GREENWICH – The Staples boys soccer team has developed a strong rivalry against Greenwich, taking down the Cardinals in both last year’s CIAC Class LL and FCIAC championships.
On Friday, the No. 1 ranked Wreckers once again showed they reign supreme in the conference, taking down No. 2 Greenwich 3-0 on the road.
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“That was a nice one to win,” Staples coach Liam Witham said. “Last year was my first year coaching high school, so I didn’t know what to expect but after that first game against Greenwich I knew there was a rivalry here. But we have the utmost respect for them, and I would love to see them again. It is a friendly rivalry with respect on both sides.”
Staples senior striker Adrian Rodriguez was a dominant force in the victory, scoring all three of his team’s goals.
The Wesleyan commit’s first goal came in the 11th minute of the first half, with the final two in the second half.
“I feel great, we are playing against a great team and a great coach, so to come out here on their home turf and win 3-0 is a big statement,” Rodriguez said. “Stamford was one of the biggest challenges we had all season, so we were looking to bounce back from that and that is what we did. Positive outlook hoping to finish the regular season strong and head into playoffs.”
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Rodriguez has 14 goals and four assists through 10 games to lead Staples to a 9-0-1 start.
It was a challenging week on paper for Staples, which started with a 0-0 tie against a strong Stamford team. It was the first game Staples played this year that didn’t end in victory.
“I thought we played well against Stamford, we just couldn’t score,” Witham said. I thought their goalie was phenomenal, so if you can score against him you can score against anyone. This was kind of a good bounce back if you want to call it that, especially for Adrian because he didn’t get a goal in that game.”
“I can’t speak highly enough of Adrian (Rodriguez),” Witham said. “But I am going to kind of deviate to the back four, because without them playing the way they did today, it doesn’t allow the front players to go out and score like that. But he is a phenomenal player and getting a hat trick, you can’t replace goals like that.”
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Staples graduated 16 players from last year’s championship team, including all four defensive starters.
Only two of this year’s starting back line, Thomas Pretty and Peter Nelson, were on the team last year. The two other starters are Ryan Allen (who did not play soccer last year) and Ciaran Kennedy (who made the varsity team this year).
Staples has only allowed three goals in its 10 games.
Greenwich (7-1-2), which lost over 20 players to graduation last year, had not lost this season until Friday.
“They are the best team in the state, they have to be,” Greenwich coach Kurt Putnam said. “And if they don’t do the double-double I will be shocked honestly. It is what it is, we played a better team and you have to be okay with that. I was hoping we would contest the 50-50s better in the air, and I don’t think we were great at contesting second balls. If you give a good soccer team the opportunity to play, they are going to hurt you, and they did.”
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Player of the Game
Adrian Rodriguez, Staples:
scored all three goals.
Quotable
“The lad up front (Adrian Rodriguez) is another class. Thank god he is leaving, because he has been a pain. When you have a player like him and you have kids who know how to play the game to find him with the runs he is making, you are always going to score goals.” – Greenwich coach Kurt Putnam.
Staples 3, Greenwich 0
STAPLES 1 2-3
GREENWICH 0 0-0
Scoring: S-Adrian Rodriguez (3)
Records: S 9-0-1; G 7-1-2.
This article originally published at No. 1 Staples boys soccer uses Adrian Rodriguez hat trick to top No. 2 Greenwich in Class LL rematch.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: Sports.yahoo.com
