White River Junction
The Hurricanes sped around the field with crisp passes and ball control, but the Lakers changed the pace of the game in a two-minute span of the first half, gaining control and pulling out a 5-2 victory.
Hartford coach Kevin Guilbault has a young roster on his VPA Division II squad this season, with 12 freshmen and sophomores combined. Games against the likes of D-I Colchester (3-5-0) can sometimes become a learning experience.
“Having such an inexperienced and young team, we do a lot of learning,” Guilbault said. “Today’s lesson was: When you don’t finish, you leave a team in it.”
Hartford’s offense had a plethora of chances early on: a wide shot off the foot of Nick Martin, a pair of corners and a direct kick that proved fruitless. The Hurricanes’ leading scorer, Nick Jones, finally found the net with a blast to the right of Colchester goalkeeper Chase Carey in the 26th minute.
Unfortunately for Hartford, the tide turned 10 minutes later when Colchester scored three goals within two minutes for an eventual 3-1 halftime lead. The Lakers never looked back.
Jones added a penalty-kick goal with 10 minutes to play in the match, having gained the opportunity off a beautiful through ball from Ethan Sneddon.
Jones, who leads the Hurricanes with nine goals on the season, did not let the loss deter his spirits.
“For how young we are and how many new players we have on the field, I think we are doing fantastic,” Jones said. “Going forward, we need to keep working on ball control, passing and, of course, chemistry is most important.”
Jones and Sneddon have been playing soccer together since they were about 7 years old. Jones is now a junior, Sneddon is a senior, and that history and chemistry was evident on the field on Thursday.
“Once you have been playing soccer for a while, you just know where people are going to be,” Sneddon said. “You can just anticipate their movements and look to create opportunities.”
Chemistry holds importance in all team sports, and Hartford really emphasizes it, from coaching down to its players. With such a young team, the Hurricanes hope familiarity can get them more success as the season goes on.
“I try to stick with a similar lineup to help with chemistry,” Guilbault said. “We have had a lot of guys sick, and tactically we did some stuff different against Rutland (in two games last week). But today was moving back to what we do traditionally.”
Hartford (3-4-0) travels to Brattleboro on Saturday.