BSOC: Hamden High continues its push toward the playoffs with a 4-1 win over Sheehan

By Scott De Bell
@ScottDB23
 
HAMDEN, Oct. 5 -- The Hamden High Green Dragons (4-4-3) had many goals at the start of the season, but making the postseason was at the top of that list. With their 4-1 win over Sheehan, they are closer to that goal.  Hamden defeated the Sheehan Titans  4-1 on Thursday afternoon. With the victory the Green Dragons are getting closer to earning a postseason bid.
 
Coming off a 3-0 loss to Hand in its previous game, Hamden (4-4-3) could not have asked for a better start to the game. Four minutes in, senior forward Emmanuel Yeboah used strong defensive pressure to find his own offense. He caused a turnover from the Sheehan defense and scored into the bottom left corner of the goal. This put the Green Dragons up 1-0 and they never looked back.
 
Hamden scored two more goals -- one by Yeboah, the other by senior midfielder Jordan Pattavina -- and found itself 3-0 up within the first 10 minutes of the game.
 
Even though the Green Dragons dominated the game early, head coach Ralph Romano complimented Sheehan (1-7-1) on its fight for the rest of the game.  
 
“Anytime you get a goal in the first couple of minutes it changes the mentality of the other team, sometimes you can put your head down and go through the motions for the rest of the game, but I feel that they really didn’t do that,” said Romano.
 
Sheehan answered with good chances to score not just after the first 10 minutes, but also throughout the rest of the game. The team found success through set pieces, which set up a couple of solid chances to score.
 
“We had ample opportunities. We missed a penalty kick, and we missed two clear chances in the first half,” Sheehan head coach Lou Rodriguez said. “We stress free kicks a lot, we put at least 15-20 minutes over the course of a practice, so we do practice it a lot.”
 
Hamden senior goalkeeper Marcus Anthony Carrington attempted to defend those set pieces from Sheehan. He says that the way they set up for them is what makes them tough to defend.
 
“They had three or four players on me and it’s kind of tough because you can’t move, and we also had people marking them and that was even harder for me, but we were able to fight through it and keep a clean sheet in the first half,” Carrington said. 
 
Hamden has an important stretch of games coming up in the next couple of weeks. Three games against three league teams can be the difference between receiving a bid to the postseason and not receiving one. Carrington said that if the Green Dragons play their game, they will be in a good position to reach their initial goal.
 
“We can beat any team but we just have to put our mind to it, play well, play our game,” Carrington said.
 
Hamden continues its push towards the postseason against Lyman Hall at 5 p.m., Tuesday, Oct. 10. Sheehan continues its season at 3:45 p.m., Tuesday, Oct. 10.