Windham boys’ summer soccer ends season on high note

By Matt Pascarella

In the final game of the summer season, Windham High’s boys’ soccer team left Edward Little scoreless with a 3-0 victory, at Windham High School on Thursday, Aug. 1.

“It’s been a very productive summer,” said Windham assistant boys’ summer soccer coach Nick Dubay. “We threw a lot of things at them and they kind of adjusted on the fly. To get into roles and watch them sink in over the summer is impressive to watch.”

Windham sophomore Blake Roma keeps the ball away from
an opponent during a summer boys' soccer game at Windham
High School on Thursday, Aug 1.
PHOTO BY MATT PASCARELLA

Windham started strong and moved the ball well, as they took several shots at Edward Little’s goal early on. Eagle defense kept the ball away from their goal as they gave Edward Little’s goalie a workout.

“When we started off the season, we knew we had a really talented squad,” said Windham junior Camden Patin. “After a couple games it started flowing together, just trying different tactics, putting players in different positions ... we’ve wrapped up really well.”

Windham senior Sam Rogers scored first. Senior Luke Cunniffe was next when he fired a shot from just outside the penalty area that found the back of the net.

“Knowing that team pressed hard all game, I think we improved on that in the second half definitely,” said Rogers. “We’ve mostly improved by just playing together, getting a feel on everyone’s play style and adjusting to understand how different players see the field. We have some spots we need to fill in and we need players to work hard during preseason and work for a varsity spot. It’s not going to come easy.”

Rogers scored again before the end of the first half and Windham led, 3-0.

“For this summer season ... we worked from a tough first few games and worked our way up,” said Windham senior Levi Hayman. “Today, we all worked great together, we tried a new formation, a new 4-4-2, that went well. We have very good chemistry on the field. We work really well with our balls going through the midfield and then switching the fields; gets us really in the goal all the time. As long as we communicate, balls go through and we end up scoring, we had a lot of chances today [to score], and I’d say a huge part is finishing those chances. The hustle on 50/50 balls was huge, physicality too – not getting pushed off the ball as much.”

Both teams kept each other scoreless through the second half. Windham took shots at the goal immediately. They controlled the field and played at their pace.

“The summer is about trying to fill spots from the previous season and find a team identity and find a playing style that’s going to work for us against the majority of the teams that we play,” said Windham boys’ summer soccer coach Jeff Neal. “Seeing them be able to dictate the pace of the play and where we want the ball to go and get opponents back on their heels a bit is how we want to play. We’re still sorting some stuff out, the first step of preseason is ... raising the bar, seeing the guys who are going to be here and who are the guys who are going to be able to perform consistently and kind of put them under the gun a little bit – because you want your top players to rise to the top and see how they gel and how they form. I think we have more depth in the program than we’ve had in a number of years.”

Neal said defensively Windham was solid and didn’t give anything up; transition from front-to-back was better, where they want to play the ball; connecting all three phases at the pitch was much better. They’ve responded well as a team. <