Winchester Bosy Soccer Comes Back to Beat Woburn, 2-1

On Friday, Sept. 21, Winchester came from behind to defeat Woburn 2-1. Once again the opponent got an early goal. This time the defense left Winchester keeper Chris O’Connell exposed and Woburn dribbled a slow roller past the diving O’Connell. Barely two minutes later, Woburn almost scored again off a corner kick, but the header went over the crossbar.

With 15 minutes left in the first half, Winchester’s Zach Samson took a strong shot that barely missed high. Less than a minute later Zach Landau’s shot waa blocked by the Belmont keeper, but Landau was there to get his own rebound and tapped it in to tie the game 1-1. Winchester kept the pressure on Woburn and less than a minute later sent another shot just over the crossbar.  The half ended with Winchester taking a free kick from just outside the box, but the Woburn keeper smothered the ball to end the threat.

Five minutes into the second half, Winchester made a long pass downfield to the middle of the box and this time the shot clanged off the crossbar before the keeper controlled the ball. Then with 31 minutes to go, Dan Boulanger maed a stop on defense and fed the ball to Evan Carey who dribbled it all the way down the field before losing the ball inside the Woburn box.  During the next six minutes Winchester kept pressure on the Woburn defense; despite a flurry of activity in the box, Winchester didn’t get a shot off.

With 23 minutes to go in the game, Woburn took several shots when Winchester’s defense failed to clear the ball. Fortunately, keeper Chris O’Connell came out and grabbed the ball to save the day. Apparently, words were exchanged with the referee and Nick Stern got a yellow card.

Two minutes later, Zach Samson was tripped and awarded a free kick. Samson put the ball right in front of the goal and Marino Espiga headed it into the net for what looked like the go ahead goal. The referee called offsides, nullifying the goal.  Play started and then the referee gave Stern a second yellow card, though no one on either team knows why. Winchester had to play the remaining 19 minutes a man down, but their defense stepped up big. Led by Dan Boulanger, Alexi Taliadouros, and Vardaan Dawesar, Winchester managed to shut down Woburn’s offense. The couple of times that Woburn got a shot off, sure-handed Chris O’Connell made sure the ball didn’t reach the net.

Woburn got a yellow card for tripping Espiga outside the box, but his free kick missed, leaving the score tied 1-1 with 13:25 to go. Less than a minute later, defender Alexi Taliadouros scored the winning goal for Winchester. Woburn picked up another yellow card with seven minutes left and the game ended 2-1 Winchester.

Winchester’s record on the season is now 4-0-2.