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Cavaliers can’t hold off Bobcats in 3-2 loss

By Tom King - Staff Writer | Sep 25, 2018

Staff photo by TOM KING Hollis Brookline's Aidan Maguire, left, tries to fend off Plymouth's Graham Pogue as they race to get to the ball during Monday's 3-2 Plymouth win in Hollis.

HOLLIS – Steve Martus has seen enough soccer over the years that he knew what was coming.

His Hollis Brookline boys soccer team was up on visiting Plymouth 1-0 at the half, but he wasn’t happy. And when the Bobcats scored two goals two minutes apart very early in the second half, as well as the game winner in the 72nd minute, the 3-2 loss was the outcome he expected.

“I just think Plymouth wanted it more than us,” Martus said as his Cavs, after six straight wins, dropped their second game in 48 hours to fall to 6-3. “Our guys just didn’t show up to play today. They (the Bobcats) were going to 50-50 balls. Our guys were kind of just standing around.”

Indeed, Martus was not a happy camper. Monday blahs? He’s not sure, noting that strikers J.J. Kennedy and Ethan Smith usually outrun anyone but weren’t able to in this one up front, and midfielders Max Burns and Dale Jacobs didn’t have their usual spunk.

“Monday blahs, cold weather, I can’t even make excuses,” Martus said. “But I want to give Plymouth credit, they woke up and played a great half.”

Woke up is exactly what the Bobcats did. Trailing 1-0 on Kennedy’s goal off a rebound of an Aiden Chretien ball, the ‘Cats got two quickies to start the second half – Tommy Carpenter and Henry Greene beating Cavs goalie Ryan Coutu (seven stops) for a quick 2-1 lead.

“That’s the tale of the tape for two quality teams,” Plymouth coach Jesse Elderkin said. “We came out blistering the first 20 minutes, and then for 20 minutes the wind was out of the sail. …

“I think the difference was we came out and had something we had to get back. That push to get that equalizer transitioned into ‘Boom, we’re not letting off.'”

However they did during a good Cavalier spurt midway throught the second half that allowed Smith to tie the game on a nice cross from Andy Basque. He was staring at an empty net as Plymouth goalie Roger Babin (six saves) was caught out of position at 54:25.

But Plymouth had one more spurt left in it, and somehow a sliding Peter Wingsted converted Graham Pogue’s cross that beat an over committed Coutu with just over seven minutes to play.

But Martus knew the issues were arising well before then.

“Our guys came off at halftime and thought they played well and I said, ‘What game were you watching?'” Martus said. “I was not happy.”

Clearly. He wants that spark back that the Cavs had for most of the opening month.

“We had that glow in our eye,” Martus said. “Today. … I knew it was going to be the other way.”

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