Millbrook Boys’ Soccer Shows Off Early Season Form In 3-1 Victory Over Colonels

Posted: April 23, 2013
By ROBERT NIEDZWIECKI

WINCHESTER — Playing with a one-goal lead in the second half, the Millbrook boys’ soccer team was creating scoring chance after scoring chance, but nothing was going into the back of the net.

Such a situation might have prompted some teams to force something that wasn’t there out of frustration, perhaps leading to a mistake and a costly counterattack.

Instead, the Pioneers continued to demonstrate the style of play that had Millbrook coach Keith Kilmer so enthused at the beginning of the season, and Tyler Anderson’s goal with 12 minutes remaining gave the host Pioneers some welcome breathing room in a 3-1 Northwestern District victory over James Wood Monday.

“Soccer is a game of patience,” said Anderson, a senior stopper and captain. “Just the way we were knocking it around gave us a big advantage.”

It allowed Millbrook (7-3, 2-1 Northwestern) to control the action and prevent James Wood (3-5-1, 0-2) from getting into the type of flow it found in the middle of the first half, and for that, Kilmer couldn’t have been happier.

“I’m thrilled with the second half,” said Kilmer, whose team finished with a 22-10 shot advantage for the game. “Everything came together, and they finally showed me where they were at the beginning of the season. We fell asleep for a few games, but it came back in the second half. It was nice.

“The flow of the ball and the creativity was just outstanding in the second half.”

A week ago, Kilmer thought the Pioneers were playing much too vertically in their loss to Sherando. But the Pioneers were dropping the ball back, playing it square and diagonally and creating passing lanes and high-percentage scoring opportunities through the runs they made.

It was yet another run into the box with the ball that led to Anderson’s goal. James Wood was able to stop the initial drive, but the Colonels couldn’t make a strong clearance, and Anderson collected the ball and tucked it inside the near-left post with his right foot from about eight yards out to make it 3-1 Millbrook.

Given the way the Pioneers were playing, a two-goal advantage was huge.

“I felt like we dominated that second half,” said junior midfielder Santiago Sanchez, whose 20-yard run through the middle of the field and ensuing shot from the top of the 18 made it 2-1 Millbrook with nine minutes left in the first half. “In the first half we weren’t really passing the ball through the middle, and that kind of affected us. In the second half we really cleaned that up.”

Kilmer said he was definitely impressed with how Santiago and his fellow midfielders, as well as Anderson, took control of the game and built the attack.

Defensively, the Pioneers proved to be stout as well. James Wood nearly scored the equalizer four minutes into the second half after Michael Carter (who scored in the 21st minute) played a beautiful long ball into space for the speedy Jon Henriques to run onto. But Taylor James (three saves) came off his line and reached out with his left hand to knock down the shot.

After that, James Wood was only able to put one more shot on frame in the second half, and it didn’t test James.

“Because of all the chances that Sherando had with all those corners and throws against us, and James Wood in the first half with all the corners and throws, at halftime I challenged my defense to not keep playing the ball out of bounds, and I wanted them to not give up any shots,” Kilmer said.

James Wood coach Matt Dunsmore felt that for a 20-minute stretch in the first half — which included Carter’s goal after Millbrook couldn’t clear a corner kick, as well as a couple of other near-misses — the Colonels outplayed the Pioneers.

He just thought that the difference was that Millbrook — which forced James Wood goalkeeper Cameron Frye to make 10 saves — did well to finish a few more opportunities.

“Hats off to Millbrook, they played well,” said Dunsmore, whose Colonels will host Skyline tonight. “We’ve got to come back and win [today]. Nothing else.”

For the Pioneers — which opened the scoring in the third minute on a Shane Moyer goal — it was just big to get a win in their first game since losing to Sherando. That loss snapped a six-game winning streak.

“That was an eye-opener,” Santiago said. “We want another winning streak and this brings us back toward having that.”

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