Jacob Boette scored every which way for Wilton-Lyndeborough on Friday night as the Warriors’ boys’ soccer team routed Mount Royal to open the season. The senior striker nutmegged Knights keeper Tristan Ouellette, beat him again with a chop-shot along the ground and then chipped one over his head in the second half to secure the hat-trick and lead the Warriors to an 8-0 win.
“We did a really good job passing and communicating and figuring out what was going right for us and what the flaws in their defense were,” said Boette after the game.
Wilton-Lyndeborough (1-0) was in the Knights’ defensive end all afternoon; it was a Herculean effort by Ouellette to keep the score as close as it was, as Mount Royal had only one substitute and grew weary under the hot sun.
The Warriors could surprise some people this year. They’re solid at three levels, with Boette and Jack Schwab at striker, Sean and Troy Brennan in the midfield along with Dylan Pfeil, and Sam Townsend and Dom Hutchinson anchoring the defense.
“It’s looking pretty bright,” Boette said.
The key for Kristin Schwab’s team is integrating the newcomers. The Warriors have a freshman goalie, Joe Krug, who needs to acclimate to the varsity level and is doing so by working with his predecessors Sam Bailey and Marshall Davidson.
Matt Hadley started at midfield as well and scored against Mount Royal; Kenny Begley came off the bench and put one in as well, giving life to the Warriors’ youth movement.
“They’re all young and they’re full of talent and all they can do is improve,” Boette said.
Schwab, Sean Brennan and Paul VanBlarigan also scored on Friday.
The Warriors host Hinsdale (0-0) on Wednesday at 6 p.m.
ConVal 5, Souhegan 0
The Cougars began their title defense with a dominant shutout win at Souhegan on Friday. Senior defender Zach Kriebel scored twice on 35-yard free kicks to lead the ConVal offense and anchored the defense – along with Connor Close, Trevor Faber, Oscar Bernier and Max Scheinblum – that kept goalie Mather Kipka from lifting a finger in the saveless shutout, head coach Josh Smith said.
Also scoring for ConVal was Ben Kriebel, assisted by Colby Knight; Rhett Landers, assisted by Jamison Coty, and Finn Wegmueller, assisted by Faber.
ConVal (1-0) is at home against Kingswood (0-1) Tuesday at 4 p.m.
ConVal 1, Lebanon 0
The Cougars won their season opener at home Friday with a strong defensive effort and a classy gamewinning goal for a shutout of the visiting Raiders.
“Great defense from everybody,” said head coach Curt Martens. “Good team victory where everybody had a piece of the victory.”
Junior forward Nikki Bell tapped in the winner after fellow junior Kara Keiper slashed into the box, drew the keeper and defenders and then passed it to the back post for the assist.
Mairin Burgess had four saves for ConVal in the shutout.
The Cougars (1-0) are at Kearsarge (0-0) Friday at 5 p.m.
Hopkinton 6, Conant 0
The Orioles suffered from some “first-game jitters” against defending champion Hopkinton on Friday, coach Adam Patria said, allowing six goals in the first half and losing by shutout.
“Hopkinton took advantage of our mistakes, as a defending state champ should,” Patria said, adding that the Orioles were more successful creating chances after settling down in the second half.
Conant (0-1) hosts Monadnock (0-1) Tuesday at 4 p.m.
Wilton-Lyndeborough 11, Mount Royal 0
Sophomore Elisabeth Jacob scored five times in the first half and assisted on another goal, carving up the Mount Royal defense to lead a Warrior team that could be an upstart in Division IV this season.
New Warrior keeper Rama Koudsi, a senior making her first varsity appearance as goalie, had two saves in the shutout.
Sam Boette scored a goal and made four assists; Brooke Lane, Sam Yurcak, Mairead Markey, Tiffany Cuddihy, and Sophia Sistachs all scored one goal each, and Bri Fish, Kaitlin Loverme, Sistachs and Lane also had assists.
“Defense was solid with center back pairing of Avery Krug and Ella Kelley,” said head coach Dan Ayotte.
Mount Royal only had 11 players in uniform and had to play with ten at times due to brief injuries, at which point Ayotte pulled midfielder Sam Yurcak off the pitch to even things up.
WLC (1-0) hosts Hinsdale (0-0) Wednesday at 4 p.m.