Strange things always seem to happen when the JV Tigers travel East to the town of Pomfret, Connecticut to face off against the Pomfret Griffins. In the first five seconds of the game, the trend seemed to continue with a gifted PK for the home team. Thankfully, our Captain and Goalie, Hanseo Lim, stared death in the face and death blinked. Hanseo laid out parallel to the ground, making a diving save to prevent the early deficit. What followed was twenty-six minutes of dominance from the Suffield attack that unfortunately failed to create a shot on net. When we eventually lost possession, the Griffins took advantage, and with a little help from the sun, scored their first goal on a blinded Hanseo Lim. Jaden Kim took that goal personally, and forced some great turnovers in the middle of the field to keep our foot on the gas. In the closing minutes of the first half, Kristian Yan made a beautiful through-pass to Jayden Duffus, who capitalized to score his first goal as a Suffield Tiger. Our defensive four, led by Chase Bassick and Chace Silva refused to allow any other opportunities in our defensive third. The score going into halftime was a draw at 1-1.

In true Suffield v. Pomfret fashion, the second half remained interesting all the way through the final whistle. We remained on the attack through the opening minutes of the half, with Rhys Wilson taking advantage of his time on the field, developing some great opportunities that were stifled by Pomfret’s goalie. In the 63^rd minute, a sleeping Tiger allowed a wide-open shot that was just out of Hanseo’s reach, forcing us to play from behind once again. Immediately following the restart of the game, Suffield found themselves in the attacking third. Jayden Duffus was once again set up for a beautiful goal, but was instead fouled in the box, earning his own PK. He made the most of that chance, notching his second goal of the game. The boys kept their foot on the gas for the next 10 minutes and found an opportunity with a corner kick. Nick Riccelli placed the ball beautifully to the far side of the six, where Jayden Duffus waited. Jayden redirected the ball right to the back of the net, closing out the hat trick in amazing fashion.

The Tigers seemed to think that the game was only 74 minutes long as the Griffins took only thirty seconds to respond following Jayden’s third goal, tying the game at three goals apiece. The Tigers woke up for the closing minutes, refusing to allow the “Curse of Tommy” to continue for another season. They fought all the way up to the 80^th minute, when Nick Riccelli took yet another corner kick for us. You’ve heard of bending it like Beckham, but the Griffins weren’t prepared for Nick to “Bend it like Bobby” into the near side of the net, putting us back on top. The Tigers did their job on the restart of play, closing out the game to break the curse and win a nailbiter in Pomfret.

Alex Carter, Christian Recinos, and Sean Hu also played exceptionally well today and helped immensely in the effort to get our first win of the season.

Final Score:

SA:4-3:Pomfret