The Big Red hosted a hard-working Hopkins team on Saturday looking to get Long Weekend off to a good start. While certainly not the prettiest soccer of the season, Taft played a tough, together 80 minutes and earned a 2-1 victory. From the opening whistle it was clear that Hopkins was looking to outwork the Big Red. Unlike in past games this season when a full 80 minutes was needed, Taft was up for the full game challenge and continued to play for and with each other. Hopkins put numbers deep and stayed in close proximity. Taft was able to find holes in that defense but the opportunities were going to be fewer and farther between than some. After Hopkins narrowly missing an opportunity on the Taft end, the Big Red would get the ball deep in the Hilltopper zone. Amanda Graziano ’21 pressured the outside back resulting in a Taft throw-in. Captain Emilee Adami ’19 passed in to Graziano who turned and fired a chip to the back post for the first goal of the day. Taft’s lead would not hold through halftime as Hopkins would score 3 minutes before the end of the half. It would be almost a full 40 minutes before the next goal of the game. Graziano would put a great opportunity off the crossbar but it just felt like it wasn’t going to be Taft’s day. Keeper Claudia Torres ’19 was called into action numerous times on the day and she was up to the challenge. After a hard-fought half, Patience Kum ’21 show her quality and dribbled through the Hopkins line, dribbled the goalie, and found the net with just 4 minutes to play. Taft would hold on to win 2-1. Taft will use the extended weekend to heal up after the physical match. The Big Red will play host against an undefeated and unscored-upon Miss Porter’s on Wednesday at 3:00pm.