Calvert Hat Trick Lifts Wahconah Boys at Home
DALTON, Mass. -- It took a while for the Wahconah boys soccer team to find its footing on offense Friday.
But once it did, Brody Calvert scored twice in a span of 10 minutes en route to a hat trick and a 3-0 win over Mahar.
Calvert took a pass out of the back from Devin Lampron and made a run up the middle to score in the 45th minute for all the offense Wahconah needed.
The goal helped pump some life into a game that saw little energy from both sides over the first 40 minutes.
“The first half, neither team really could get anything going,” Wahconah coach Kevin Boino said. “There was no energy on both sides of the ball from either team.
“Second half, we kind of picked it up a little bit, but I know we can get more.”
Wahconah (8-2-5) is going to need more on Saturday afternoon when it hosts perennial Western Mass power Frontier on Senior Day in Dalton.
Boino said he did not think Saturday’s prospect of trying to avenge one of the team losses was a distraction going into Friday’s match.
“We never look past today,” Boino said. “Anyone can beat anyone on any given day.
“I hope no one was looking past this game. I’m not going to say the way we played made it seem like that. I don’t know what it was, but I hope these guys weren’t looking past tonight. Mahar is a good team. They gave us some scares throughout the whole game.”
Wahconah had some chances in the first half against the Senators.
Perhaps the best opportunity came in the 32nd minute when Calvert took a try from the top of the box that was kicked out by a sliding Tristan Gaj for the visitors.
At the other end, Mahar put four first half shots on Wahconah keeper Noah Kelly, who made seven saves before leaving the goal and playing in the field late in the second half. Zack Flaherty needed to make one save to preserve the shutout.
Even before Kelly shed his keeper’s gloves, he notched an assist on Calvert’s second goal. Wahconah’s top scorer converted a Kelly punt in the 55th minute to make it 2-0.
With about seven minutes left to play, Calvert scored his third goal from deep on the left with with a shot that tipped off Gaj’s fingertips and into the net.
Wahconah dropped a 2-1 decision to Frontier back on Sept. 10, so it knows the challenge it faces in Saturday afternoon’s regular season finale.
“We’re treating tomorrow as a tournament game,” Boino said. “After tomorrow, based on where we are, there’s a high chance we’ll face [Frontier] again next week, too, in the Western Mass tournament. They’re a very, very good team.
“We played them early on. Hopefully, we’ve grown since then. Obviously, they’ve grown, too. But we’ll see where we’re really at before the tournament starts.”