Week 1 (4-02-06)

Slow Spring Start for Fuller Hamlets Soccer Teams
When compared to the highly successful opening days of the fall season, the opening days of the spring season are invariably less successful, and the poor start to the spring season of 2006 for the Hamlets' 13 teams in the Massachusetts Premier League (MAPLE) proved to be no exception. Goals were scarce and ties and losses were more than on any Sunday in the fall.
The reasons for the slow starts, past and present are well known. Hamlets' teams have the entire month of August to prepare for the season-opener in September whereas the weather in the Worcester Uplands prevents teams from getting onto the practice fields in March while teams in the Connecticut Valley and on the Coastal Lowlands, five degrees warmer than the Uplands, practice frequently through much of March. Grounds are harder, snow lingers longer, and temperatures get above 42 degrees more rarely in the Uplands, and Hamlets teams know that, for the first two or three weeks in the spring, games against better prepared teams from the Valley and Lowlands will be hard to win. Teams go south to tournaments in Virginia and the Carolinas in March to try to overcome their locational and climatic disadvantage but they also pray for opening-day opponents from the Uplands whom they can meet on a level playing field, and it is no accident that the four Hamlets victories on the opening day were against teams from the Uplands.
Another factor in this year's slow start is that the Hamlets teams did so well in the fall that several of them were promoted to higher divisions where they knew they would experience stiffer competition than in the fall. These promoted teams produced most of the low-scoring ties of the first weekend.
Ranked second in Massachusetts, and unbeaten in the fall season, coach Jay Bowden's Hamlets Under 12 Girls got off to a good start against Charles River United at the Bowden Fields, Central Turnpike in Button. Benefiting from a successful pre-season tournament in Virginia and an equally successful indoor season they scored early on a goal by Samantha O'Keefe who finished impressively with a low drive after a great run on the right wing by Emily Madsen who crossed the ball perfectly for the striker. Soon after that, another cross from the right from Ana Bowden found Charlotte Meyers whose long high drive clipped under the bar to make the score 2-0 before half-time. The Hamlets missed several good chances in the second half but succeeded in closing down the CRU playmaker and ran out 2-0 winners.
On the Olympic-sized Bowden A Field the Under 14 Girls, whose late-season heroics in the fall kept them in the MAPLE First Division, were pitted against the Western Massachusetts Pioneers: a battle between the state's fourth and seventh-ranked teams The Hamlets began well and had two early shots from Kate Nasuti (one a spectacular tip-over) that would have beaten most goalkeepers. The Hamlets continued to get good scoring chances but had no luck against a fine keeper, and as invariably happens, the Pioneers scored first on their first serious counter-attack. Thereafter the game swung the Pioneers' way as the Hamlets were caught time and again failing to move the ball more quickly out of the midfield. But against the run of the play a flurry of Hamlets corners produced an equalizer from a ricochet in the goalmouth. The Hamlets played with great heart against the higher-ranked team but the superior conditioning of the Pioneers who had been out practicing throughout March eventually began to take its toll. One short clearance too many by a tired Hamlets defender late in the game gave the Pioneers' right winger an uncontested chance to cross the ball. The mis-hit cross became a looped shot that dropped over the head of the helpless Erin Ronan in goal and the Pioneers came away with a lucky goal and an undeserved victory.
The Under 11B Girls (mainly an Under 10s team that will be the core of the Hamlets Under 11 A team in the fall of 2006), finished the fall ranked 23rd in the state and were promoted to a higher division. They got to play against another team from the Worcester Uplands, the SAC Girls A team, and quickly took control of the game as measured by possession time and territorial position. In the middle of the first half their continued pressure on the SAC goal paid off when Kristin Niland scored a good goal from 10 yards out meeting a cross from Caroline Kelleher. The Hamlets could have had 3 or 4 more easy goals but splendid goalkeeping by the diminutive SAC keeper, an exceptional shot-stopper with good hands, and a general failure by the Hamlets strikers to step into their shots kept the score at 1-0. In the Hamlets defense, Bea Bowden and Megan Talon were towers of strength throughout the game, preventing SAC from getting a sight of the goal.
