By Tom Haley
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CHESTER, Vt. — Playing the possession type of game that coach Cole Wilhelm preaches, the Green Mountain boys soccer team rode two early goals by Everett Mosher to a 4-0 victory over Windsor in the regular season boys soccer finale for both teams on Friday.
The win set an important tone heading into the Division III playoffs — the pairings will be released Monday — because the Chieftains were coming off a loss and had lost two of their previous three contests.
“This was a great confidence builder for the team,” Green Mountain’s James Anderson said.
“We try to focus on possessing the ball and usually it works well for us like it did today.”
Anderson was one of three seniors honored before playing their final regular-season game on their home field. The others were Alexander Kirdzik and Bowen Stark.
But the three seniors will get one more game in their friendly surroundings. Their 9-5 record will be good enough for a home playoff game in the first round.
Wilhelm figures that Otter Valley or Thetford is a probable opponent.
Mosher has been a prolific scorer for the Chiefs. Wilhelm did not now the exact number of goals his sophomore forward has this year but said it is “at least 25.”
His first on this day came 9:53 into the game. He threaded it past diving Windsor goalie Eli Milligan.
It was less than two minutes later when Mosher struck again. He placed the ball just inside the far post. Ty Merrill earned the assist.
Merrill scored less than three minutes later and the Chieftains took their 3-0 lead into halftime.
Mosher came ever so close to netting his hat trick several times. Early in the second half he was set up nicely by Anderson and ripped the shot just wide.
He was denied again with 25 minutes remaining on a spectacular save by Milligan.
Jack Boyle got the final goal for the Chiefs.
Green Mountain keeper Skyler Klezos was seldom under pressure the way that Milligan was, but the Chieftains goalie made the save when he had to and did an excellent job of commanding the box to snuff out threats before they could materialize.
Evan Hayes replaced Klezos in goal with 12 minutes remaining.
The Chieftains’ most serious bid for a fifth goal came when Anderson touched off a rocket that Milligan was able to tip over the bar.
Windsor’s main scoring threats came off the direct kicks that Dylan Hodgdon struck with authority, as well as his monster throw-ins.
Blake Archambault came close to capitalizing on one of Hodgdon’s throws.
The Chieftains did a scintillating job of building their attack from the rear. They did that with the likes of Sawyer Pippin, Kirdzik and Kagan Hance communicating with one another and playing the ball to one each other’s feet in order to trigger the transition from defense to offense.
The loss dropped the Yellow Jackets to 4-9-1 so they will be hitting the road for the opening round of the Division III playoffs.
They go into the tournament on a four-game losing streak, losing those games by a combined 18-1.
Windsor coach Steve Mulloy believes BFA-Fairfax or Mill River could be an opening-round opponent.
Mulloy acknowledged the Jacks have had a difficult time against some tough opponents down the stretch, but pointed out that this is a team that is capable of good things when they put it together.
“On a day when we play our game, we can play with anyone,” Mulloy said.
The Jacks gave indications of that when they battled Division II contender Woodstock to a scoreless draw and took New Hampshire neighbor Stevens into overtime.
Now, if they can only rekindle that spark when the playoffs begin on Tuesday and Wednesday, the Jackets could throw a monkey wrench into somebody’s playoff plans.
They will have to do it on the road whereas Anderson, Kirdzik and Stark are relishing one last game on the home field.
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