Mallards Suffer First Loss

BERLIN- Worcester Prep’s men’s varsity soccer team took its first loss of the season this week, falling to visiting Delmar, 4-2, on Monday in a hard fought, physical contest.

The Mallards entered the game with a near-perfect record at 7-0-1, the only blemish on their otherwise perfect schedule a 1-1 tie with Sussex Tech way back in the second game of the season. In fact, Worcester had not given up a goal in three previous contests, a 4-0 win over Salisbury School, a 6-0 win over St. Thomas More and a 4-0 win over Delmarva

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Five of Worcester’s seven wins had been shutouts and they had only given up four goals all season. However, something had to give when the much improved Delmar arrived on Tuesday and the Mallards quickly found themselves in the rare position of trailing in a game.

Delmar scored an early goal to take a quick 1-0 lead and added a second goal with just over 19 minutes left in the first half to extend the lead to 2-0. Worcester had an excellent opportunity to get right back in the game with about nine minutes left in the first half when Evan Bauer took a hard foul in the box, setting up a direct penalty kick. Bauer fired a hard shot toward the corner, but the Delmar keeper made a great diving save and preserved the lead at 2-0, which was how the first half would end.

Worcester went on the attack early in the second half and broke the ice with a goal by Mike Jones off a beautiful cross by Hunter Marshall. Jones one-touched the crossing pass and fired it past the Delmar keeper to cut the lead to 2-1 with 33:20 remaining.

With 30:16 remaining in the game, Delmar scored its third goal on a perfect corner kick in front of the Worcester goal, which was headed in to extend the lead back to two goals at 3-1. Worcester continued to apply pressure on the Delmar goal as the contest became more and more physical. With just over 20 minutes left, Worcester’s Matt Carey was fouled in the box and converted the penalty kick passed a diving Delmar keeper to cut the lead to one goal again at 3-2.

Delmar scored another goal at the 15:20 mark on an unsettled situation in front of the Mallards’ net to push the lead to 4-2, which is how the contest would end.