Boys' Soccer Takes Tough Loss at Milton

This past Wednesday the boy's varsity soccer team played against Milton Academy. While the team put up a good fight against Milton, it lost with the final score of 5-0. Last weekend, the team also played in a scrimmage games against the Belmont Hill School and BB&N.Regarding the scrimmages, head coach AJ Cosgrove said that they were helpful for him to understand the team dynamics better and note each player's strengths.“Every time we play I learn something about players,” Cosgrove said. “Against BB&N, in the jamboree, I was very pleased with the play of Sam Henry, who demonstrated that he can be counted on as a good defensive substitution.  I also learned more about how players react to things when they don’t go their way.”In light of the game against Milton, senior and co-captain Sterling Weatherbie said that regardless of the score, the team was able to create several chances. “We actually did get a couple of chances where we missed barely, which is good,” Weatherbie said. “There were couple that just went wide. The first half we actually did pretty well. We had a chance that we could have made the score 2-1. And in the second half we actually played pretty well. I think we just need to be more focused going into games.”Weatherbie added that lack of mental preparation was one of the factors that led to the team’s loss. He said that Milton’s players came into the game more prepared.“All around they played as a team. They had a lot of little guys who just connected passes and didn’t hang on to the ball for a long time. The didn’t miss their chances and mentally came out ready to play the game and we didn’t,” Weatherbie said.Post graduate and left back Liam Bradley echoed Weatherbie’s sentiments and said that the team should have had more efficient communication and a more competitive mindset going into games.“We didn't play that badly although the score didn't reflect that,” Bradley said. “We needed to communicate more and have that hunger and desire to win.”Upper and outside midfielder Matt Asante agreed with Bradley.“We [definitely] didn't communicate well enough around the field which yielded vital mistakes,” he said.Upper and central attacking midfielder Devin Moore said that the team was able to learn the areas it could focus on in order to enhance its performance in future games, especially in the upcoming game against Loomis Chaffee School’s boy’s varsity team.“I don't think it was our best game but I think we can learn from it and we need to have a strong game Saturday vs. Loomis. I think we had some good scoring chances but couldn't finish them. As a team we have to eliminate turnovers in order to win games in this league,” Moore said.Weatherbie said that the team will continue to train hard for upcoming games. Apart from some minor changes, he said that the team will practice rigorously just the way it has been in order to enhance its performance and play at its best in the league.“We’ll keep doing what we have been doing,” Weatherbie said. “We will probably change a couple things around, but apart from that we will just continue working hard.”