CRAFTSBURY – The Hazen Union boys’ soccer team swept the season series from Lyndon Institute at Dustan Field in Craftsbury last week before taking Division II North Country to the wire in a narrow loss, bringing their record to 3-5 on the season.
Sully Laflam and Ari Jurkiewicz both tallied a goal and an assist to power the Wildcats to a 6-1 win over Lyndon Institute last Tuesday. It was the first game played at Dustan Field since Hazen and Craftsbury Academy (CA) officially joined as an athletic cooperative this past summer. Laflam put the home team up 1-0 sixteen minutes into the match, collecting and finishing a booming punt from CA’s Grayson McNaughten. After Seville Murphy made it 2-0 unassisted 60 seconds later, Carter Johns converted a penalty kick at the 30-minute mark for the Vikings only score of the day. CA freshman Oryon Hart buried a well-timed cross from Jurkiewicz to give the Wildcats a two-goal cushion with five minutes left in the first half. Lincoln Hill and Kobe Smith added a pair of second half goals to put the match out of reach. McNaughten and sophomore Chayse Newell combined to make five saves in the win. Angel Lockward turned away eight shots for the Vikings as they fell to 0-7-1.
“We started out strong and kept the ball in the their half for the opening 20 minutes. After Sully and Grayson connected for the first score, we regained possession and drove down the wing, with Seville doing a nice job recovering the ball on the right side of the 18-yard box and curling one in the far corner with his left foot. It was great to see Oryon get on the scoresheet in front of his home crowd and besides conceding a penalty kick in the first half, we otherwise glided to a comfortable victory,” said head coach Harry Besett.
Alex Giroux scored a pair of goals, including the game-winner to help North Country escape with a 2-1 home win over the Wildcats last Thursday. Carmin Guston found a streaking Giroux 10 minutes into the match to make it 1-0 before Damien Morrison buried the equalizer off a feed from Murphy early in the second half. Hazen had plans for the upset moments later earning a penalty kick and a chance to take the lead but Guston turned it away. Giroux scored the game-winner with 15 minutes left in regulation unassisted to push the Falcons to 3-4-1 on the season. McNaughten made 10 saves for Hazen and Guston preserved the win for North Country with seven stops.
“Tactically we stayed defensively disciplined and sat low but were punished by indecision on a long ball on their first score. We stuck to the game plan and managed to frustrate their defense and eventually were able to play out and control the game in the offensive half. Despite the loss, we gave a strong effort and can take a lot of optimism from this match,” said Besett.
Hazen hosted Harwood on Monday and will travel to Peoples Academy on Saturday for a 2 p.m. kickoff.
