Nelle, Barlow Prove Too Much For 'Cats To Handle

It was just two minutes of an 80 minute game, but it proved to be the difference between the Bethel High boys soccer team and Joel Barlow. For most of the game, the Wildcats (3-2-1) were able to keep the Falcons’ (4-1) offense in check, but a pair of breakdowns right before the fifteen minute mark of the first half turned an early 1-0 lead, into a 2-1 defeat.

Joey Merheb gave the Wildcats the lead less than two minutes into the game with a shot from the top of the box that he put into the lower right corner. The play was set up by Andriy Paparo who found Merheb with just enough time and space to put a shot on net.

“That first goal it’s like a dream start, but sometimes it’s like a blessing in disguise,” Coach Tony Fernandes said. “Because maybe you start defending too early, or you kind of get lax and think it’s going to be easy, but the kids played really hard.”

Ten minutes after the Wildcats opened the scoring, the Falcons got two goals within a minute of each other, both off the foot of Jeremy Nelle.

Nelle tied the game with a perfectly placed shot in the top corner that was just out of the reach of Troy Deyo. The Wildcats nearly responded with a goal of their own less than a minute later, but Barlow’s Daniel Johnson made a diving save against Paparo.

“Maybe with a little bit of luck he scores there,” Fernandes said.

After the big save, the Falcons quickly returned to the attack and got another goal from Nelle. This time a hard low shot, that once again just snuck past Deyo.

“That’s soccer,” Fernandes said. “A lot of time after a goal is either conceded or scored, there’s a lot of lapses and then another goal is scored. That’s why most of the goals are scored, bang, bang, bang like that.”

Nelle’s goals gave the Falcons a one goal lead, but it would have been worse had it not been for Ignacio Alday, who stopped a potential third goal on the goal line when Deyo was caught out of the net.

“Our sweeper Ignacio, he was phenomenal tonight,” Fernandes said. “He saved one off the line in the first half, made some really key tackles in the second half.”

When the second half began the Wildcats seemed to play with a greater sense of urgency and were able to control the ball and generate the majority of the scoring chances, but came up empty in their bid to tie the game.

“It’s unfortunate, we had some chances in the second half,” Fernandes said. “We just didn’t do a good job with the last pass or finishing. I think if we would have got one to tie it up, we probably would have gone ahead and taken the game.

Deyo was hardly tested in the second half, and finished the game with four saves.

“That’s a Barlow-Bethel game at its finest,” Fernandes said. “Good crowd, even match, could go either way. Obviously the result is not where we wanted it, but the performance was good.”

Bethel’s next game is Saturday at New Fairfield at 3:45 p.m.