LANCASTER – The remnants of this week’s Nor’easter chilled the air at the Massachusetts Youth Soccer Association Fields. Players from Bromfield and Maynard had to contend with a slick field from a steady drizzle during the CMADA Division 3 semifinals game Wednesday. Despite the harsh conditions, the top-ranked Trojans were able to outplay and outscore the fourth-ranked Tigers, 3-0, to advance to the finals.

At the start, both teams came out physically aggressive, unafraid to hip-check an opponent to the wet turf in the pursuit of a 50-50 ball. After all, this is the postseason and a trip to the finals was on the line, so both teams brought the intensity. As they tried to feel each other out, this brute-style of play seemed to hamper the faster and highly skilled Trojans. Playing with physicality may have been the best chance for the fourth ranked Tigers to knock off their number-one ranked rival. However, Maynard could only keep Bromfield’s talent in check for so long.

After thwarting a Maynard offensive attack at about the nine-minute mark of the first half, Bromfield midfielder Amlyl AitDowd spotted his teammate, striker Ryan McNulty, making a run up the field. AitDowd then launched a majestic long pass through the mist into space behind the Maynard defenders for the counterattack.

“Amlyl Aitdowd played me a clean through ball,” said McNulty, a Bromfield senior captain. “We’ve been connecting on plays similar to that all year.”

“This was a perfectly executed play,” said Bromfield head coach Alex Horne. “Amlyl saw Ryan making his run and quickly played a through ball to give Ryan a jump on his defender.”

The rest of the play was about a 50-yard sprint by McNulty. When he caught up with the ball, he smartly dribbled it with his right foot, keeping it to the outside and away from the Maynard defender on his left hip. The defender tried unsuccessfully grabbing McNulty’s shoulder in an effort to stop the breakaway, but McNulty was able to shake his pursuer as he ran past the center circle, through the penalty arc, into the penalty area, and finally to the top right corner of the goal box. Once there, sized up the proper shooting angle and fired the ball to the inside of the back post for Bromfield’s first goal of the game.

“From a technical perspective, it was top notch,” Horne said.

“A lot of my goals came from similar angles so as soon as I saw the pass, I knew it was a good chance to score,” said McNulty, who now has 13 goals on the season.

The score also opened the floodgates for the Trojans as they quickly posed their offensive will onto the Maynard defense. The field was notably slanted in favor of Bromfield as they used their speed and skill to push the attack up field. About three minutes after McNulty put Bromfield on the board, the Trojan’s aggressive offense led to a corner kick to the right of Maynard’s net.

Bromfield forward Alex Myles booted the corner into the of center of Maynard’s goal box. From point blank range, Jayden Liu beat his defender to the ball and headed it down into the back of the net.

Horne said the corner kick goal was the result of a lot of practice. “Alex has been working on corners every day and it shows. He consistently puts dangerous balls into the box.”

McNulty said, “Jayden Liu has been scoring headers off corners a lot this season. Our team as a whole has become an aerial threat, which is surprising because Bromfield is not known for heading at all. It just shows more of our versatility and threats we pose on the pitch.”

After Bromfield went up 2-0, the game hardly was ever in doubt the rest of the way as the Trojans had numerous offensive opportunities throughout. At the same time, frustration set in for Maynard, as their aggressive play led to several players being warned by the refs, with one player being red carded for an illegal tackle around midfield nearly midway through the second half. Maynard’s head coach, Bartosz Grzegorczyk, also received a yellow card for going onto the field to argue the call.

Bromfield was awarded a free kick about 50 yards away from the Maynard net. “The third goal came after a red card by Maynard and was a turning point of the game,” Horne said. Senior captain Geraghty Vellante took the free kick “and put it beautifully into the box.” Amongst the commotion, it got redirected off a Maynard defender’s head and into the back of the net for Bromfield’s 3-0 lead.

Horne called the sequence a turning point because he said 2-0 is “the most dangerous score in soccer. The first five minutes of the second half were going to dictate how the rest of the game would look like. We came up with the mentality that it was 0-0 and we needed to score.  If it weren’t for some fundamental mistakes in the box, the score could have been five or 6-0.”

McNulty said the team needs to do a better job of finishing their chances if they are going to win in the finals on Saturday against Douglas. “It all comes down to focus,” he said. “We had plenty of chances which should have been converted, but we had small errors doing the simple stuff which allowed Maynard to get out of those close calls. We just have to do the basics and find corners in the coming games.” 

Horne was also proud that his team was able to maintain their composure as their opponents pushed the physicality to the edge of the legal line; sometimes crossing over it. “We often talk about composure and not retaliating,” he said. “Oftentimes a ref might not see the first foul but they almost never miss a retaliation. Composure takes discipline and it’s a key area we focus on.”

Along with Bromfield’s potent attack, their defense stifled Maynard, which led to much of the frustrated play by the Tigers. Trojan goalkeeper Tucker Madison had four saves to help preserve the clean sheet (shutout). “Our defensive line and goalie were solid,” Horne said. “Maynard really only had one chance all game. Tucker made a very athletic save off a rebound to punch it away from Maynard who was point blank on net. Tucker made the big saves when he needed to. He had a great game. Although Maynard got through, it never really amounted to much as our back line added pressure and were in constant coverage.”

Moving forward, Horne has a strong and positive message for his team. “We did what we needed to do today,” he said. “We preserved the shutout and put in three goals. A lot of positive notes going into the final … We need to continue to build our team chemistry. This is the most important key to a playoff run.”

Bromfield will play Douglas on Saturday, Oct. 30 at 4 p.m. at the Marlborough Middle School for the CMADA championship.