Drury Boys Soccer Shuts Out Taconic
PITTSFIELD, Mass. -- Familiarity bred goals for the Drury boys soccer team on Wednesday afternoon.
Senior Max Daugherty set up classmate Reece Racette late in the first half for the game’s first goal.
Late in the second, Racette returned the favor, feeding Daugherty to send the Blue Devils on to a 2-0 win over Taconic on Berkshire Community College’s Gene Dellea Field.
“Max and Reece have both been here for years,” Drury coach John Jacobbe said. “Reece is in his third year here, and Max is in his fourth. And you need to count on those guys. Max is battling with a little injury, so he doesn’t move as much, but when he gets involved in the play, it’s a better thing for our team.”
Another member of the Class of ‘19, keeper Corbin Rumbolt, made four second-half saves to preserve the shutout.
“He had two big saves and was a huge difference in the game coming out of the net,” Jacobbe said.
With about two minutes left in the first half, Daugherty received a through ball just outside the 18, took the ball into the box and then passed back to Racette, who one-timed the ball past Taconic keeper Jaden Cross (11 saves) to break a scoreless tie.
Taconic (0-3) had been able to withstand an early Drury flurry of chances that were created by Daugherty runs up the middle of the attacking third.
In the closing minutes of the game, that approach paid a dividend for the Blue Devils when Racett set up Daugherty with a ball through the middle, and the striker capitalized for his second goal in two games.
Cross and the Taconic defense were able to keep it close throughout, and the young Taconic attack showed considerable improvement after half-time.
“We talked at half-time about putting a lot more pressure on their defense and keeping the ball down at their end,” Taconic coach Shaun Stannard said. “And they responded. Our midfield started to control the middle a little bit better than they did in the first half.
“[Cross] is a very inexperienced goalie, and we got him in there, and this was his best game so far. We’ve only played three, but he played really well today. He made some really good decisions.”
Drury (2-0) will take the win, but to hear Jacobbe talk about his team, things can only get better going forward starting with Friday’s game at Putnam Voc.
“We had a shorter bench today, so our numbers were tight,” he said. “A lot of guys played a lot of minutes. And we had a couple of days off [with Monday’s rainout]. We had a good practice yesterday, not a great one.
“We didn’t play our best game. Taconic played hard and controlled the ball pretty good. We gave them the space to allow them to do that, and when we pressure the ball, we’re a better team, so we have to work on that.”
Taconic (0-3) hosts Wahconah on Monday.