While the Hamlets Under 13A Girls, ranked fourth in Massachusetts and the State Champions in 2004, were beating another Uplands team FC Puma 4-0 in Westborough, the 27th-ranked Hamlets Under 13B Girls were beset with adversity at the Bowden Fields. With injuries to key players they were forced to play without substitutes on the Olympic-sized Bowden A Field (120 yards by 75 yards). The game was essentially even throughout but after 65 minutes fatigue set in for the home team and in a heart-breaker they conceded the only goal of the match with five minutes to go. Nicole Stacey was outstanding in anchoring the defense and with her powerful clearances with right and left foot kept the Hamlets in the game until the end.
The twelfth-ranked Under 15 Girls opened the season against a new club from the North Shore, SF Vikings, a fusing of two once-powerful clubs in that region (SUNS and Force, hence the 'SF'). Vikings were strong, quick, and well-conditioned as a result of practicing throughout March. They got in behind the Hamlets defense frequently but were profligate in wasting good chances in the first half. As it happened, the Hamlets left winger Erin Kinback won a corner and scored a miracle goal with a left-footed comer kick from the left corner helped into the top right corner of the net by the strong wind from north giving the Hamlets an undeserved lead after 20 minutes. Vikings continued to press and were awarded a penalty kick after a takedown in the penalty area halfway through the second half. But goalie Demi McLaren made a brilliant diving save to the right and clutched the ball cleanly, putting off the seemingly inevitable equalizer. McLaren played the best game of her life and continually covered up the mistakes made by the defense in front of her. But with 8 minutes to go the Vikings got an equalizer and the Hamlets hung on grimly, and luckily, for the 1-1 tie.
The final game on the Bowden fields was a result of that peculiar travesty of scheduling that is the specialty of the Massachusetts Premier League-forcing one team that has already played one tough game to play another 90 minutes later against a team that is playing its one and only game: a tired team versus a fresh team. (Only administrators who have never coached youth soccer at the club level would consider inflicting such unequal competition on players who have already played their hearts out an hour or so ago). In the second game for the Hamlets Under 12 Girls on the day the inevitable happened despite a valiant fight, and a victory was presented to the Western Massachusetts Pioneers by administrative fiat and insensitivity.
In other results away from the Bowden Fields coach Mike Elster's splendid Under 11 Boys team, ranked fourth in the state in the fall, were pitted against another team from the Worcester Uplands, FC United, and were comfortable winners. Ryan Elster scored the winning goal in a game in which the Hamlets dominated possession and had far more good chances to score than their opponents.
Gail Bagley's Under 11A Girls, ranked sixth in Massachusetts in the fall, also played against a team from the Worcester Uplands, the newly-amalgamated Tri-Valley and Spirit of Massachusetts. They tied 0-0 in Holliston. The Hamlets Under 18 Girls, playing at the SYS Memorial Field, scored early on a goal by Kate O'Brien but tired in the last ten minutes and gave away a last-minute equalizer to top-ranked South Coast Scorpions and tied 1-1. A similar pattern dominated the game between the newly-promoted and seventeenth-ranked Hamlets Under 12 Girls and North Shore United at Gloucester on the Cape Ann peninsula. Leading at half time on goals by Kendra Roderick and Kelsey Uppstrom, Rich Pellon's team gave away two late goals as the players tired and had to hold on for the 2-2 tie.
Allie Arscott's Under 12 Boys, also ranked seventeenth and newly-promoted, lost 4-2 to Merrimack, and Colin Gordon's Under 13s Hamlets Boys, ranked eleventh in the fall, lost 3-0 to Nor'easter at the Mariner Fields in Fairhaven. In both cases conditioning, practice time in March, and match fitness favored the Coastal teams over the Upland teams. As if to prove the point Bruce Dodge's Under 17 Boys, ranked twentieth in the state, played against another Uplands team, Nashoba United at Lucent Fields in Westford and ran out 3-1 winners on two goals by Matt Dodge and one by John Caffrey.
As conditioning of players improves and as the advantages of the Lowlands disappear, the Hamlets' results will undoubtedly improve, but opening day was as usual a disappointingly slow start in which losses (5) outnumbered victories (4) and ties(4). The last time this happened was on the opening day's play in spring 2005.