In a string of three games that spanned over a week, the Caps didn't fail to produce entertaining games. But, they still couldn't come away with the intended results. They ended up with a 1-0 thriller win over Wake Forest, a 2-0 loss against Millbrook, and a close 1-0 loss to Leeseville High.
In their first game, the Caps started with their almost usual practice of good possession without finishing. It was an uneventful game with a few chances for either team but leading up to the first half it was clear the Caps were dominating. The second half turned out to be a different story. Wake Forest improved their play, and the Caps couldn't string as many passes together as they had in the previous half. As the final 10 minutes approached however, the JV boys turned their attack back on. They were constantly pressuring the goals with runs up the flank from freshmen Alex Dunne and sophomore captain Laurits Peterson. Then, finally, after a run up the left side, the Caps crossed it across the box and found Max who headed it perfectly over the keeper with a mere 20 seconds left. It was mayhem. JV and Varsity onlookers alike piled onto Max and everyone was screaming at the top of their lungs. The atmosphere was electric. The Caps held Wake Forest off for the last 20 seconds and came away with a long awaited win.
Their next game against Millbrook wasn't as positive. They played a similar at the start, just as they had in the first half of the previous game. There was a few times when they were one pass away from the easy goal. The defense was playing solid again, and it continued that way until the breakdown. Even though this lapse in defensive strategy lasted only about a minute, it cost the Caps 2 goals. The first was a little hard to put the blame all on the defense due to the brilliance of the attack. It came off a cross that seemed to be for no one until the last second where a Millbrook player came from nowhere as if he'd been shot out of a rocket and headed the ball top right corner. As if this wasn't bad enough, a miscommunication lead to the Caps going down 2, when a kickoff went astray and ended up as a chip over freshmen keeper Sam Vlaphalos into the back of the net. Even after a strong halftime speech by Coach Parker, JV still couldn't get anything going in a relatively uneventful second half. There were few chances, and the only bright spot was the reemergence of the Caps defense keeping out anymore goals. Even though 2-0 wasn't anywhere close to the result we wanted or expected after the previous game it really was only down to a minute worth of mistakes. As such, the Caps looked optimistically to the next game against Leeseville.
This optimism seemed warranted as the Caps started off with 3 open goal chances in the first 5 minutes. This optimism slowly turned into regret as Leeseville started getting back in the game. After about 25 minutes, Leeseville scored a sloppy tap-in goal off a cross. Before and after the goal, though, the Caps continued to attack but couldn't get the same opportunities to shoot as they had in the very beginning of the game. After halftime, it was more back and forth with many close chances for the Caps and the rare opportunity for Leeseville. Again, once the last 10 minutes set in the Caps turned on the attack. They switched to a formation with 3 men on defense and took to the offensive. It started to look like a last second goal was in the cards again with freshmen Than Oo coming close on a few tries. Unfortunately, however, Leeseville dropped their players back on defense once they saw the Caps were pushing to score and snuffed out most of the developing chances. Another close game ending in a loss has caused a resurgence in some frustrations, but the team hopes to seek some vengeance on their rivals Sanderson on the road next Monday.
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