Emery Notches 100th Career Victory in 5-1 Win on Senior Day

boys soccer head coach Dave Emery notched his 100th career victory with a convincing 5-1 home win over Stafford on Monday afternoon.

The Bears (8-3-3) spread the scoring around, as Dan Clark, Carlin Champion, Cole Lombardo and Peter Brodeur (2) all netted goals in helping their coach reach the milestone victory.

“I’m thrilled with the way that they’re playing,” Emery said. “Today they had some beautiful combination goals today and they’re doing some excellent stuff.”

Noting that his team has had trouble scoring goals during the season, Emery has asked midfielders Champion and Clark to push forward into more attacking positions.

“When they’re going forward, the end result is we have more bodies in the box,” Emery said. “I finally, after a lot of trial and error, came to the conclusion that was a lot of the trouble we had at the beginning of the year. We just weren’t getting enough guys forward.”

One of the keys has been the play of defender Glen Calder, whose return from injury enabled Emery to shift Clark and Champion forward.

As for the 100th victory, Emery said that he was happy that it came with this group of kids.

“They’re a great bunch,” Emery said. “This has been unlike any season I’ve ever had. We’ve had our ups and downs, but I really like their attitude. I like everything about them.”

It was a big day for the Granby players, too, as the team bade farewell to 10 seniors - Trevor Bendig, David Gottschalk, Chas Pfeifer, Nick Burgio, Dan Spatcher, Clark, Andrew Ricci, Parker Rennels, Lombardo and Glen Calder -  on Senior Day.

After the game, all of the Granby players ran across the field holding an enormous banner commemorating Emery's coaching milestone.

Stafford (2-11), given the circumstances, didn’t stand much of a chance.

Even Theroux scored for Stafford, while goalkeeper Jake Kalette had four saves.

“Our overall performance was below average,” said Stafford head coach Rob Schadt. “We played very well the last two games last week. We were on a good wave there, I thought. Today seemed to be a different team out there.”

There are still two regular-season games left on the schedule - SMSA and Suffield - as well as the state Class M tournament to worry about, so Emery isn’t about to get misty-eyed yet. But he admits that he will.

“We’ll have a home game here [for the state tournament] so they’ll have another chance to play at home,” Emery said. “So I’m not overly over-wrought about that. But I do care a great deal about the guys who came through the program all four years. Frankly, it’s hard when they leave. They’re great kids. Come tournament time, when the end is really near, I can get pretty emotional.”

The Bears’ next game is against Suffield on the road on Friday, Oct. 28 at 7 p.m. Stafford is scheduled to face East Windsor today at 3:45 p.m., also on the road.