Warriors battle but can’t extend win streak against undefeated Bennett

EASTON — Avery Brice was eager for Monday night.

“I was very excited about this game tonight just to see where we were at as far as playing against top competition,” Easton High’s first-year boys head soccer coach said of facing undefeated and defending Bayside Conference champion James M. Bennett.

After 80 minutes, the Warriors were where everyone else has been this season after playing the Clippers — behind on the scoreboard.

And yet despite watching Easton’s four-game win streak come to a halt in a 3-0 loss, Brice was largely encouraged by what he saw from his team.

“Goals change momentum,” said Brice, who watched the Clippers take a 1-0 lead, when star Noah Blankensop gained possession on left wing, and, with Easton keeper Sam Hutchison far from his goal, sent a ball drifting over everyone before settling into the right side of the net with 15 minutes, 27 seconds left in the first half. “I loved how we responded. Going down a goal sucks. Guys responded great. Better than we have previously. We get scored on and it’s like, ‘Wow.’ You just see everyone drop. But tonight you saw guys, ‘Hey come on. Next play. Let’s go again.’ I was really proud of them for that.”

Brice was also proud of Hutchison’s play in goal. The junior keeper stopped a hard shot by Blankensop in the 9th minute and made a save on Sebastien Dorvelus just a moment later to keep the game scoreless. Hutchison then made perhaps his stop of the game, when he punched away a shot that banged off the left post with 7 minutes left in the first half, keeping it a one-goal game.

“Goalie had a huge night,” Brice said of Hutchison, who finished with 11 saves. “Crazy saves. One of the best games I’ve seen him play.”

Bennett (8-0), which has beaten six of its eight opponents this season by six or more goals — the exceptions, Queen Anne’s (3-0 on Sept. 19) and now Easton — looked ready to take a 1-0 lead halftime. But with just over 10 seconds remaining, Grant Ziervogel served a ball that Easton’s Felix Valentin attempted to head away, only to watch it go into the net for a 2-0 Clippers lead.

“The own goal, miscommunication,” Brice said. “We learn from it. Felix, he is an amazing defender and I told him, he’s saved games prior to this. ‘Don’t even worry about it. It happens. It’s part of the game.’”

The Warriors (6-2) thought they cut their deficit in half with 20:20 left in the game, when Clay Nagel, with Bennett keeper Jake Ziervogel away from the goal and two defenders on his back, caught up to a ball and touched it into the net. But the goal was waved off, when Nagel was ruled offsides.

“First competitive (game),” Bennett head coach Gabe Kane said. “First one that wasn’t decided by halftime.

“We don’t want 12 strolls,” said Kane in reference to the Clippers outscoring their opponents, 53-2 this season. “We want to be battle tested, and Easton came at us for 80 minutes today. There was no quit in them. They seemed to play harder after the third goal. I think they had more chances at the end of the game when I know they were tired. But they kept battling.”

Bennett bumped its lead to 3-0 as Grason Adkins scored from the right side of the box with 7:26 left.

Jake Ziervogel, who according to Kane has not had more than one save in a game this season prior to Monday, made a leaping stop on Ale Monroy with 6:45 left. Blankensop, who was recruited by a number of Division I schools but is headed to Salisbury University, just missed pushing the lead to 4-0 in the waning moments when he blasted a shot off the crossbar.

“I knew they were going to be our best opponent we’d play to date,” Brice said. “I think we made some silly mistakes and we paid for them. But they are just minor ones. We switched off for a moment, not marking in the box, not getting and winning the second ball in the box.

“The score does not reflect how we played,” Brice continued. “I think going forward, we work on finishing our chances and then just being a little more creative up top.”