The 100 or so fans who turned up to watch HBS play HLS at the Ohiri stadium in the latest round of the Boston Graduate league were treated to a demonstration of soccer, as the home team struck eight unanswered goals against their Law School rivals.
HBS started well, and grazed the bar with shots from Santiago Marra (ND) and Ali Ashurov (OG), before falling asleep and letting the Law School go 1-0 up after an attack on the right. Normal order was quickly restored however, as Marra ran onto a through ball from TJ Carella (OA) and rounded the goalkeeper to slot the ball into the open net. HBS doubled their score when defender, Alex Saltonstall (OC), smashed a sweet left-footed volley after an attacking corner was missed by the keeper.
HBS continued to stretch the game and as the space opened up, Surya Mendon‡a (OF), tucked away his first of the morning. Receiving the ball with his back to goal, the Brazilian shaped to go one way, throwing the defense, but spun the other and found himself clean through on goal. As the keeper came out, he curled a beauty into the top right-hand corner and ended a recent goal-drought in some style. A couple of minutes later, Carella added a penalty kick after Brian O’Connor (OA) had weaved some magic in the box and been felled as he was about to cross the ball back. At half-time, HBS had a comfortable lead of 4-1.
After the early mistake Luis Bueno (OE), Ro Diehl (OJ), Chris Withers (OA) and Salstonall kicked and bullied the HLS attackers and left keeper, Hendrik Almsted (NJ) wondering whether he should bring a crossword to the next game to pass the time. In midfield O’Connor, Carella, Francois Duffour (OJ) and Roberto Silva (OD) passed the ball around like a pinball, dazzling the opposition, linking well with Dwight Angelini (OB).
The 2nd half continued where the first had finished. Mendon‡a completed his hat-trick with a penalty, after the Law School centre-back inexplicably tried to stop a goal-bound shot with his hands. He was shown a red-card by the referee and left his quickly tiring colleagues at the mercy of the HBS attack.
Mendon‡a added his fourth with a powerful header from an HBS corner and Angelini completed the scoring by drilling a low shot from the edge of the area. A very satisfactory result and performance for last years champions, which should now guarantee their progression to the play-offs.
In the earlier game, HBS B put away Babson 2-0 to complete a good days for HBS and prelude a long celebration in Shays.
