The Taft Boys Soccer team hosted our friends from Deerfield this afternoon for our first home match. Both teams were populated by athletic lads with good intentions if not good soccer skills. This was demonstrated as the ball moved around the field from goal keeper to goal keeper until the 30th minute when Jin Young Min used his noggin and took a quick restart after a Deerfield foul from about 35 yards out to Jeff Ricciardelli who moved quickly towards the Door’s goal and scored Taft’s first goal of the match. Next, Tucker Mullen turned the right corner and fired a shot off the near post in the 34th minute. The ricochet went directly to Chris Preziotti who passed the ball into the goal. Then Tucker earned his own goal off of a lovely assist from Darren McNerney. The first half ended with Taft ahead three nil. Deerfield came out fired up in the second half. They had driven a solid two hours plus to get here and were not going to go quietly back up north. Then Taft earned a series of corner kicks where finally Jeff Ricciardelli lofted a beauty into the mixer that was batted about in the six yard box until finally center back Mac Childs who comes forward on corners booted in a rebound for his first goal of the year in the 47th minute. Next, Tucker assisted Jeff on a breakaway for a lovely strike from about 25 yards out for Taft’s fifth goal of the match. Deerfield was awarded a penalty kick in the 60th minute that was then stoned by Taft’s goalkeeper Bryce Smith. The Deerfield keeper saved a Taft PK just a few minutes later, by the by. Taft finished the scoring in the 77th minute as Jin assisted Will Henderson for his first goal of the year. Jin played very well today by being intelligent and unselfish. Isaac Korus played with good energy in the back and delivered more than a few good goal kicks for Taft. Our next match is this Wednesday down in Greenwich at Brunswick. See you there!