Youth Soccer Team in Framingham Tournament
Framingham hosts over 125 teams from all over New England and New York. The tournament is a patch tournament where the teams exchange their town or club patches after the game. Holliston played in the top U10 boys division along with five other teams from Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Each team played two games on Saturday and two on Sunday.
On day one of the tournament the Panthers played the Bristol, RI Fire. Bristol started off strong and led 1-0 at halftime. In the second half Bristol scored the first goal to take a 0-2 lead. From there it was all Panthers as they scored four unanswered goals on the way to a 5-3 win.
In game two, Holliston started out strong leading 2-0 at half time. The Panthers continued their strong play after halftime building a 4-1 lead. However, Holliston seemed to relax and Newton came storming back to score three unanswered goals to tie the game late in the second half. Holliston was able to regain the momentum at the end and scored the winning goal with only a few minutes left to win 5-4.
As difficult as day one was for the Panthers, they faced two unbeaten teams on Sunday. In the first game, Holliston played the Framingham Hurricanes who had dominated their first two opponents by a combined score of 11-2. Committing themselves to team defense the Panthers held the Hurricanes scoreless in the first half and led 1-0. In the second half Holliston scored first to build a 2-0 lead. The Hurricanes did not give up and pulled within one about midway through the second half. Holliston regained a two goal lead by scoring a few minutes later. Framingham fought back and scored their second goal on a corner kick with approximately five minutes remaining in the game. Holliston was able to shut down the Hurricanes the rest of the game for a hard fought 3-2 win.
In the final game, Holliston faced the unbeaten Framingham Rockets. The winner of the game would win the six team division. Similar to their earlier game on Sunday, this one started out as a defensive struggle with Holliston again holding a 1-0 lead at halftime. In the second half Holliston continued its strong play scoring the first two goals of the half and building a 3-0 lead. Framingham battled back and cut the lead to 3-1. Late in the half Holliston sealed the win and the division championship with a fourth goal to win 4-1.
Members of the Holliston Panthers are Dylan Donahue, Will Fondo, Erik Gray, Tommy Kantrowitz, Hunter McElhinney, Will North, Ethan Perry, Aidan Sidloski, Idrissa Smith, Ryan Katz, and Zach Andrew. The head coach of the Panthers is Garth Fondo with Scott Smith and Bill North assisting. They are managed by Tina Perry.
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Coaches left to right: Garth Fondo, Scott Smith, and Bill North
Standing players, left to right: Erik Gray, Zach Andrew, Idrissa Smith, and Will North
Sitting players, left to right: Tommy Kantrowitz, Dyan Donahue, Will Fondo, Ethan Perry, Ryan Katz, and Hunter McElhinney. Missing from the photo is Aidan Sidloski.