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By Andy States
Content Manager, SMAC
At 6 o'clock on Tuesday night, all was silent on the soccer field at Great Mills High.
The Hornets and visiting La Plata Warriors observed a moment of silence in honor of Great Mills graduate Will Smith, a Becker College (Worchester, Mass.) student fatally stabbed early Sunday morning. Smith, a 2007 Great Mills grad, was a three-sport athlete at the school.
"It was kind of emotional for some of us," said Great Mills goalkeeper Michael Branigan close to two hours later, after the Hornets had successfully defended their home turf with a 1-0 shutout of La Plata.
"The whole school is pretty shook up about that," Great Mills coach Matt Taggert said. "He was a great, great kid. He was a great personality. It was such a tragedy, what happened to him.
"I think it's great how the community and the kids here are really rallying around him. They had a memorial for him here and a moment of silence, which was the kids' idea. They handled it the best they could, I think."
And after a slow start the Hornets, who won a one-goal, overtime match against Thomas Stone the night before, came through with their seventh straight victory to start the season. Frank Zeba scored the game's only goal in the 60th minute to propell Great Mills (7-0, 5-0) past La Plata (3-4, 2-3).
"I think we came out kind of slow and sluggish," Taggert said. "Having back-to-back games will kind of do that to you once in a while, but it seems we got our heads back in the game and started moving the ball the way we know how and started playing the way we know how and it showed up. Finally we put one in the back of the net."
Throughout the opening half, La Plata generated the bulk of the scoring opportunites but was unable to finish. Great Mills, after an inspired halftime talk, clamped down in the second half to greatly limit any offensive chances for the Warriors.
"That's the name of the game," La Plata coach Dennis Burns said. "You can play with a team or outplay a team, but if you don't put it in the back of the net you don't win and that's what happened.
"I think our midfield played very well today with Nick Dilodovico and Steven Barock, but we didn't put it in the back of the net when we had opportunities."
"They had too many opportunities not to score," Taggert added. "They're a tough team. They played well."
With seven wins, and five in SMAC action, Great Mills has already exceeded its victory total from a year ago. And already armed with wins over perennial SMAC frontrunners Northern, Stone and La Plata, the Hornets are showing that they are a team to be reckoned with this year.
"I think this year we have a lot more team chemistry than we did last year," Branigan said of the team's turnaround.
"It's because they've been together," Taggert said, offering his take on the success the team has enjoyed thus far. "They're starting to jell as a unit and they're playing as a team.
"They're not playing selfishly, which is the key. They're sharing the ball and working well together. That's the big difference from year to year. They've improved as a team instead of as individuals."
