-
Mahar’s Lucas Isrow battles Southwick’s Samuel Taylor for the ball during the Senators’ 8-0 win at the Woodward Complex in Orange on Tuesday. -
Mahar’s Dominic Whitman and Southwick’s Samuel Taylor vie for the ball during the Senators’ 8-0 win at the Woodward Complex in Orange on Tuesday. -
Mahar’s Dominic Whitman shoots past Southwick’s Amadi Ezeugwu during the Senators’ 8-0 win at the Woodward Complex in Orange on Tuesday. -
Mahar’s Lucas Isrow scores while defended by Southwick’s Billy Gorman, Devan Cerone and Samuel Taylor during the Senators’ 8-0 win at the Woodward Complex in Orange on Tuesday. -
Mahar’s Sam Connors looks to cross the ball while defended by Southwick’s Amadi Ezeugwu during the Senators’ 8-0 win at the Woodward Complex in Orange on Tuesday. -
Mahar’s Josh Jenks has his shot stopped by Southwick’s Max Graham during the Senators’ 8-0 win at the Woodward Complex in Orange on Tuesday. -
Mahar’s Sam Connors scores a goal past Southwick goalie Max Graham during the Senators’ 8-0 win at the Woodward Complex in Orange on Tuesday.
ORANGE — Following a pair of postponements to open the season, the Mahar boys soccer team was rearing to go on Tuesday for its season opener against Southwick.
So much so that it didn’t take the Senators long to light up the scoreboard. Lucas Isrow found the back of the net just 30 seconds into the game to give Mahar the early lead.
The goals didn’t stop there. The Sens lit up the scoreboard five more times in the half to take a 6-0 lead at the break. The scoring barrage continued in the final 40 minutes where it tallied two goals to cruise to an 8-0 Moriarty League victory over the Rams at the Woodward Complex.
“It’s nice to get a win here,” Mahar coach Dan Guertin said. “They’re goal hungry. It was good to see the aggression up top. We’ve been rained out twice so they’ve been super antsy about getting to play. They’ve been putting the work in during practice so they were super excited to get out here, open their season and compete against someone else.”
It was exactly the way the Senators hoped to open the season. With the vast majority of their roster returning, and eight seniors on the team, Mahar was hoping this would be a season it could make a run at some hardware, especially after reaching the Div. 4 state tournament a season ago.
So far through one game, it looks like the Senators will have an attack that will give all opponents issues.
“The last couple years we’ve been looking forward to this season,” Mahar senior Sam Connors said. “We have eight seniors and a bunch of juniors. This is the year we can do something.”
It didn’t take the Sens long to get their second goal of the game, as David Phelps put one home in the 15th minute.
That’s when the floodgates opened, as Isrow rocketed in a shot in the middle of the box in the 19th minute to make it a 3-0 game. Two minutes later Dom Whitman got the ball on the left wing, made a pair of jukes to beat a pair of defenders and draw the defense to him before sending a cross into Connors, who tapped it home to make give Mahar a 4-0 lead.
Connors connected for his second goal in the 33rd minute. Whitman sent a cross into the box that got deflected on goal, as the ball bounced out to Connors who was able to knock it into the empty net to make it a 5-0 game.
Just before the half, Isrow weaved his way into the box where he was tripped, drawing a penalty kick. The senior took it himself and smashed it into goal to give the Senators a 6-0 lead at the break.
“It was how we wanted to start the year,” Connors said. “It definitely could have looked better. We had good finishing inside the box.”
Mahar drew a second penalty in the box, this time in the 45th minute. Alex Dowler took this one and blasted it into the net for Senators’ seventh goal. Josh Jenks, who joined the team late in the summer, closed out the scoring to make it 8-0.
While it was an emphatic win to start the season, Isrow said there’s plenty of things that need to be fixed for Mahar to have the season it hopes to have.
“It’s good to start with a win,” Isrow said. “We need to be cleaner and clean up the communication.”
The opponent will be much tougher for the Sens on Thursday, when it travels to South Deerfield to take on a Frontier squad that has been to the Div. 4 semifinal and championship game the last two seasons.
“It’ll be a big challenge Thursday,” Guertin said. “Frontier will be one of the best teams we play this season. It’s a tough challenge right out of the gate.”