This team found themselves in unfamiliar territory on Friday night as they entered halftime behind on the scoreboard. From the beginning, the JV Dons seemed to be a little caught off guard. Acalanes sent out the normal 10 starters to midfield to start the game, but Las Lomas only sent 7. As the referee asked the coaches for clarification, the Las Lomas coach asked to play 7v7 despite having 14 players. Both players and parents appeared confused.
Las Lomas came out strong in this 7v7 formation. They initially dominated possession, but Owen Hulst and Emerson Boudreau held their ground on defense as Luke Spinelli blocked shots in goal. After a few minutes, the Dons found a way to counter as Anthony Quinn took a hard shot that the goalie was able to catch. However, after a turnover, Andrew Iams found Jackson Tseng for the first goal of the match; 1-0. Curtis Sanders, TJ Cronin, Luke Dafferner, and Quinn continued to rotate at midfield. However, after the initial Dons goal, Las Lomas seemed to be able to get back to dominating possession. Acalanes seemed to struggle a bit with keeping their own possession, missing their passes, dropping the ball for turnovers, and a bit of confusion in offensive and defensive positioning as Las Lomas showed some speed and efficiency in their own passing game. Las Lomas was able to score twice, unanswered; 1-2. The Dons were able to counter with some shots by Iams, Sanders, and Tseng, but they either went wide or were tipped by a Las Lomas defender.
The second quarter ended up being a bit of a defensive battle between the two teams. Logan Houston and Tseng were on attack as Dafferner and Quinn ran the midfield. Miguel Carmena and Boudreau were tasked with defense around Spinelli. Dafferner won the faceoff and found Houston, who tried to weave in for a shot, but the Las Lomas defense was able to knock the ball loose. They were able to pick up the ball for a run that the Dons couldn’t seem to stop and after a couple of clean passes, Las Lomas found themselves on the board again; 1-3. The Dons couldn’t seem to find the net as Dafferner shot off the post, Tseng shot wide, and Cronin’s shot was caught by the goalie. But, there was some strong defense and knockdowns by Houston, Carmena, and Ryan Yun. A turnover allowed Tseng to somehow find a way to pass through a lot of Las Lomas traffic to Quinn for a nice goal; 2-3. However, this is how the half would end, with the Dons down one goal.
As the Dons moved to the end zone for their halftime discussion, players appeared a bit frustrated by their first half. Coaches Cole and Wil must have had some inspiring words of wisdom because the Dons came out in the second half and looked like the team we are accustomed to seeing. They seemed to clean up their passes and positioning on the field and looked very good! Dafferner came out strong on the faceoff, which allowed a Dons attack. After Las Lomas forced a turnover, Sanders was able to knock the ball back out for his own forced turnover and found Dafferner for a score; 3-3. Spinelli seemed to block or catch anything thrown at him. Tseng knocked the ball loose and the Dons moved it around between Dafferner, Quinn, and Houston, who took a rocket of a shot that sailed high. Tseng was able to sneak around the goal and connect back with Houston who muscled through the defenders to find net; 4-3. Dafferner dominated at faceoff again and found Quinn for another shot, but there was crease violation. Quinn countered by knocking the ball loose for a turnover, found Dafferner who spun through some defenders, and found Tseng for the shot and goal; 5-3. On the next play, Dafferner found himself spinning through the defenders again, but found net himself for the second time in the quarter; 6-3. Cronin won the next faceoff, but there was a bit of back-and-forth between the two teams as both goalies saved some shots and Carmena and Boudreau continued with some strong defense. On attack, Houston was able to break loose from his defenders and found net for the second time in the quarter as well; 7-3. Las Lomas got some renewed energy at the end of the quarter and found net; 7-4. As they continued their attack, Dafferner and Sanders squeezed in on the shooter to force a very wide shot to end the quarter.
The fourth quarter was all Dons. Dafferner won the faceoff and found Tseng for a shot wide. But, shortly thereafter, a running Quinn found Tseng again who found net; 8-4. After the Dons were able to force a defensive turnover, Dafferner got the pickup and the Dons moved the ball around on attack. Iams found a path for a pass to Dafferner for another score; 9-4. Iams rattled off some shots of his own, but the goalie found a way to block them. Cronin fired off a nice long shot that the goalie also saved. Cronin tried to almost scoop in the rebound, but the off-balance goalie was able to save it again. On defense, Hulst and Carmena continued to block passes, shots, and knock the ball loose as Spinelli continued to either block or catch shots. The last Dons goal started with a defensive turnover, which led to Cronin running up and finding and open Tseng for a nice goal; 10-4.
It was impressive to watch this team turn things around at halftime and despite playing another 7v7 game, be able to get back into how they are accustomed to playing and dominating. Come out and watch this team take on College Park at home on Tuesday and travel to Miramonte on Friday!
