The Middlesex boys’ varsity soccer team traveled to Belmont Hill for a midweek match-up and showed a great deal of character despite being on the wrong end of a 2-0 result. 

Belmont Hill struck first just 12 minutes into the match when a corner kick was allowed to bounce through to the back post for a player awaiting to take a set up touch and fire home an uncontested finish from close range.  Middlesex stepped up their focus and intensity after that gifted first goal for the next 20 minutes, but another individual error led to a second Belmont Hill goal in the 35^th minute.  On the play a Belmont Hill attacker capitalized on a whiffed free clearance from a long diagonal ball to walk in and seal the points.  Just two minutes later, Middlesex had their best chance to score in the match as senior captain Philip Skayne beat a Belmont Hill defender to the byline and served a perfect ball to freshman Will Christenfeld who was five yards from goal unmarked but his attempted finish rolled slowly off his foot and the keeper recovered to smother the chance. 

The second half was when Middlesex showed much more character, as central defenders Teddy Rausch and Philip Skayne were excellent and sophomore Brian Powers had a second standout performance in a row in the midfield.  junior Keeper Michael O’Keeffe made a handful of top shelf saves for 70 minutes until he was relieved by sophomore keeper Dan Carlson, who played his first minutes of the season after breaking a finger in the preseason. 

Strong efforts were put forth by all of the Middlesex players and the four man bench gave a lift when they saw action.  Middlesex hopes to get a number of their injured starters back into action in the next week and are looking forward to taking on St. Sebastian’s at home on Parents’ Weekend this coming Saturday.