DEA Bedford Masters 2

Jay Fest 3.

John joins Jimmy and Jeff as our third player to score a hat trick this season.  Good to see that people aren't taking it easy when they get a goal, and that we're spreading things around.

We started this one out pretty flat.  Maybe a bit early in the morning for us or something, but our passes were clearly off at the start, your trusty narrator being one of the worst offenders.  We kept our cool though and didn't let them take advantage of our missteps.  While we weren't putting together a lot of pressure on their goal, not much was coming through to ours either.

We started to pick things up on a corner by Jimmy.  The first one didn't work so well, so he called a mulligan and tried again.  This time John V. got a good one touch redirect on the low fast ball and it was 1-0.  Going to work on his hat trick, John made it 2-0 with a well paced shot from outside the box.  The keeper got in front of it and probably would have had it most times, but it had some pace and a little spin and it came back out of his hands and into the goal.

Andover then brought themselves back into the game with a strong push.  They brought the ball down the right side, then crossed it on the ground to the top of the box.  There were 4 or 5 Andover players there and coverage broke down.  The D had the guys on the line man covered but when the cross came behind instead of in front, an Andover midfielder running in got a clean strike on it and put it home.

That gave Andover a bit of boost and both teams were hotly contesting the middle when John completed his trifecta with a long high shot from well outside the box.  It was one of those shots where most of the field just stopped, squinted against the  sun and tried to decide if it was going in.  The keeper backpedalling was the only guy really moving on the field as it came arcing down and slid under the bar.  Highlight reel slo-mo replay stuff.

The quick counter strike took some of the gas out of Andover and we controlled the rest of the game pretty well.  Our final strike came on a throw in from Scott on the right sideline who passed it back out above the box where Jeff G. hit a nice left footed chip shot.  Hint for next week guys, hit those high shots when the sun is in the goalie's eyes, not behind him.  Can't argue with the results though.

Overall, another good showing.  Certainly being in a lower division makes it easier to look good, but that doesn't account for all the improvement.  Most obvious is that we aren't injury riddled like last year.  But we are also moving to the ball much better and taking the time to think about our passing.  Next week Ipswich plays Derry and we've got to figure that as a win for them, so we need a good solid win against Westford.  Ipswich just beat them 4-1 so we held steady with our goal lead, but need a good performance to keep that up, and to keep our momentum going.

And finally, a solid performance in the third half.  They put up a good effort, but the beer held out and our core team had the staying power for a clean win.  Some kids must have come by and raided the cooler because the gatorade and water were gone, so guess we'll have to use some of the fund to replenish that for next week.  Hate to use beer money on such stuff, but gotta keep up appearances.
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GM Note:

Great Win Boys!!!   Keep up the scoring and defending.   Screw the gatorade and water..... 

Godfather