On a beautiful Saturday afternoon in New England, Taft put together its finest performance of this young season, earning an 8-0 victory over Andover. Taft started the scoring early when Kharym Florvil played a pass to Sammed Bawa behind the Andover defense. From a tight angle, Bawa blasted the ball inside the near post to give the visitors a 1-0 lead in the 7th minute. Taft did well to keep possession of the ball throughout much of the first half, but Andover defended well and managed to stifle the Rhino attack. However, in the 42nd minute, The Big Red broke through when Nur Adhikarie played a long pass over the top of the Andover back four in search of Bawa. Bawa controlled the ball with his chest, held off his defender, and rolled the ball into the back of the net to double the lead. Though the Rhinos held a two-goal lead at halftime, the outcome of the match remained very much in doubt. Andover created several scoring opportunities throughout the first forty-five minutes, and it was going to take a strong effort from the Rhinos to pick up the victory. Fortunately, the second half belonged entirely to The Big Red. In the 58th minute, Adhikarie and Bawa linked up again to create a goal, but this time it was Adhikarie slotting the ball in the back of the net off a feed from Bawa. Four minutes later, Bawa completed his hat trick when Jordan Miller squared the ball in front of the Andover goal, and Bawa slammed it home. For the second time this season, Bawa added a fourth goal, and it was James Donaldson who picked up the assist on this tally. Daniel Yen made the score 6-0 when he collected a pass from Marvin Sibanda and drilled the ball into the far corner of the net. Moments later, Miller sent in another beautiful cross that was headed home by KK Baffour. Perhaps the most spectacular goal of the afternoon was the eighth and final tally. In the 80th minute, Rex Riefler sprayed the ball wide to Diky Izmirlian, who settled the ball and picked out Daniel Yen about twenty-five yards from the Andover goal. Yen took a touch and curled the ball into upper 90 for a spectacular goal. Goalkeeper Shayan Karimi earned his first shutout of the season, and the Taft back line was very reliable on the day. A number of Rhinos, including Peter Denious, Charlie Werner, Nick Kenerson, and Benas Babenskas played solid minutes as The Big Red were able to show off their depth. After playing four of its first five matches on the road, Taft are looking forward to two home games this week with Gunnery and then Suffield coming to town.