Wednesday, October 3

A second-half offensive explosion lifted the Canaan Eagles over a scrappy Craftsbury Chargers squad. Canaan was again led by Tony Graves, who recorded a hat-trick within fifteen minutes of second half action. Canaan also got two goals from Zack Daley. The duo of Graves and Daley has combined for nine goals over the past two matches for the Eagles. While the Chargers hung tough for the opening forty minutes, they were unable to keep up with the Canaan attack after the break.

The game opened with both offenses shooting, but not seriously threatening. Craftsbury had several free kicks within scoring range, but were unable to test Canaan goalkeeper Jake Smith. On the other end, the Eagle offense had its chances, but seemed to be just off the mark. Several shots bent just wide of the goal, while countless others went high and off the crossbar. The back and forth nature of the first half yielded many close calls, but no goals. Canaan's ball control was much sharper in the second half. Passes that were intercepted and cleared by the defense in the first half seemed to find their way through the tiring Craftsbury defense. The Eagles capitalized on their opportunities, netting five goals in the second half to pull away from the Chargers.

The opening goal came early in the half. A corner kick from Jason Charest curved perfectly into the goalie's box, where Daley redirected the ball into the corner of the goal. From that point on, the game would belong to Graves. His first goal came of a long pass from midfielder Patrick Brady. Graves settled the ball and ripped a shot into the low corner of the goal. Minutes later, off a corner kick from Connor Daley, Graves was able to get a head on the ball to score his second goal of the match. Graves would complete the hat-trick on his own, elegantly knifing through the defense and burying a perfect shot in the upper left corner with his left foot. Daley would add his second goal of the match shortly after on a chip from Jeremy Schichtle to close out the Eagle scoring for the match.

The 5-0 victory levels the Eagles' record at 5-5. The five goals matched a season high for the Eagles, who will look to continue their winning ways with a showdown versus Colebrook Thursday.