Staples At Wethersfield Jamboree (Pre-Season)
For the 10th straight year, Wethersfield hosted Staples at the Winton-Keene-Bittner Soccer Jamboree. The event honors 3 Eagles lost on 9/11 — as well as former Wrecker Scott Coleman.
After the very important opening ceremony, Staples got down to business.
They had the run of play for much of the 1st 30 minutes on turf against host Wethersfield. The tight defense of Sam Koenig, Greg Shikowitz, Ethan Bradeen, Connor Weiler and Andrew Puchala prevented any shots on keeper James Hickok.
But despite moving the ball well on the attack, the match was scoreless. Then, with just 1:50 to go, Harry Birch ripped a 20-yard direct kick through the wall, for the win.
The 2nd match, on the slower grass against Fermi-Enfield, started slowly for Staples. But 5 minutes in they got their rhythm.
In the 7th minute, Bradeen power-headed in Noah Bender’s inswinging free kick. Two minutes later Joe Greenwald’s through ball found Bender, for a quick 2-0 lead.
The 3rd tally started with Charlie Leonard, continued through Yousef Shahin, and ended with a fine shot by Diego Alanis.
The final match pitted many reserves against Kingswood-Oxford’s 1st team. Alanis and Joe Pravder had good chances; Shahin, Jon Denowitz George Kokkalis, Michael Reid and Patrick Beusse played tight defense, and Bobby Jacowleff made a great save in traffic during the 0-0 draw.
“We usually have an up-and-down day here,” said head coach Dan Woog. “Today was very, very up. Our guys have made excellent progress over the first 2 weeks. Now they’ve got to keep it going.”
Jack Scott had 2 good games at Wethersfield. He’s shown here in previous action, being saved by keeper Will Steiner last week. (Photo by Carl McNair)
