Belmont Hands Winchester Boys Soccer Its First Loss, 2-1

Last time these two teams played, Winchester came back twice to beat Belmont 3-2.  On Tuesday night (October 16), Belmont again took an early lead, scoring at 16:15.  However, this time, Winchester was not able to come back and suffered its first loss of the season, 2-1 against Belmont.  Winchester is now 10-1-3, but still leads the Middlesex League.

Belmont controlled the first half of the game, preventing Winchester from mounting much in the way of offense.  In the second half, Winchester played furiously and kept the pressure on Belmont for the full 40 minutes.  Early in the half, at 44 minutes, defenseman Vardaan Dawesar crossed the ball to Nick Stern in the box, but the Belmont keeper smothered Stern’s shot.  Dawesar also played a solid game on the defensive end, clearing or shielding the ball as necessary. At 61 minutes, another defenseman made a long pass all the way up the field to a storming Stern, who caught up to the ball before the keeper, but placed his shot just wide.  These were only 2 of many scoring attempts by Winchester in the second half.  At one point Winchester nearly scored on a throw-in from near the goal line, then followed that up with two corner kicks, both of which were headed on goal but defended by the Belmont keeper. That seemed to be the story of the game, as Winchester took shot after shot that was either blocked by the Belmont keeper or sailed wide of the mark.

With less than 2 minutes remaining in the game and down 1-0, Winchester pulled its keeper in a desperate attempt to score the tying goal.  The tactic backfired when Winchester failed to clear a ball, and Belmont put it in the open net to go ahead 2-0.  With 1 minute left in the game, Winchester scored, but the game ended with Belmont on top 2-1.