MANCHESTER, NH — Reshad Mehr notched a first-half hat trick, helping Manchester West to a 4-2 win over Derryfield, in Division III boys soccer action, Monday afternoon.
Mehr, who has eight goals in his last three games, scored in the 16th minute and again two minutes later to stake the Blue knights to an early lead.
West has now won three straight games to improve to 5-1-2 on the season. Coach Fernando Martinez said the team’s steady improvement can be traced to its practice sessions.
”We take a look at our mistakes, at the things wr did wrong in the last game and we work on those things. We work on the mistakes to try and fix them for the next game.,” said Martinez. “We just need to keep working at getting better.”
With the loss, Derryfield dropped to 3-5-0 on the season. It’s been an up-and-down first half of the season for the Cougars. Head Coach Jeff Cousineau attributes the team’s inconsistency to its youth.
”We’re a very young team. We lost a lot of good players to graduation last year,” he said. “At one point, today, I had eight freshmen out there.
”But it’s not like we got blown out. They showed some fight and kept it close,”said Cousineau. “In some earlier games, we hadn’t seen that.”
Derryfield was able to stay within striking distance thanks to the outstanding play of forward Mouad Yzzogh, who scored on a penalty kick in the 36th minute to pull the Cougars to within 2-1.
But West wouldn’t allow Derryfield to carry momentum into intermission. The Blue Knight aggressively pressed the attack and Mehr completed his hat trick in the 38th minute to make it 3-1 at the break.
West continued its aggressive play in the second half, with its mids pushing into the attack zone and its backs moving up, as well, to try and keep Derryfield pinned down.
For the most part, the strategy worked. West dominated the middle third and outshot Derryfield, 23-8.
However, the risk of an aggressive strategy is your vulnerability to counter attack, and West’s backs got caught napping a few times, leading to prime scoring chances for Derryfield.
Fortunately for the Blue Knights, keeper Aiden Agrusso was up to the challenge. Twice, in the first 10 minutes of the second half, Derryfield had golden opportunities to make it a 1-goal game, only to be denied by Agresso. His best save of the day came on diving stop to rob Yzzogh in the 42nd minute.
Just two minutes later, West’s Japhara Ramadani went on a strong run up the middle, outmuscling multiple defenders to beat keeper Alistair Wright to push the West lead to 4-1.
Ramadani had a chance for a second goal later in the half, using the same type of power rush, but his shot went off the side of the net.
Yzzogh closed out the scoring with a goal in the 71st minute.
Manchester West will look to run its win streak to four, when it plays host to Somersworth on Thursday.
Derryfield is off until Saturday, when the Cougars hit the road for a tough game at St. Thomas Aquinas.
