Senior Jasper Peters took it upon himself to help Chatham High School (N.J.) Boy’s soccer team establish quick momentum, scoring two early goals 44 seconds apart for a 2-0 lead.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!The Cougars added four more markers the rest of the way to help propel Chatham (2-1) to a 6-0 shutout victory over Mount Olive (0-3) Monday at home.
After suffering a tough 1-0 defeat to Ridgewood Friday, Chatham head coach Mark Maka said his boys were able to brush it off and to return to business as usual. He said the squad is well aware of its talent. It is just a matter of doing it every time out on the pitch.
“I thought the loss wasn’t soul-crushing in any way,” Maka said. “It’s never fun to lose, but I though we competed against a really good team on Friday. These guys came in on Saturday morning for practice, and their confidence was still high. And we know that we have the potential to be very good. We just have to consistently play to our level.”
After jumping out to a 2-0 lead, senior Declan Leahy found the back of the net off a corner kick from senior Cillian Kalika for a 3-0 Cougar advantage with 26:51 remaining in the first half.
Looking to put the contest away, senior Esteban Izurieta floated a shot high above the outstretched arms of Marauder goalkeeper Jayden Castro for a 4-0 lead with 36:19 to go in the game.
Next, senior Hudson Greeley bent the soccer ball into the goal for a commanding 5-0 advantage with 10:24 left in the contest.
With a goal from senior Peter Pelosi, Chatham capped the scoring at 6-0 with under ten minutes to play, with five different players registering tallies in the lopsided win.
Maka said that with Peters getting going, it is vital to helping other Cougars find the back of the net, and ultimately, picking up triumphs in the process.
“It’s obviously important,” he said of Peters finding his scoring groove. “He’s a target for us in terms of scoring goals, and all that. But also, I think he opens things up for other guys to score goals as well.
“A lot of that comes out of the defensive work that we always stress of we want to press a little bit higher, we want to move the ball high up the field,” Maka continued. “When that happens, in those transition moments, that teams are opened up a little bit. And Jasper did a good job today of finding the space to get behind (the defense) and put two away for us early.”
Leahy, Kalika, Shaan Modi and Danny O’Brien all recorded markers for Chatham.
The Cougars hosts Madison Wednesday at 4:00 p.m.
— Jerry Del Priore
You must be logged in to post a comment.