WESTBROOK – The Westbrook boys soccer team hasn’t seen many victories in 2011, but senior Kyle Gaudreau made sure this one happened in style.
The impressive forward knocked in two first-half goals for the Blazes on Sept. 27 and added a third in the second half for a hat trick, as Westbrook piled on for just their second win of the year, beating Bonny Eagle 4-1 and improving to 2-5-1. The loss dropped the struggling Scots to 2-5, and marked their third consecutive defeat. Bonny Eagle Head Coach Larry Robertson declined comment after the game.
“After (Kyle) has been key,” said Westbrook interim coach John Morgan. “He has been working on making runs off his teammates all season long, and he is starting to get it – you can tell. He had a great performance.”
It took a little while for the Blazes to gain control, but once they put together their offense there was no letup. Gaudreau opened the scoring with a bang 11 minutes into the game, rifling down the right side on a breakaway and shooting by Bonny Eagle keeper Jeff Martin.
“On the first one, one of our players – Luther Williams – bobbled the ball a little bit, and then he saw me do a through ball on a diagonal run,” Gaudreau said. “And then I just touched it, and it went into the back of the net.”
The Blazes put up a second goal with 15:44 to go, this time as senior Joe Quinlan blasted a hard shot that went off the fingertips of a diving Martin and went into the back of the cage.
But Bonny Eagle wouldn’t go away without a fight, and precisely a minute after Quinlan scored, sophomore Ryan Kern connected from the left side to beat Westbrook keeper Austin Blake to cut the lead to 2-1.
The advantage was short-lived, however. With 6:33 left in the half, Gaudreau struck again, this time coming in to finish off a rebounding shot that pushed the Westbrook lead back out to two.
“The two-goal lead is always the hardest to protect, particularly in soccer,” Morgan said. “My message to them at the half was that we had a great first half, and that we knew Bonny Eagle was going to come out and have a high energy in the first couple of minutes, and we had to counter that.”
Westbrook continued to press their advantage in the second half, and with 30:30 left, went for the dagger as senior forward Dylan Gillis set up Williams on a crossing pass from left to right, but Williams’ shot was saved by Martin. The deathblow instead fell five minutes later, when Gaudreau capped off his three-goal effort by again finishing on a rebound that squirted away from the hands of Martin.
“This is my first time this year, and my first time ever (getting three goals in a game),” Gaudreau said. “It felt really good, and I felt very confident tonight. And then every time I kept scoring I felt more confident.”
The Blazes will need all the confidence they can get come Thursday, when Westbrook travels to face Cheverus. At 4-1, the Stags are one of the premier teams in the league this season.
“We have a big game against Cheverus on Thursday, and that’s all we are looking at,” Morgan said. “I think we match up pretty well. We have a lot of work that we have to do tomorrow, but that is a big game and it is worth a lot of points.”
Bonny Eagle junior captain TJ Reagan (6) tries to intervene
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