Rivers traveled to Middlesex for a wild showdown on a windy Wednesday in October.  The game started with Rivers in control for the first 20 minutes, as they pressed the ball high, and Middlesex struggled to sort out their marking assignments.  Rivers opened the scoring when Alex Erdos hit a big switch from the right flank for Maxwell Kaufman to run on to and finish a side footed volley after pushing the ball through to space with his head.  The last fifteen minutes of the first half was when Middlesex figured out how to control the ball and Olly Mylon '25 was played in by Danny Cai to unleash a right footed strike that knuckled past the keeper at the near post to tie the score.  In the final minutes of the first half, Middlesex took the lead as Mylon drove to the byline and played the ball to Long Nguyen '27 for a close range tap in finish.  Having taken the lead in the closing stages of the first half, Middlesex extended the lead to 4-1 in the first five minutes of the second half.  Just over two minutes after the restart, Bear Tibbitt played a loose ball to Olly Mylon who beat his man down the wing to square it for Adriano Valmora.  Valmora cut back on the retreating defender and tucked the ball into the side net.  Just two minutes later, Bryan Mayhew played a streaking Jeffrey Hernandez in behind the Rivers defense for a breakaway that Hernandez was able to tuck away past the onrushing keeper.  The score remained 4-1 for the next half hour until Ewen Robertson turned up the pressure in the final ten minutes.  First, Robertson nicked the ball away from Noah Browne's grasp for a tap in and then Robertson received a quick free kick to spin in the box and slip it into the side net.  The post also provided some heroics to deny Robertson prior to his cutting the Middlesex lead to one.  As the final whistle sounded on a seven-goal thriller, both sides were emotionally exhausted, and Middlesex emerged victorious by the slimmest of margins.  It was a highly competitive and frenetic game of momentum swings and both teams showed a lot of character to battle back from deficits.