Sports
LHS Boys' Soccer Loses First in Regular Season Since 2007 (PHOTOS)
Minutemen fall, 2-0, on the road against Middlesex League foe Winchester High School
It was bound to happen at some point, but that didn’t make Tuesday’s loss any easier for the boys’ soccer team. The 2-0 defeat at the hands of Middlesex League foe Winchester High School was the Minutemen’s first regular-season setback since 2007.
After having gone more than three years without tasting defeat before late October, Minutemen coach Dan Rudolph certainly wasn’t pleased with the loss. It was the first time this year that Lexington was held scoreless.
“There are a lot of good teams in the league,” Rudolph said from Manchester Field following the loss to the Sachems. “I think Winchester is a really good team. We get to seem them again, so that’s good.”
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The two goals against were the most Lexington, which now stands at 4-1-2, has surrendered this year. It also let up two on a pair of other occasions – a 3-2 victory over Burlington High School to open the season and a 2-all draw at Woburn High School on Sept. 15.
Against Winchester, Rudolph said the Minutemen got down early and couldn’t recovery. It didn’t help when the team tried to increase the pressure late in the game and gave up a crucial insurance score.
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“We gave up a bad goal early, so that took some of the sting out of us,” he said. “But we were pressing at the end and gave up the second.”
On Winchester’s second goal, the Sachems got Lexington senior goalkeeper Jake Curran on the move and out of position. That gave junior Zachary Landau and open look at the LHS net with 7 minutes, 30 seconds remaining.
The Sachems got on the board early with a goal from senior Jeff Tilley.
Still, the Sachems will most likely be among the toughest teams the Minutemen face this season. All they can hope is to learn from their mistakes and build off the experience, Rudolph said.
“The first third (of the season) you kind of get a feel for where the team is,” he said. “Now we’ll see where we’ll go from here.”
The Minutemen will have a while to think about this one, as they don’t return to the field until traveling to Belmont High School on Saturday. Lexington will then return home to face Wakefield Memorial High School on Oct. 4.
