Boys' Soccer - Warriors Topple Colonels

Posted: May 11, 2016
By JERRY HOLSWORTH
The Winchester Star

WINCHESTER — With Sherando’s boys’ soccer team holding a tenuous 1-0 lead with five minutes to play against rival James Wood, the Colonels began to press hard for the equalizer.

With several players from both teams fighting desperately for the ball at midfield with less than two minutes to play and Wood with nearly all of its players moving forward, the ball popped free to Warrior Sean Buono who sent it down the right sideline past the only Colonel defender between him and the goal.

That put Buono wide open just 25 yards from Colonel goalkeeper Cole Morris to beat. Buono drove the ball straight at Morris then blasted it past him to give the Warriors a 2-0 hard-fought victory.

“Defenders from both team were competing hard for the ball, and we won it and it popped out me,” Buono said. “There was only one defender between me and the goal and I just sprinted past him and I was free to the goal.’’

Buono’s goal ended an intense struggle punctuated by cold, rainy conditions that was closely played.

“We had to depend on every one of our players to get this win,” Warriors coach Pat Anderson said. “You also have to give James Wood a lot of credit. It’s always a battle with those guys, and tonight was no different.”

Only seven shots were attempted by both teams in the first half, and it was Wood who got the first serious opportunity to take the lead when a hard shot by Colin Watts from 15 yards out was saved by Warrior goalkeeper Brandon Teets.

But with just three minutes remaining in the half and the ball in the Colonel penalty area surrounded by players from both sides, Sherando’s Nathan Wagner was able to drop the ball off to teammate Victor Pinto who shot it past Morris from eight yards out to put the Warriors up 1-0.

Only seven shots were attempted by both teams in the first half, and it was Wood who got the first serious opportunity to take the lead when a hard shot by Colin Watts from 15 yards out was saved by Warrior goalkeeper Brandon Teets.

But with just three minutes remaining in the half and the ball in the Colonel penalty area surrounded by players from both sides, Sherando’s Nathan Wagner was able to drop the ball off to teammate Victor Pinto who shot it past Morris from eight yards out to put the Warriors up 1-0.

“The ball popped out and Nathan dropped it off to me,” Pinto said. “That was very unselfish of him. This game was a very hard fight. I thought the secret to our success was that everyone played really well. It was a tremendous team effort.”

The second half was dominated by Sherando until the final minutes. The Warriors out shot Wood 6-1 in the half, but brilliant play by the Morris, who had three saves, and his teammates kept Sherando off the scoreboard until Buono broke free in the final moments.

“This was a very tough game, and it was back and forth the whole way,” Buono said. “It was really great to see all of our hard work pay off like it did tonight. Every ball was a physical struggle and it was even more physical than usual since it was raining.”

“I thought that we really fought hard throughout the game,” Colonel coach Brian Sullivan said. “We had pretty good possession in the first half, and we did a lot of things that were good. But Sherando played outstanding defensively. They took away all of our corner kicks, and our other set pieces that we use to set up our offense. It was really frustrating in the second half because we didn’t get as many opportunities.”

“It was nice to finally get into the flow of things after having so many game canceled,” Anderson added. “It’s tough when you’re working hard and you have a game, then you don’t have a game. We gave up three goals in our last game with them. I thought that defensively we did a lot better job with them in this game than in the last one. We still have some work to do on offense though.”