A beautiful day for soccer

On a glorious fall day, Groton again had a split squad. 14 boys took on Winchendon on our usual field, and 14 took on Nobles on the turf, with 3 boys out for medical reasons. Aidan opened the scoring in the 11th minute, catching the Nobles keeper off his line with an outside-of-the-foot strike from the right side. Nobles struck back in the 14th minute with a strong individual effort as #4 dribbled through 3 defenders and slotted home the equalizer. Groton took the lead again in the 31st minute as Jack E tucked home a cross from Wally, but the lead was short-lived. #4 again took advantage of a lapse in defensive communication and dribbled his way through some bigger-than-expected gaps to tie the game in the 34th minute. The half ended tied, despite Groton having both territorial and possession advantages on the half. Our short bench showed in the second half, as the gaps between defenders and midfielders grew and Nobles found more room to operate. They took the lead in the 9th minute of the second half, and we were unable to generate enough to break through their clustered defense the rest of the way.