Winchester Soccer Finds Rhythm in Second Half

It was a team that's given Winchester trouble in the past. The Sachems – who like to move the ball quickly and keep the opposition off-balance – have struggled against the more physical teams.

Teams like Stoneham have been able to slow the game down and negate Winchester's quickness advantage. But on Saturday the Sachems again showed why it's one of the favorites to win the league and one of the top teams in the state as they defeated Stoneham 4-1.

"We got off to a slow start in the first half," Coach Paul Austin said. "We had a lot of possession, but we just couldn't find the connections."

The Sachems spent most of the first half in Stoneham's territory and had four shots on goal, three by Kevin Desa, but were unable to find the back of the net.

"It was real frustrating in the first half," Desa said. "But we kept our composure, we didn't get frustrated and we played our game in the second half.

"Coach just told us to bring up our intensity and to play quick."

It only took Winchester four minutes for Winchester to get into their rhythm. Andrew Lahearn opened the scoring for the Sachems scoring off a corner-kick from Desa. A few minutes later Conner Calin added another goal as he was assisted by Lubo Svetiev.

"We just found our rhythm in the second half," Desa said. "We picked up our intensity and our one-touch plays were definitely better."

As smooth as the Sachems made those one-touch passes, Ryan Connolly didn't need any help as he scored Winchester's third goal. After receiving the pass from Desa at the top of the box, Connolly dribbled between defenders. As he was forced to the outside, Connolly switched to his left foot and fired home a shot.

The Sachems finished their scoring with 12 minutes left as freshman Russell Coon hammered a shot at goal from 30 yards out. After the Stoneham goalie made the sliding save, the ball bounded away and Brendan Doherty had an easy goal for Winchester's fourth.

Stoneham scored its lone goal as time was running out in the second half.

"I'm happy that we everyone played," Austin said. "We had 26 kids play and eventually Stoneham was going to get fatigued. They got tired the more we moved the ball. We did a nice job today."