Despite a valiant and organized team effort, the Middlesex boys' soccer team succumbed to a special talent and fell to Rivers 2-0 on the road this Wednesday.  Rivers has been towards the top of the ISL table all season long, largely thanks to their top scorer who now has 18 goals and three assists in the first ten matches. 

The first half was a very disciplined performance for Middlesex and the junior defensive duo of Brian Powers and Logan Hallowell was rock solid at the heart of the back line and kept the score knotted at 0-0 going into the interval. The first great scoring chance for Middlesex came in the 50^th minute as senior Stevie Gleason curled an angled ball in the gap between the Rivers center backs to spring junior Jack Sullivan in for a shot with just the keeper to beat.  Sullivan took his shot at the top of the 18 yard box to the back post and the lanky Rivers keeper just got his fingertips to the fizzing low shot to tip it wide of the post. 

In the 64^th minute Rivers' special player, Davock, split two defenders on the dribble to the right side of the goal and served a blistering but inch-perfect ball back across the penalty spot for a clinical one touch finish and the 1-0 lead.  Just four minutes later, Middlesex finished a great period of high tempo passing by finding Julian Bishop on the right side of the penalty box.  As Bishop took a touch past the last defender, he was unbalanced by the defender from behind and his resulting shot went just inches over the crossbar.  Middlesex sustained that pressure for a few minutes more until a 40 yard Rivers clearance was boomed just over the head of the Middlesex back line and their top scorer took one sublime settling touch within the narrowest of gaps and fired a true finisher's ball into the back of the net with his second touch to complete the 2-0 score line. 

There were several outstanding performances for Middlesex and the 2-0 score line was a harsh result in the end for the work that they put forth throughout the match.