By Tim DeLouchrey
Sports Liaison
Westford Academy varsity boys’ soccer team started the season 2-0. The next game, they tied Lincoln- Sudbury with a score of 0-0. Since then, they have lost six consecutive matches against Somerville, North Andover, Newton South, Weston, Wayland, and Concord-Carlisle.
The team was in position to win most of these games, but failed to rise to the expectations. The Grey Ghosts have lost all of these games by just one goal, besides two 3-0 losses to Somerville and CC.
“We are snake bitten right now, but we are slowly working our way out of it,” said head coach, Tony Dileo.
Positives to take away from these losses is that the team has not actually played that poorly. They have typically controlled pace and time of possession, and have simply been unable to finish for goals.
“We played well enough to win today,” said Dileo after a 2-1 loss to North Andover. “A couple of fortunate set pieces gave them the game.”
The Ghosts simply have not been able to perform at the end of games this season. In all of these games, the boys have been outscored in the first half 4-1. However, of those four goals, two of them came right before half. In the second half of games, the team has been outscored 9-2, including a goal in the final minute by Wayland, that ended the game 1-0.
“We simply were unable to finish and a very unlucky play at the end of the game determined everything,” said Dileo, after the loss to Wayland.
There are multiple reasons that the team is failing to compete to its maximum potential, including injuries and attitude.
“Morale is low,” said goalkeeper Sam Brewer. “We got hit with the injury bug, and once we started losing, it really started going downhill.”
Despite being the goal keeper, Brewer is far from responsible for these losses. In the six game span, WA has only scored three goals. According to Dileo, Brewer has played well, and it has been sheer bad luck that is responsible for these losses.
However, the team is trying to build off of these losses and learn each time.
“This was a wonderful learning experience for our team,” said Dileo after a loss to Somerville. Somerville is undefeated on the season with a record of 9-0-1.
“I try not to think about the losses too much,” said Brewer.
They might not have many more losses ahead of them however.
“People are starting to come back from injuries,” said junior Eashan Jani. “For now, morale is pretty low, and we just can’t finish. We can’t put the ball in the net.”
The team travels to Bedford on Tuesday to try to snap the streak.
