Mallards Come From Behind, Extend Perfect Season

BERLIN- Worcester Prep's boys' varsity soccer team fell behind early to visiting St. Thomas More on Tuesday, tied the game, gave up the lead again early in the second half and then pulled away for a 4-2 lead to preserve their perfect season and extend their record to 10-0.

After a back-and-forth start to the game against St. Thomas More on Tuesday, the Mallards surrendered an early goal and found themselves in the rare position of trailing in a game, 1-0. With just over 14 minutes left in the first half, Worcester's Martin Sanchez took a perfect feed from Andrew Ternahan and fired a shot passed the St. Thomas More keeper to tie the game at 1-1, which is how the first half ended.

Just 1:30 seconds into the second half, St. Thomas More attacked the Worcester defense down the middle of the field and had a break-away with just goalkeeper Alex Ternahan to beat. Ternahan raced out of the box and met the St. Thomas More player at the point of attack. Both players collided at the ball, which bounded high in the air toward the Mallards empty net. Two or three big bounces later, the ball found its way into the empty net and St. Thomas More took the lead again for the second time in the game at 2-1.

Trailing 2-1 early in the second half, Worcester turned up the pressure on both ends of the field and started to get good looks at the St. Thomas More goal. With 30:19 remaining in the game, Worcester's Andrew Ternahan took the ball on a fast break, got behind the St. Thomas More defense and fired a shot into the corner to tie the game at 2-2.

About two minutes later, Sanchez fired a perfect crossing pass from the right side and Matt Carey one-timed it in traffic to give Worcester Prep its first lead of the game at 3-2 with 28-29 remaining in the game. Worcester turned up the pressure in the middle of the field and allowed very few chances for the St. Thomas More offense to get back in the game. On the offensive end, the Mallards applied relentless pressure on the St. Thomas More goal and just missed several chances to pull away. Finally, with 22:49 left in the contest, Carey scored again to extend the lead to two goals at 4-2, and the winning streak and perfect season were preserved.

Worcester's record now stands at a perfect 10-0 with a handful of games remaining including the ESIAC playoffs. The Mallards have been impressive on both ends of the field all season, outscoring their opponents in 10 games by a margin of 52-7 including five shutouts.