Lebanon
Now, Pearson said, the real work begins.
Lebanon (7-5-0) looked disorganized in a 2-0 loss to Kearsarge on Tuesday, misfiring on passes to its forwards while struggling to keep up on counterattacks.
The Raiders also made life relatively easy for Kearsarge goalkeeper Seth Rutledge-Davis, who made eight saves — three in the second half — for the shutout.
Lebanon defeated the Cougars, 2-0, on Sept. 22 in Kearsarge’s homecoming game. Pearson attributed Tuesday’s loss to a lack of hustle.
“It’s definitely a very humbling experience,” he said. “When you go into another team’s homecoming and beat them, 2-nil, you take it for granted. … We took it for granted. They didn’t work hard. Against them before, they worked hard. Tonight, we didn’t. They didn’t show up.
“Urgency,” he added. “The way that we played, that’s now how we play.”
Logan Falzarano, Lebanon’s junior captain who leads the team with 10 goals and seven assists this season, said the lack of energy seemed to come from having the wrong mentality. Falzarano admitted his team might have taken rematch for granted.
“I just don’t think we took this game as seriously — maybe seriously is the wrong word — with the same businesslike mentality as we needed to,” Falzarano said. “I think it just comes from looking too far ahead in the future and not the next game.”
Kearsarge (5-7), meanwhile, took advantage of Lebanon’s miscues.
Cougars midfielder Joe Baldassaro opened the scoring in the 33rd minute by burying a rebound off the post from Kearsarge midfielder Owen Cottrill. Baldassaro found the ball in front of him mere feet from the goal with no Lebanon defenders around him, giving the Cougars a 1-0 lead just before halftime.
“We have this mentality, that I’ve been trying to break, that we’re a second-half team. Are we?” Pearson said. “We’ve conceded probably 13 goals now; all of them are self-destructive. All of them are self-inflicted.
“(Kearsarge) outworked them. They deserved the win today.”
Lebanon spent much of the second half pressing for the equalizer but finding little room to navigate through Kearsarge’s defense.
“Their two top (guys, Falzarano and Pat Mason) were a little less efficient today,” Kearsarge head coach Matt Burch said. “We didn’t change up our formation much; we didn’t change the way we went about the game. I think we were able to shut those two guys down a little bit more.”
Kearsarge forward Nathan St. Pierre sealed the deal with 4 minutes, 8 seconds remaining. St. Pierre broke away from a pack of Lebanon defenders who were stationed at midfield in an attempt to manufacture a goal. He buried the shot past Lebanon keeper Jorgen Leuthauser (six saves) to secure the win.
“We’ve played tough against most of the top teams, and we haven’t been on the right side of the scoreboard,” Burch said. “Today, it ended up our way.”
For Pearson, a loss now changes how he and his coaching staff must approach his team’s final stretch. Lebanon has four games remaining before the playoffs.
“We need four wins,” he said. “I don’t want to settle for (2-2). We can’t settle for that, because there’s a sense of security in that.”
Falzarano admitted the late stretch of the season is difficult to navigate — close enough to the postseason to get distracted, far enough away to still be hurt by the results of the final few contests. The junior said he hopes his team can now refocus.
“It’s tempting to look forward to the postseason,” he said. “But I think coming into the postseason, if you’re not focused in on the game ahead of you, you’re not going to be in the right form going into the postseason. I think that’s what we want to focus on the next couple of games, getting ready and getting in the right frame of mind.”
Lebanon travels to Coe-Brown on Thursday.
Josh Weinreb can be reached at jweinreb@vnews.com or 603-727-3306.