PITTSFIELD – Any momentum the Newmarket High School boys’ soccer team had generated from earlier in the contest was long gone. Despite clinging to a 2-0 lead on the road against Pittsfield in the second half on Monday, the Mules quickly found themselves back on their heels in the final 30 minutes, doing everything they could to salvage a much-needed Division IV game.
The tide began to change 10 minutes into the second half when the Panthers created a handful of scoring opportunities in a hurry.
First came a pair of free kick chances from outside the box. No goal. Then came a corner with a cross right into the middle of the box. Again, no goal. Finally, Pittsfield thought they had cracked the scoring column when junior midfielder Matt St. George lined up for a point-blank shot, but the blast landed directly in the hands of the Newmarket keeper.
It wasn’t until the 67th minute that the Panthers finally broke through, getting a beautiful strike from St. George that found the upper-left corner of the net. But by that time, too many opportunities had gone unfinished as Pittsfield fell to Newmarket, 2-1, at Drake Field.
“I thought the first 15 or 20 minutes of the first half and the last 30 minutes of that second half, we created several opportunities, whether it was within play, off a direct kick or off a corner kick and either the bounce didn’t go the right way or we couldn’t get a good foot on it,” Pittsfield Coach Derek Hamilton said after dropping to 7-5-1. “I would say today was just a lot of squandered opportunities. I thought we could of done better with what we created for ourselves and unfortunately we didn’t capitalize.”
The contest was a dead ringer for the previous matchup between the two programs on Sept. 24: a hard-fought battle that resulted in the same final score with the Mules edging the Panthers by a single goal. That was not lost on Newmarket Coach Dana Lockwood, whose team has now won five straight and seven of its last eight to improve to 9-3-1.
“We’ve been on a high since the last couple games and have had some solid performances,” Lockwood said. “It was a little bit lackluster in the final 20 minutes to make it close, but Pittsfield is always a tough team for us. They always give us a great game so I knew it was gonna be tight regardless.”
While both sides had little trouble moving the ball through the midfield to create an attack, neither team found much success finishing inside the 18, especially in the first half.
Pittsfield held a 4-0 edge in corner kicks in the first 40 minutes, but didn’t put a quality strike on net throught the half. Meanwhile, Newmarket missed wide on several looks, but did manage a goal in the last six minutes of the half when Pittsfield goalie Gavin Knight came up on a ball to make a stop and Newmarket’s Blake Moran lofted it over his head for the 1-0 lead.
Hamilton said he thought more ball movement could have helped the Panthers cash in early on.
“Some of it is not getting the right bounce, but I thought we could’ve serviced some balls earlier and I thought we could have had some better movement, particularly in the first half, we could have had some better movement in the offensive third of the field to create quality scoring opportunities,” Hamilton said. “We held possession through the defensive third and in the middle third, but we didn’t really create the types of opportunities you’d think we would with the possessions we had.”
In the opening minutes of the second half, Newmarket nearly doubled its lead when captain Jacob Grzybowski entered a one-on-one opportunity with Knight, but Grzybowski couldn’t finish. He would get a chance at redemption minutes later, and this time wouldn’t miss, taking a pass from Simon Chan and lobbing a shot past the outstretched arms of Knight.
“As usual we had a couple chances, including early in the second half we had that breakaway on goal that I would expect my senior captain to put away,” Lockwood said. “Chances like that, now that the game is over, can make all the difference. At 3-0, they probably give up a little bit, but 2-1 is almost like 2-2.”
From there, Pittsfield altered its formation, pulling an extra player up into the midfield in a late-game effort to boost its attack, but couldn’t overcome the two-goal deficit despite outplaying the Mules down the stretch.
Pittsfield has three games left on the schedule before the start of the playoffs, including two straight home games against Wilton-Lyndeborough and Hinsdale before finishing out the year at Farmington.
“At this point we want to take care of business,” Hamilton said. “We have two more games at home and we have to make sure we come out strong. I think at this point, the best we can do is take it one game at a time and don’t get caught looking ahead.”
(Jay McAree can be reached at 369-3340, jmcaree@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @jaymcaree.)