Boys’ Soccer Starts Season with Three Scrimmages

The boys’ varsity soccer team faced Brooks School in a scrimmage last Friday, as well as both Buckingham Browne & Nichols (BB&N) and Belmont Hill School in scrimmages on Saturday. Though the team lost 2-1 against Brooks and tied 0-0 against BB&N, it went on to redeem themselves, defeating Belmont Hill 4-0 in the end.

Despite the disappointing outcome of the Brooks scrimmage, the boys were not discouraged, and instead took the initial loss as a starting point from which to improve. Lower Jonah Johnson, who felt that it “didn’t go as well as it should’ve,” attributed their loss to the team’s nonchalance and laziness during warm-ups.

“Because of this we had a slow start and we conceded two goals early,” he explained. Upper Dolapo Adedokun added, “we were disorganized at the back and weren’t really able to build up the field.” However, the team found its stride later on in the scrimmage when they “regained focus,” according to Johnson. The scrimmage allowed them to better understand their areas of weakness and served as a “valuable lesson,” senior Collin Shapiro said. Senior and co-captain Quentin DiStefano agreed, saying, “we didn’t get the result we wanted in the Brooks scrimmage, but it opened our eyes up to how we should be playing.”

"We know we can compete with any team but we need to stay focused for the entire 90 minutes to do so.”

After being outplayed by Brooks, the team learned from their mistakes and successfully reclaimed victory the next day at Belmont Hill School, where they had two scrimmages. In the first, which was against BB&N, the team experimented with a new formation “to give our back line some size,” Adedokun said. This allowed them to move some players up the field, as well as take the better players on the opposing team out of the game and create more chances.

Adedokun remarked that this tactic worked well for them. Likewise, DiStefano felt the BB&N scrimmage “went much better.” Not only did the team have lots of opportunities through it, but they allowed a mere two shots on net for the entire game. DiStefano was also impressed with some of the younger players on the team, specifically mentioning prep Billy Menken, who “hit crossbar on a shot.” Though the scrimmage ended in a tie, the team’s overall performance was already significantly better than the previous day.

Again, many young players stepped up in the scrimmage against Belmont Hill. The team was able to score early on, which “crushed the confidence of Belmont Hill,” according to Johnson. They went on to score three more times. Shapiro described it as a “great game” in which they were consistently “controlling the play and creating some good chances.”

Senior and co-captain Tarek Khartabil felt that these scrimmages allowed the team to make changes “that will hopefully be for the better.” He continued, adding that the main lesson they took from them was that the team is a “working progress.” Expressing confidence in their ability to perform in the first game, he predicted that “the guys will improve as a unit as the season progresses.”

The team is scheduled to play against the Loomis Chaffee School on Saturday and against Bridgton Academy on Monday. “For the first game we are looking to start off strong and to stay focused throughout,” Adedokun said. Shapiro echoed this, stating “We know we can compete with any team but we need to stay focused for the entire 90 minutes to do so.”