PENACOOK – It started off with Lucas Godoi.
Then it went to Brady Turgeon.
Gavin Wheeler followed.
Ryker Kimball was the closer.
No, these aren’t pitchers on a rotation. These were the four players who led the offensive front for Merrimack Valley in a decisive 4-0 win over visiting Sanborn on Tuesday night.
Some of the goals were by design. Wheeler’s goal came off an odd-man advantage where three MV players were against two Sanborn defenders. It was a matter of weaving passes among the advancing midfielders and who was going to take the shot.
Others were scrappy goals, scored with equal amounts of skill and luck, like Godoi’s first-half goal where he sent back a deflection that was originally shot by Andrew Baldwin. Godoi’s shot also had to go past a huddle of players from both teams who had crashed the goal after Baldwin’s shot – each hoping to make some play on the ball.
Goals like Godoi’s are more of the reality for the Pride according to coach Ken Fuller.
“That’s the big piece with this team, we don’t have one guy who’s going to score all the goals,” he said. “Goals like that get the momentum your way. If we can score the ugly ones and the good ones we’ll take everything we can.”
While the Pride (2-1-1) have rattled off two impressive games early in the season, Fuller still thinks his program is on an uphill climb.
He pointed out it’s still a team of two halves – one half is a mental game, the other is pure execution on the pitch. It’s a formula that Fuller said needs to be mixed into a quicker start and the sooner that happens, the better the team will perform.
“We still need to be able to break down a team faster,” he said. “It took us a little bit to figure out what we needed to do – as we play more together we need to make that happen even quicker instead of waiting until the second half to find those openings.”
Three of the Pride’s four goals were scored in the second half and there would have been more had there not been near misses. Andrew Surprenant and Cameron Armstrong, sophomore and senior strikers, each had multiple shots on goal during the second half that could’ve put the game out of hand with ample time left.
Armstrong had shots narrowly miss the back of the goal including a crossing shot where he was on the far left side of the goal and sent the ball clear across the field, aiming toward the right-hand corner.
When asked, Fuller said he thought his bench would’ve gone “crazy” in celebration had that goal happened.
Where the celebration got a little wild was at the end of the game where all the MV players raced toward the goal and congratulated sophomore goalkeeper Trevor Simonds.
Simonds posted a shutout in his first varsity start and closed out an impressive performance with a lockdown stretch to close out the game. Sanborn’s only real moments of offense came in the closing minutes of the game and Simonds deflected shot after shot.
The coolness and composure that were on display are rare to see in a young goalkeeper, and Simonds’ attitude excites Fuller for the future.
“With him, he’s always just kind of a controlled guy in the back and dominates that box.”
MV has its next opportunity to continue its solid competitive stretch when it returns to the pitch on Friday at Manchester West. First touch is scheduled for 4 p.m.