THREE BIG FULLER HAMLETS HOME WINS IN MASSPREMIER
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In a shortened schedule of games at Bowden Fields on Week Four of the Massachusetts Premier League, the Fuller Hamlets Soccer Club teams continued their winning ways at home in some hotly contested games.
In the first game on the Lower Field the Hamlets Under 12 Boys (0-3) were pitted against the 3-0 Duxbury United team from the South Shore who were in first place in the Division. This was an end-to-end thriller in which the Hamlets defense played with courage and determination, and a little bit of luck, to keep the high-scoring Duxbury team off the scoreboard in the first half. After several probing attacks late in the half the Hamlets took the lead. Michael Hoy, the sweeper and anchor of the Hamlets defense, took a direct free kick close to the half-way line. He lofted the ball 50 yards to Major Dorfman who finished the move with a powerful 18-yard drive into the Duxbury net.

The Hamlets increased their lead in the second half when Connor King dribbled past three defenders in a 25-yard run and then scored on a low hard shot from 10 yards out. Duxbury got their only goal soon after and began to press hard for the equalizer, and believed they had it when a Duxbury player was taken down in the penalty box with five minutes to go. Goalkeeper Thomas Kulesza had other ideas. The hero of Week Two against Eastern Massachusetts S.C. flung himself to the right and saved a well-hit penalty to the relief and cheers of the Hamlets players and fans. For the last 4 minutes the Hamlets held on for a giant-killing first victory of the campaign, 2-1.

On the Upper Field the Fuller Hamlets Under 13 Boys with two wins in their first three games entertained Aztecs, a recently formed club from the North Shore. The Hamlets were slow to establish their dominance against a team with a suspect goalkeeper, problems of slowness and fitness in the back four, and a forward line that had difficulty getting past the impeccable James Lacasse who, with able support from his fullbacks made dozens of timely interventions and an array of precise outlet passes to the wide midfielders that kept pressure on the Aztecs1 defense throughout the match. Behind the back four goalkeeper Andrew Haas commanded the penalty area with safe hands and a good understanding with Lacasse. Haas's long and accurate punts caused several problems for the Aztec back four.

The star of the attack was Kyle Gordon who opened the scoring after 16 minutes. Picking up a loose ball 30 yards from goal he dribbled past two midfielders, held off challenges from two defenders on the edge of the penalty box, cut sharply to the left and then steadied himself near the penalty spot before stroking the ball low and hard beyond the reach of the advancing goalkeeper and into the right corner of the net. A picture-perfect goal. Ten minutes later he increased the lead to 2-0. A long high clearance from Lacasse bounced over the head of the sweeper and the alert Gordon, with much ground to cover, sped in between two defenders to take the ball on his chest to beat the attempted grab of the ball by the keeper who turned to see Gordon's quick shot rolling into the empty net. This silenced the hitherto loud Aztec coaching staff and stunned the Aztec team who presented the Hamlets with some easy chances that were squandered late in the half.

Midway through the second half the Aztecs rallied and they began to test goalkeeper Haas with several shots from outside the penalty area. But with 10 minutes to go the Hamlets finally put the game beyond the Aztecs' reach. A quick and long throw by Kyle Gordon reached Andrew Downton just inside the penalty box. He turned, took two steps, and hit a low hard shot which the goalkeeper parried back to the feet of Downton who was following up. He hit the ball first time and buried the rebound into the lower left corner. After this third goal the Aztecs wilted and played like a beaten team, and they were lucky that the Hamlets did not score two or three more goals from easy chances in the last 10 minutes. As it was the Hamlets won 3-0 in their third win in four games with Kyle Gordon the man of the match with two goals of high quality and an assist. As in their previous game at the Bowden Fields (Week Two) the 13s Boys were again fortunate to have the same new referee in control, unobtrusive, fair, confident enough to ignore and overrule poor calls by the assistants, and a person who not only had played the game at a high level but also obviously knew and loved the beautiful game.

It was a pity that this referee was not in the middle for the next game, the first division clash between the Fuller Hamlets Under 13 Girls, the Massachusetts State Champions of 2004, and the always physical Western Massachusetts Pioneers (out of the Springfield area). The Hamlets knew they had a tough game on their hands in the first 10 minutes when they saw that the referee was permitting spirited and borderline physicality in tackles but calling niggling technicalities all too frequently. The Hamlets had the edge in the first 15 minutes, making several probing runs into the Pioneers' penalty area and testing the small but very agile, active, and combative Pioneer goalkeeper who confidently ranged throughout the penalty area and sometimes beyond it. Talking to her defenders all the time and snowing very safe hands in the early going, she made it clear that it would take a very good shot to beat her, and so it proved in the sixteenth minute. A half-hit goalmouth clearance by the Pioneers' sweeper rolled the ball to the edge of the penalty box where Emily Nasuti, running in, hit the ball very hard and with perfect technique into the roof of the net in a memorable goal.

The shock of the goal spurred the Pioneers to raise the level of their game and of their physicality. Some very hard tackling followed, particularly in the midfield where Kristen Martinson, Victoria Havard, and Briana Poulin gave as good as they got. Gaps did appear in the Hamlets' defense, however, and just before half time a cross from the Pioneers' left winger dropped over the ruck of players in front of the goal and fell kindly for the Pioneers' unmarked right midfielder at the backdoor. She had time to take two steps and hammer a fierce low drive across the face of the goal and just inside the left upright in a picture-perfect goal with which the Hamlets keeper, Samantha Whittier, had no chance.
Obviously revved up by Coach Seth Coulter's half-time pep-talk the Hamlets again dominated the first 15 minutes but the Pioneers held on with the help of the woodwork and the composure of their goalie who made several good saves, notably from Mary-Claire Pelletier and Briana Poulin. With the Hamlets' forwards continually frustrated in front of goal, the Pioneers changed formation and pushed forward for the winner with three strikers. This strategy was countered by the Hamlets' defenders who dropped long balls over the back three as the Pioneers pushed up. This eventually produced the match winner but not for the Pioneers. After breaking through on the goalie and having the ball taken off her foot by the advancing goalie in a one-on-one situation, Anitra Farina did not make the same mistake twice when a through ball from Poulin gave her another one-on-one. She released a low hard shot to the goalie's left and five yards away-just as the coaching manuals dictate, and she had the joint pleasures of seeing the ball race into the backnetting and of receiving the traditional hugs from her relieved and delighted team-mates.

The battle became more fierce thereafter, but it was fought mainly in the midfield and in the Pioneers' half thanks to the Hamlets' sterling defense in which Kristen Cameron and Samantha Whittier were leaders who remained cool under pressure. The 2-1 victory gave the Hamlets a 2-1-1 record (the only loss to the 2005 state champions) and third place in the 10-team division.

In the final game of the day the Hamlets Under 12B Girls came up against a hard-hitting Western Massachusetts Pioneers team that the Hamlets more than matched in skills but failed to match in tenacity. In a game that Coach Rich Pellon felt that the Hamlets should have won, the team had two mental lapses in marking on the edge of the penalty box, allowing the Pioneers' strong central midfield dynamo plenty of time to step into two powerful shots that gave the Hamlets' keeper no chance to make saves. The Hamlets played well in patches and created two good chances and several half-chances but none were converted in a disappointing 2-0 loss.