Thank you to contributors Dan Brosgol, Julie Sheridan, Virendar Kaushik, Caroline Fedele, John Harris, and Dennis Liu who provided valuable match reports and photos for this article
With the end of the fall soccer season for BAYS and the local club leagues, this past weekend offered Bedford soccer players the chance to take the field one last time in a local tournament hosted by Winchester Soccer Club. Three teams featuring Bedford-heavy rosters, including two Middlesex Phantoms club teams, plied their trade on soccer pitches throughout the Winchester-Arlington-Medford metropolitan area, with all three teams delivering definitive results against other local competition.
Bedford fielded teams in three divisions: Girls U14 Stripes, Boys U12 Freedom, and Boys U14 Blue.
For those of you keeping score at home, there were 11 tournament wins, 0 losses, and 1 draw for our Bedford teams, with the footballers outscoring their opponents by a cumulative score of 65-8. With the four-games-in-48 hours schedule now in the rear view mirror, it’s time to rest those leg muscles and begin the countdown to Thanksgiving, when a different kind of football takes center stage.
Girls U14 “Stripes”
In the girls U14 Girls “Stripes” division the U13 Middlesex Phantoms took the field for four games and rolled through the weekend with a perfect 4-0-0 record, scoring 13 goals and conceding only one to the opposition.
The first game, against the Winchester Warriors, proved to be the tightest one of the tournament, a narrow 2-1 victory that was earned when Shayla Fedele sent a clever back pass to Taylor Lewis, who put a chip shot into the goal for the equalizer. Later, on a breakaway, the lone Winchester defender managed to clear the ball to the sideline, but Charlize Liu raced in and made the throw to a sprinting Nyra Perez for the go-ahead goal.
The remaining games against the Rifles (3-0) and Azzuri (5-0) from Winchester, and the Milton Soccer Charge (3-0), were wins where the Phantoms’ strong defense kept the opposition scoreless, with a lot of help from stellar goalkeeper Megan McKenna. The Phantoms defense managed to keep play in the opponent’s half of the field for most of each game, enabling the offense to take multiple shots.
The girls ended the tournament winning the division by five points over the second-place team.
Boys U12 “Freedom”
In the boys U12 “Freedom” division, the U11 Middlesex Phantoms went 3-0-1 in their four-game schedule to top the table.
The Phantoms opened the tournament with a 6-1 win over Winchester Union. Wynn Sheridan, Tomas Ou, and Colin Viera all tallied goals, while Richie Fedele and Ben Dubrovskiy played strong defense supporting goalie Amin Rahim.
The Phantoms beat the Arlington Falcons 5-1 in the second game Saturday with excellent all-around team play. Demonstrating skilled passing and strong defense, the Phantoms dominated play throughout the game. Devan Kaushik scored two goals, and Fedele and Austin Cullis played solid defense.
In Sunday’s first game, the Phantoms defeated the Winchester Express 7-1, their victory highlighted by a beautiful give-and-go score between Kaushik and Anirudh Kumar. Goalie-turned-striker Amin Rahim scored two goals and Charlie Jones added another as the Phantoms pulled away in the second half.
The Phantoms finished the tournament with an exciting 3-3 draw against the Arlington Awesome. After two quick goals by Kumar put the Phantoms up early, Arlington roared back with three of their own. Adam Capobianco tied the score with five minutes left, and Arlington withstood a Phantom flurry at the end to secure the draw.
The 3 wins and 1 draw accounted for 10 points, enabling the Phantoms to clinch first place within the division and finish the weekend with a 21-6 goal advantage over the opposition.
Boys U14 – “Blue”
Finally, in the boys U14 Blue division, a talented squad of U13 Bedford soccer players in grades 6 and 7 ran roughshod over the competition, going 4-0-0 over their weekend games.
The Bucs beat Somerville 9-0 on Friday evening at Medford High School behind strong scoring performances from Harry Bertos, Connor Loughlin, Owen Goss, Max Alper, and Quinn Ricci, and stout goalkeeping from Dylan DiGangi.
The boys continued their winning ways on Saturday morning, rolling past Andover 6-0 behind goals from Bertos (2), James Brosgol (2), Riley Daniel, and DiGangi as the Bucs dominated possession under an ice-blue sky and blazing sunshine.
On Saturday at dusk, the action moved to Arlington High School, where the boys were caught in a close game early on, but eventually pulled past the Winchester Warriors 7-1, with Niko Fotis joining the scoring party, and the team then finished up the competition on a raw and drizzly Sunday afternoon, blowing past the Winchester Thunder by another 9-0 score line, including 5 goals from Bertos and a solid penalty kick from Shun Isobe to close the scoring.
The Bucs featured additional strong play from Matt Goodhue and Shaan Manocha, who roved the midfield with excellent vision and passing distribution, and Nicolas Oustinow, Andrew Venuti, and Max Weisz, whose aggressive play up front kept the pressure on the opposition throughout the weekend.
The boys’ other-worldly 31- 1 goal differential was far and away the best in the division.
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