By Tom Haley
THE RUTLAND HERALD
CHESTER — This time, Fair Haven’s Jack Almeida was going to make certain. Early in the second half, he intercepted a pass and had a great look going in against Green Mountain goalie Forest Garvin. He hit the ball right at Garvin who made a fairly easy save.
But with everything on the line in overtime, Almeida scored the golden goal after gathering a pinpoint pass from Jace Hetrick.
“I hit it too early,” Almeida said of his missed opportunity in regulation time.
This time, the senior kept his composure and did everything right. The goal came with 2:14 remaining in the first sudden death overtime.
The Slaters built a 2-0 lead over Green Mountain.
The first goal was the same combination, the other way, with Almeida assisting Hetrick. Almeida led Hetrick perfectly and Hetrick ran onto it. He blasted it home with 27:35 left in the half.
They cushioned the lead at the midway mark of the first half and again Hetrick was in the middle of it. He fed the ball to Jack Spaulding and Spaulding did the rest.
The remainder of the half belonged to the Chieftains. They began applying plenty of pressure and it paid off when Eben Mosher scored with 8:54 left until the break.
They weren’t done. Evan Kirdzik converted Ben Munukka’s feed into the tying goal.
Neither team scored in the second 40 minutes of regulation play, but Fair Haven coach Tim Dayton was far happier with his team’s play in the second half.
“We played much better in the second half even though we did not score,” Dayton told his players as they came to the bench to prepare for overtime.
They carried that second-half play right into the extra session.
Dayton felt that his back four was instrumental in the victory. That group comprised of Patrick Stone, Noah Beayon, Francis Adams and Asa Young came up with clutch clears and turned back GM’s offensive thrusts with key tackles.
Green Mountain head coach Jake Walker and his assistant coach/father Scott Walker were both outstanding goalkeepers when they wore the Green Mountain uniform.
They identified with the play of Fair Haven goalie Kole Matta.
“Their goalie made some great saves,” Jake said.
“The save that he made at the end of the half was big-time stuff,” Scott said.
Matta had several terrific saves in the face of heavy pressure. Much of that pressure came from outstanding play in the back and at midfield from Moshe and Noah Cherubini. They consistently won balls before making runs or booming the ball far up the field.
That enabled Munukka, Liam O’Brien, Austin Kubisek and Kirdzik to threaten plenty.
But often they were frustrated by Matta’s superb goalkeeping or the play of that back four in front of him.
“I had a lot of chances today, I was just glad that I got that one in,” said Almeida of his game-winner.
He said the connection of Hetrick and himself comes naturally.
“We have been playing together a long time,” Almeida said.
The victory brought the Slaters’ record to 2-2 and Green Mountain falls to 0-3.
This is unfamiliar territory for Jake Walker and his Chieftains who have been in the Division III state championship game the past three years.
The Chiefs have been doing some good things, but the victories have not been showing up.
“I thought we won the majority of the 50-50 balls,” Walker said
“But it is hard to give up two soft goals and come back from that.”
The Slaters will try to climb over the .500 mark when they travel to Vergennes on Friday.
“That will be a tough one,” Dayton said.
He hopes the Slaters will carry more of their play from the second half into the game against the Commodores.
“We definitely improved our play in the second half,” Dayton said.
The Chieftains will look to break through for that first win on Friday in Ludlow when they host Proctor in the Green Mountain Invitational at Dorsey Park.
tom.haley @rutlandherald.com
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