By Tom Haley
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CHESTER, Vt. — Everett Mosher scored the game-winner with only 5:20 remaining to help No. 4 Green Mountain avert the upset by No. 13 Otter Valley in Tuesday’s Division III boys soccer first-round playoff game.
The Chieftains’ 2-1 victory was the essence of playoff soccer — gray, overcast day, the No. 13 seed flirting with the upset and leading late in the game, plenty of energy from sideline to sideline and end line to end line.
The Otters have had trouble scoring goals all season, entering the game with only 11 goals in their 14 games. But they got the first one with 27:51 left in the opening half. Sawyer Pierpont hammered a line drive from 35 yards out that went through the hands of keeper Skyler Klezos. Cole Letourneau had the assist.
Before and after the goal, the Chieftains did much more of the attacking. Mosher, GM’s leading scorer on the season, had numerous runs and shots. Ty Merrill had his share of shots and unleashed several dangerous looking crosses. Elias Stowell-Aleman had his runs as well as balls that he played into the box, and James Anderson and Jack Boyle had some testing shots on OV goalie Ben Adams from the perimeter.
But the Otters were able to withstand all of that pressure. Pierpont not only scored the goal, the senior midfield player also prevented some with a couple of saving plays in front of Adams.
The Otters did not have anywhere near the number of scoring bids that the Chiefs had but Hayden Bernhardt and Kieran Williams did threaten.
The Otters took that lead into halftime.
The Chieftains continued to mount their attack after the half.
Then, OV coach Dick Williams thought he had the best thing he could have hoped for — a penalty kick for a foul inside the box that would have given the Otters a great chance for a pad goal.
But the official ruled the foul was committed just outside the box.
There was a penalty kick awarded with 10:53 remaining but it was the Chieftains reaping the benefit of it on a handball inside the box by the Otters.
Anderson struck the ball well and to Adams’ left, tying the score.
There are others on the GM roster like Mosher and Boyle who are candidates to take PKs.
“He’s a senior and I knew he wanted it,” Green Mountain coach Cole Wilhelm said of Anderson.
Bernhardt’s effort in the box nearly got the lead back for the Otters with six minutes left.
But just after that, Eben Mosher played a ball long to his brother Everett who ran onto it. Everett faked a defender, carried the ball and let it rip for the game-winning score with 5:20 remaining.
“My brother and I have a good connection. He always knows where to find me,” Everett said.
Everett said the Chiefs were not taking the Otters lightly because of the No. 13 seed attached to their name.
“Our coach warned us that upsets do happen,” Everett said. “We really picked it up in the second half.”
“We dominated possession 80-20 but sometimes that is not enough. You have to finish,” Wilhelm said.
Williams was elated with the effort he got from his Otters, but he feels that has been the case all season despite the 2-13 record.
He loses only two seniors — Pierpont and Sam Scholar — although they were both instrumental in everything the Otters did.
“I think we can build off this. We lose fewer seniors than they (Green Mountain) do and most other teams do,” Williams said. “We are getting better. We were never getting drubbed. We were in all our games.”
Williams is excited about the 2020 season, but Wilhelm has more immediate concerns. The Chieftains will host the winner of Wednesday’s game between Vergennes and Randolph. They will take a 10-5 record into that game.
“It’s exciting. I can’t remember when Green Mountain last hosted a playoff game, not just a quarterfinal.”
These are exciting times on the Chester campus.
NOTES: Neither Green Mountain nor Otter Valley has ever won a state championship in boys soccer. Chester High School, the forerunner of Green Mountain, won a state crown in 1967 by beating the Otters 2-1 in the title game. … Green Mountain graduate Mack Walton is the leading scorer for 8-4-2 Clarkson University with three goals and two assists as a junior midfield player. … Former OV soccer player Gavin Donaldson is in his 29th season as the head men’s soccer coach of Division II West Virginia Wesleyan University.
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