LEBANON — After needing a second-half comeback and an overtime winner in Friday’s season opener against Stevens High, Lebanon High boys soccer left no such opportunities available for their second opponent.
The Raiders dominated Souhegan High from the opening kick Tuesday, rolling to a 7-0 home victory.
Lebanon head coach Rob Johnstone said that even though the result against Stevens went their way, the game forced the Raiders (2-0) to examine their mindset.
“After the Stevens game, we said, ‘We gotta look in the mirror to make sure that doesn’t happen again, whether it’s our approach during warmups or our approach as we step onto the field,’ ” Johnstone said. “Some of it is Stevens worked hard for a couple goals. That’s soccer, so credit to Stevens. But I do think you could tell from the moment (Lebanon) started warming up (today) that every moment was critical. And I think that makes a big difference.”
Lebanon applied constant pressure in the final third. Souhegan (1-1-0) had trouble with Lebanon’s pace in attack, and the Sabers were rarely able to sustain possession in the Raiders’ defensive half. Lebanon controlled possession for much of the game.
Despite the numerous attacks, Lebanon’s first few goals came on counters and breakaways. Sophomore forward Nick Brill scored the first goal in the seventh minute on a breakaway, played through by senior forward Krists Putans. Brill went on to score twice more for a hat trick in his second varsity game and first at home.
Brill knew he was sitting on a hat trick when he scored the third goal. His third was the most impressive of the bunch, a first-time finish off an assist from senior midfielder Simon Amaro from the top of the box. He said his teammates were rooting for him to finish the hat trick, and he counted to three on his fingers after scoring.
But Brill didn’t wake up feeling like this would be a memorable game.
“Honestly, I felt really slow this morning,” Brill said. “I was worrying more about school and then, just like, ‘Oh, I have a game.’ But then, once I got into the game and that first play of the game, it’s like, ‘All right, let’s go.’ ”
Even with Brill’s limited varsity experience, the performance wasn’t completely out of nowhere for Johnstone. He said the whole team deserves credit for the hat trick for setting up Brill’s opportunities, but the sophomore was on his game Tuesday.
“It doesn’t matter if you’re a freshman, sophomore, junior, senior, it’s what you do on the field,” Johnstone said. “Nick, he scored the goals, but also little things for me, like he’s a sophomore — I heard him talking in the circle before the game about our level of intensity or preparedness, what we need to do. It’s absolutely critical to have someone who can stick that ball in the back of the net after you’ve done all the hard work, but it does take a lot of work to get to that point to have those opportunities. But he was certainly up to the task.”
Brill was responsible for the opening goal, the final score of the first half to make it 4-0 — also on a breakaway — and the first goal of the second half.
After Brill put Lebanon ahead, Putans doubled the Raiders’ lead just three minutes later. He also scored on a breakaway, set up by an Amaro assist. Putans recorded three assists in the first half — on each Lebanon goal he didn’t secure himself — and notched a second goal in the 51st minute.
Senior midfielder Ryan Oliveira also netted one to make it 3-0 Lebanon in the 31st. Junior forward Tommy Wolfe scored the Raiders’ seventh goal in the 59th, heading in a corner kick from junior forward Birhanu Harriman.
Even with seven goals on the board, the Raiders had chances to score even more with all the pressure they put on Souhegan’s back line. Johnstone made several substitutions in the second half with the game out of hand to get playing time for more of his roster.
He was pleased with the way his team, particularly the substitutes, continued to battle in the second half despite the comfortable lead. The three second-half goals weren’t as important to Johnstone as seeing the Raiders play with intelligence, humility and respect for their opponent.
“When that second group was on for the last 28 minutes, our expectation of theirs — they’re maybe not where the starters are all across the board, but we do expect them to be making the same decisions and have the same mental process. So that was good too because they played big minutes, and I was happy with how they played. Not perfect, but boy, for the most part, they made the right choices.”
The Raiders are back in action Friday afternoon on the road at ConVal.
Seth Tow can be reached at stow@vnews.com.