The Westford Academy Varsity Boys’ Soccer team played Boston Latin at home on Saturday, October 3rd. It was windy and cold throughout the game.

To start the game off, neither team was able to establish control and the ball went back and forth between teams for the first few possessions. WA started to take control when sophomore Derek Jones with a break in the coverage, crossed the ball to senior Neema Saberi. It looked good initially, but the Boston Latin goalie came up big with a nice stop with 36 minutes left in the first half, keeping the game tied 0-0.

The first goal came early for WA. Saberi hit a nice header into the back of the net for the Ghosts, to give them a 1-0 lead. It wasn’t all good for WA however, as  Jones went down with an apparent lower body injury with 30 minutes left in the first half. Jones came out and didn’t return until after halftime.

WA was still in control for most of the first half without Jones. However, a few breaks were unable to be capitalized on. The frustration came out from Boston Latin when one of their  and senior Ben Balian got into a scuffle, with about 24 minutes left in the half. No foul or card was issued after the scuffle.

Soon after, there was a foul against Boston Latin for hands in the back. A free kick was issued to WA. However, Neema was unable to capitalize on the free shot and kicked directly into a wall of Boston Latin players.

With about 20 minutes left in the first half, Boston Latin saw their first real opportunity for a goal. It was on a corner kick, but the Boston Latin kick sailed high over the goal. Junior Ben Pazienza stopped another Boston Latin bid for a goal with solid defense on the wing with 17 minutes left in the first half.

With about 16 minutes left in the half, WA had a free kick opportunity off of a tripping call on Boston-Latin. However, the ball sailed over the goalpost.  Later, with 12 minutes left, WA had another chance for a goal, when Armen Almasian hit the goalpost on a nice high-arcing kick. Then again with about ten minutes to go in the first half, play stopped because the ball nailed a  Boston Latin player in the head.  Fortunately, he walked off the field on his own power and underwent concussion protocol. Despite this, Boston Latin controlled play for the rest of the half.

Jones, who had previously been injured, returned to the game after the half. Unfortunately, he went down again with nineteen minutes left in the second half. It was an apparent knee injury.

The momentum started come out of halftime for WA. However, Boston-Latin looked to change that with seventeen minutes left in the second half when they hit the crossbar. After this, possession was very back and forth with no big breaks until there was about three minutes left in the game when a Boston Latin goal was called back because they knocked over the goalie on a corner kick.

The game ended with a final score of 1-0 in favor of the Ghosts.

Head coach Tony Dileo had a few words to say after the match about the boys’ play.

“I think we played pretty well. We stayed disciplined through most of the game. We got a bit frazzled at the end. […] There’s lots to improve on […],” said Dileo.

The boys will take on Bedford next on Wednesday October 7th.