocka’s third shutout in four games, and fifth of the year.
Bromfield finished the regular season with a 12-4-2 record. They open the playoffs at Harvard Park Saturday, Nov. 6, likely against the low-seeded Advanced Math and Science Academy of Marlborough. Official game details for the match can be found on miaa.net.
