St. Thomas @ Souhegan
October 5, 2012

The Saints traveled to Souhegan to play the Sabers in their first night game of the season.

Coming off two wins in a row the players were looking to keep moving up in the standings..

The Saints took the field with Ben Mardin in goal.  The Midfield was Evan Surprenant, Jon Nartiff, TJ Tetreault Xavier Quinn and Eric Eames.  The Defense was Noah Schwaegerle, Sebastian Olsen, Brian Ellis and Aaron Dubois.   Bryan King as Striker.

St. Thomas came out moving the ball well.  The Saints were marking well and applying pressure to keep the Sabers from building any sort of attack.

2:30 saw King take the ball towards the right side of the net and send a cross pass to Nartiff who fired a hard shot into the left side of the net.  The ball made the net jump and it bounced right back out into the hands of the Souhegan keeper.  The Saints all celebrated the quick goal but the referee didn't signal the goal.  He was blocked by the crowd in the box and claimed he never saw the ball cross the goal line.  Nartiff's hard shot worked against him.  The Sabers started to counter while most of the Saints tired to plead their case to the referee.

Simon Smith and Tommy Griffiths went in at outside midfield and John Sweeney and Guy Kassas went in at defense to help keep Souhegan off their attack.

About three minutes after Griffiths entered the field he went up for a header and was struck in the top of the head by a Saber players eyebrow.  Both players came off the field bleeding.  The Souhegan player was able to reenter the game in the second half but needed to swap his uniform jersey.  Griffiths wasn't able to come back and ended up getting 4 staples in his scalp at the ER after the game.

28:31 saw King send a through ball that Nartiff raced on to while the Saber keeper came out to try and scoop it up.  The keeper took his eye off the ball and Nartiff was able to tap it around him and bury it into the net.  Nartiff made sure the ball stayed in the back of the net this time.

Scott Lamoureux and Tony Kassas added fresh legs to the back four defending against the Spartans.

Beau Patteson, Jared Ham and Noah Guilfuchi also saw time for the Saints offense.

St. Thomas put 5 shots on net in the first half and Souhegan had matched them.

Halftime found the Saints up 1-0 with lots of unfinished attempts.  The Spartan Keeper had four great saves.

St. Thomas went out in the second half with a goal lead but knowing it wasn't enough.

The Sabers took the kick off down the field and fired a shot from about 20 yards out up and over the goal posts of the football field.  The resulting goal kick saw the Saints putting more pressure on the Souhegan keeper.

The game was very fast with quick counters by both teams and hard physical play from all players.

at 56:20 St. Thomas made some slick passing through the midfield and the ball was sent along the 18 yard line changing fields through four players finding Guilfuchi open on the wing.  He carried the ball in alone on the Souhegan keeper and took a nice shot that was covered up by a diving save.

St. Thomas gave up a late goal at 69:07 when Souhegan was awarded a direct kick about 30 yards out and the ball found a saber players head inside the box and was tipped over Mardin's reach to tie the game.

The saints pressed for the final 5 minutes of the game but couldn't get the ball past the Saber Keeper.

Now came Overtime - the second time for the Saints and the third for Souhegan.

The first 10 minutes saw a battle between both midfields.  Each teams defense held strong.  Neither team was able to put any shots on goal. 

The second ten minutes saw intense pressure by the Saints.  St. Thomas had a number of great chances but the Saber keeper came up with 4 saves to keep the tie.

 

Ben Mardin had 9 saves While the saints put 12 shots on frame.

St. Thomas will host Goffstown at 4pm on Tuesday October 9th.

The team enjoyed as stop at McDonalds in Epping on the ride home.

Here is a post game interview with Brian Ellis and Jared Ham
with cameos from numerous players:

 (see it here if it doesn't load in your browser)

 

 

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