St. Thomas vs Windham
August 31, 2012

The Saints hosted The Windham Jaguars in their home opener.

This was the third game for both teams. While Windham had won both their games 5-0 and 3-0 the Saints had battled hard in both their prior matches. 

The saints started the game with the kick off.  St. Thomas took the field with a slightly different starting line up.  The defense of Noah Schwaegerle, Sebastian Olsen, Aaron Dubois and Brian Elis.  Aaron was still sporting his new padded cast on his wrist.  The midfield was Evan Surprenant, TJ Tetreault, Tommy Griffiths and Bryan King.  Strikers Jon Nartiff and Eric Eames were on top.

The first half saw St. Thomas explode on to the travel weary Jaguars who got caught in the long holiday weekend traffic on 95 and 16.  St. Thomas applied an intense pressure that caught Windham by surprise.  It was like a play-off game at the end of the season.  The Saints controlled midfield play with long possessions and carried the play away from the two strong Jaguar center midfielders.  Windham players were getting frustrated as was evident by the increased number of fouls called against them.  It was clear they had not expected this kind of a game.

 Guy Kassas went in for Dubois after about 7 minutes when he was upended onto his casted arm.   Xavier Quinn went in at outside midfield to spell Surprenant.   John Sweeney, Scott Lamoureux and Jarrod Ham saw time at defense to start the rotation of rest for the back four.  All of the St. Thomas defenders were marking well and stepping up and stealing the Jaguar passes.

Andrew Marino went in at striker making his varsity debut and after less than a minute on the field found himself running on to a beautifully played through ball.  Marino streaked towards the Windham net with only the keeper between him. His shot looked like a great chance but the Jaguar keeper came up big with the robbing save.  

As the cheers turned to groans on the St. Thomas Bench, this play added additional spark to the Saints offensive attack.

Simon Smith, Noah Guilfuchi went in at outside midfield to help both on defense and offense.  The Saints were looking fresh and continuing to pressure Windham.  Beau Patterson and Tony Kassas saw time at striker

It was not all offense as Ben Mardin was making some spectacular saves and coming out on long through balls.  The St Thomas defense was coming up with some great stops and winning a lot of the very long punts from the Jaguar keeper.  The game remained tied 0-0 at halftime. 

Windham took the kick for the start of the second half.  The Saints applied continued pressure and ended up taking over possession before the ball could cross midfield.

 46:02 Tommy Griffiths took the ball down the touchline along the base of the hill that had worked us in preseason.  With his back to the hill he crossed the ball into the Jaguar box and Jon Nartiff won the ball with his head and sent it over the keeper into the back of the net for the first goal against Windham this season.

For the first time this season the Saints found themselves ahead in a game and the Jaguars found themselves behind.  It didn't last long as 49:30 saw #10 Alex Whitehead pick up the ball in a crowd in front of the goal and beat Mardin to tie the game 1-1 for the Jaguars.

Several St. Thomas players were playing with minor injuries from the prior two battles but the depth of the bench allowed for a rotation to keep up the pressure. 

At  74:29 Mardin made a diving save on a hard Windham shot but the rebound came out about 6 yards to #13 Chris Ulbrich who sent it back over the out stretched keeper to put the Jaguars up 2-1.

St. Thomas had a number of good chances to tie the game after that.  Both Nartiff and King had some shots that just missed.  The Saints made one last final push, trying to send the game into over time with the final minutes ticking away, but the final whistle sounded and the game ended with St. Thomas's second loss of the season.

Shots on Goal/Frame STA 10 and Windham 8
Saves STA Mardin - 6  Windham Andrew Pesci - 9

St. Thomas will travel to Hollis Brookline on Tuesday at 4pm.

(Coach is sorry he forgot his camera so there is no post game interview)

Photos from Nancy Surprenant

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