Holliston Ultimate Season Continues
(Mark Toronto defends against BC High)
Holliston opened the week on the road with a match against Nipmuc High School in Upton. The Nipmuc Warriors jumped out to an early lead and kept the pressure on, taking an 8-1 lead into halftime. The Panthers opened the second half with stout defense and scored three of the first four points. However, Nipmuc quickly turned the tide and put Holliston away with a final score of 15-6.
(Paige Bagley elevates the disc in Abington)
The road trip continued on Wednesday the 7th in Ashland with a game at David E. Hunt Field. Ashland came out swinging and shut-out Holliston in the first half by an 8-0 margin. By the time the score was 10-0, it was apparent it was not Holliston's day. However, the team in red was not quite ready to go home and found a nice balance of defense and patient offense led by senior Carl Berg to score five of the next seven points, closing the gap to 12-5. It was not enough as Ashland went on to victory by a score of 15-5.
(Rusty Varrell pulls the disc to Ashland)
Next up on the schedule was a home game on Thursday the 8th against Hopkinton. Under sunny and windy conditions on the turf, Holliston opened the scoring after a great pull and a quite strike to senior Tom Leary. Hopkinton returned the favor by scoring four straight points, causing Coach Levasseur to call time out. Holliston got their act together and closed the half with a lead of 8-6. The local boys continued the momentum in the second half with contributions from the entire team, highlighted by the play of freshman Peter Georgakopolous and junior Corey Cox. Holliston eventually closed out the Hopkinton team by a decisive score of 15-10. The Holliston B-Team also had a successful day with a resounding 15-0 victory.
(Shane Leary find the disc hard to handle)
The busy week concluded with a trip on Saturday to Abington for a B-team tournament. The coaches had been looking forward to this tourney all season as it was a great opportunity to get in-game experience for the less-experienced players on the squad. Due to scheduling challenges, most of the games until Saturday had been A-team matches. Holliston played four games and went 1-3 overall. However, three of the four games were very close and steady progress was made as the players got into the groove of playing multiple points in a row. The A-team players were in attendance to root their teammates on and provide "up-calls" and shuttling of water bottles between points. This tournament experience should prove invaluable for the remainder of the season and into the end-of-year state tournament.
(Teddy Campbell backhands against Nipmuck)
Please come out to the games. The schedule is posted on the Holliston High School website.