On another unseasonably warm Wednesday afternoon, the Girl’s JV Rhinos hopped on the Landjet for the long ride up to Deerfield, MA to face the Big Green Doors. Having settled in to playing a 4-3-3 formation the girls knew their roles and embraced the challenge of playing a formidable opponent. The Doors opened the scoring in the third minute when a long ball over the top caught our defense and keeper unawares and their striker was able to slot home. Taft settled down and answered in the 10’ and 12’ with a fast brace from Sadie Frame who was fed excellent through balls on each goal by “The Bells” Brawn and Shanks for Taft to go up 2-1 in a flash. Left fullback Celia Torino added a third only two minutes later with an absolute gem of a goal when a half clearance rolled to her 25 yards out and her first-time effort curled far post. Deerfield got one back in the 25’ to tighten our lead to 3-2 at the break. Deerfield’s tactical changes half payed out big at the onset of the second half when good play from their forwards gave them three successive goals and, just as quickly as the lead was built, it disappeared. All of a sudden, Taft found themselves trailing 5-3 but knew there remained a full 30 minutes of game to go. Excellent build-up-play from Hollen Spain released Sadie Frame down the left wing to slot home and complete her hattrick to pull us to within one with 20 minutes remaining. Ellie Perkins and Muffin Prakittiphoom were menacing down the left in the second half, and it was a series of good exchanges along the left wing that gave Clara Eckstein the ball at the top of the area, where she deftly turned and finished strong from the edge of the 18 to level the scores at 5 apiece. With six minutes remaining, Taft looked eager to find a winning goal, and believed they had, when goalkeeper Sarah Elkas blasted a punt over the entirety of the Deerfield squad and released Annabelle Shanks in one-on-one to confidently slot home and give our squad the lead 6-5. Deerfield, who fought hard all game, found the equalizer with 2 minutes remaining through their talented forwards. Kudos to the Doors for a wild and fun match.