Fairfield’s boys and girls soccer teams both took the field Thursday, April 9th against Burlington, with the boys picking up a dominant 3-0 victory while the girls dropped their season opener 4-0.
Boys: Fairfield 3, Burlington 0
The Fairfield boys continued their strong start to the season, defeating Burlington 3-0 to improve to 2-0 overall and 1-0 in conference play. Burlington falls to 1-3 overall and 0-1 in the conference.
Cormac Van Pelt was the player of the match, scoring both of Fairfield’s first two goals. With 7:25 left in the first half, Van Pelt converted a penalty kick to give Fairfield a 1-0 lead heading into the break. In the second half, he added his second goal—a well-placed shot from outside the 18-yard box on a solo effort—with 35:19 remaining. Noah Patel added the finishing touch late, heading in a goal with just 1:03 left to seal the victory. Oliver Siemsen recorded an assist on the night.
Goalkeeper Henry Swan made two good saves to preserve the clean sheet, also making the case for player of the match. Siemsen also hit the post on one occasion barely missing the net, and Ben Strickland had a couple of shots saved by Burlington’s goalkeeper. Defensively, Chaz Wohnoutka and Rowan Kness turned in solid performances on the back line.
Head coach Felisto Guezimane was pleased with the team’s performance, particularly in the second half. “The team played very well especially in the second half,” Guezimane said. “We were 1-0 at the half. Freshmen Fuji Aikar and Gray Saturley are coming along well and contributing to the overall team play. Hard work in the training sessions with this young team and taking one game at a time.”
Girls: Burlington 4, Fairfield 0
The Fairfield girls opened their season on the road against Burlington and fell 4-0, though head coach Ian Stabbe pointed to several mitigating circumstances that he believes will look different as the season progresses.
Burlington held a 1-0 lead at halftime before pulling away in the second half. Stabbe noted that Fairfield was without several starters and featured a number of new players in the lineup.
“We played without multiple starters and several new players,” Stabbe said. “We held Burlington to one in the first half, but continued pressure from them created too many scoring opportunities against us. With multiple players hopefully coming back from injuries, our next matchup with them later this season should be much different.”
Fairfield falls to 0-1 overall and 0-1 in conference play. Burlington improves to 2-0 overall and 1-0 in the conference.
Both the girls and boys will be back in action on Monday, April 13th with the girls getting their home opener against Mount Pleasant, and the boys will head over to face the Panthers.
Photo by A.J. Roe.
