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Sports

KP Soccer Lets Another One Get Away

Oliver Ames captures a late 2-1 boys soccer victory.

After an early first half Oliver Ames goal, King Philip battled back to make it a contest, but the visiting Tigers were much too strong and eventually grabbed the Hockomock League victory, 2-1.

“This is the Hockomock League at its best,” Oliver Ames Coach John Brata said. “KP is a good team and Coach Kip [Lewis] does an awesome job with the kids and gets them up for games. They may not be as strong as they were last year with those outstanding players, but he still has them playing great soccer.”

The visitors didn’t waste too much time and got on the scoreboard first. Following an OA corner kick early in the game, a scrum ensued in front of the Warrior goal and before all was said and done Dave Stapleton pushed the ball past keeper Jim Murphy and the Tigers held a 1-0 lead.

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Throughout the first half, Oliver Ames not only recorded the only goal, but the Tigers seemed to control the majority of the play. KP had sporadic chances here and there, but it was OA who was giving the Warriors fits, especially the keeper.

After allowing a freak goal, Murphy continued to come up big and keep his
teammates alive.

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“He’s a good goalie, but we’re putting him under a lot of pressure and he’s still able to come up with some good saves for us,” KP Coach Kip Lewis said. “More importantly, he’s coming up with the ball, coming off his line and getting to the ball, preventing shots from happening.”

Murphy continued to flash his brilliance in the King Philip net, stonewalling the Tigers and keeping the score within reach. On the same token, the Warriors were able to move the ball into the OA zone, but each time they had an opportunity to put the ball in the net, it just wasn’t meant to be.

“The boys battled hard, and played some decent soccer at times and got outplayed at other times,” Lewis said. “This was a frustrating loss for us.”

With the ball moving down the right side of the field, the OA goalie made the decision to come out after the ball. Luckily for the Warriors, Connor Smith got to it first and punched it toward the net and away from the keeper. The ball eventually rolled into the net and the Warriors had the score knotted at one.

Following the game tying goal, it was as though the KP players were playing for the tie instead of the win and the Tigers eventually got the game winner on another fluke goal. Murphy once again seemed to come up big with a save, but couldn’t corral the ball and it came back out to OA, who in turn hit the crossbar and as the ball came bouncing out it went off a King Philip player and into the back of the net. The goal was credited to Stapleton.

“This was a tough game. They [KP] made some adjustments in the second half, after we controlled the first half, while we got complacent,” Brata said. “KP is a good team and when they get the results going their way, they’re going to be tough. I wouldn’t want to face them in the tournament.”

The win improves OA to 6-1-2; matching the number of wins the Tigers had all of last year, while King Philip falls to 3-5-4.

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