Yankey Leads Taconic Past Wahconah

PITTSFIELD, Mass. -- Frederick  Yankey had a hat trick to give the Taconic boys soccer team a three-goal lead, and the Thunder held off Wahconah late to earn a 3-2 win on Saturday afternoon.

 

"The ball movement was exceptional today, for the most part," Taconic coach Jason Keller said. "Fred scoring three goals is the norm, but it's the kids that get him the ball that I'm so proud of."

 

Yankey's first goal came off a Joshua Alvarez free kick.

 

A Wahconah defender was whistled for falling on and trapping the ball on the right wing about 15 minutes into the game.

 

Alvarez booted the ball into the middle of the 18, where Yankey rose above the crowd and headed it home.

 

It stayed a 1-0 game until about the 34-minute mark.

 

That is when Lucas Parise took a pass from Yankey near the left-wing touch line and carried the ball deep into Wahconah's end before crossing back to Yankey inside the 18.

 

Yankey finished to give his team a 2-0 lead at the break.

 

And he wasted no time extending that lead after half-time, slotting the ball into the goal from the left wing in the 48th minute.

 

The tide shortly turned, though.

 

Taconic, which outshot the visitors, 8-1, in the first half, gave up nine shots on goal in the second half -- mostly after a Wahconah timeout midway through the period.

 

"The last couple of games, we've been starting out very, very rough in the first half," Wahconah coach Kyle Lyman said. "I think for us, it's all about that first goal. If we score the first one, we're off to a running start.

 

"You saw in the second half, when we scored one, we started playing soccer. In the first half, I don't know what it was. But we have a lot of work to do."

 

Alex Roots got that first Wahconah goal with about 15 minutes left to play. He headed in a throw-in from Thane Adams to get Wahconah on the board.

 

With a little more than five minutes left, Cooper Calvert beat Taconic keeper Jonathon Parsons (eight saves) to a bouncing ball sent forward by Wahconah keeper Matt Oakes (11 saves).

 

Calvert knocked the ball into the goal from the top of the 18 to get his team within one.

 

"It's a tremendous effort play," Lyman said. "I mean, you look at his jersey right now, it's brown because he's been rolling in the dirt.

 

"That's because he gives that effort all the time. He's a captain, so hopefully we can all start doing it. And if we all start doing it, we're gonna have a good year."

 

A couple of minutes later, Calvert was charging on another through ball into the 18. This time, Parsons beat him to the ball and was able to avoid danger and preserve the lead.

 

"We just got a little sloppy toward the end," Keller said. "A couple of mistakes here and there. That's always burned us, so I'm glad it didn't today. We had a three-goal cushion."

 

Taconic (3-4) has one three of its last four going into Monday's game at Easthampton.

 

"We're excited," Keller said of Taconic's recent wins over Leonx, Drury and Wahconah. "Last year, we started out [3-7-1] then won eight in a row. So we're hoping we can kind of do the same this year."

 

Photos from this game to come.