CHESTER, Vt.- In a game that was mostly dominated by Green Mountain, it took the Chieftains 50 minutes of game play to put the ball in the back of the net. But, once GM saw a goal go in, they took control of the game’s momentum. They scored five unanswered goals over the final 32 minutes of the game to defend their home field against rival Springfield, winning 5-0 to improve their record to 4-3 on the year.
Springfield held up well in the first half and was able to go into halftime tied 0-0 after holding off numerous Chieftain-attacks. “We don’t know how to play soccer from behind and that’s something we need to work on,” said Springfield head coach Devan McCarty. “First half was great… I thought we had a lot of energy and effort. It’s a deflating loss. We let one unlucky goal go in and the rest kind of just went with it.”
Brooks Ordway-Smith was able to sneak in a goal for GM on a rebound off the post at the 32 minute mark in the second half. And, with 20 minutes left, Everett Mosher scored on a nice pass from Ty Merrill to put GM up 2-0. After 15 minutes of back-and-forth play, GM put three more on the board in the final 5 minutes.
Elias Stowell-Aleman scored on a long lob-ball that slipped through the hands of Springfield’s keeper. Merrill scored from the left side on a nice shot that went off the right post and in. And, a twin connection occurred with two minutes left, as Chase Ordway-Smith found his brother Brooks Ordway-Smith on a long pass up the middle, and Brooks finished it off with his left foot for his second goal of the day.
“Brooks is really fast,” said GM head coach Cole Wilhelm. “He also has the body so that he doesn’t get knocked off the ball. He’s really a great athlete.”
On the win on Friday, coach Wilhelm said, “We put out a lot of hard work… it’s been a building process. Each game is a new game… We’ve been working on the system and tweaking it after each game. It was a good win and it showed all of the hard work that they’ve been putting in.”
As for Springfield, the Cosmos fall to 2-4 on the year. “We’re still trying to figure things out,” said coach McCarty. “This is a whole new team [from last year]… trying to build something long-term is really the ultimate goal for us.”
McCarty had high-praise for the rival Chieftains, saying, “Green Mountain has got a great team… Cole [Wilhelm] has done a good job and I think they can make a run this year. They had a lot of guys up top that can play pretty well. I’m excited for them to make a push.”
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