Reprinted from the Crystal 99, September 25th, 2002

            By: Dan Corning

Despite the increasing number of players on the JV soccer team they have experienced 3 last minute heart-breaking losses. Every game this season they have started out for the first 60 minutes of the game playing there best soccer but when the last 10 minutes came around everything the team had worked for came crashing down.

So far it hasn’t been easy for Coach Robert Reppucci, who started with 13 players and now has 22. Coach Reppucci has stressed the fundamentals at the beginning of the season. “I’m trying to have these boys grasp the basic concept of the game, because some of the players on this team haven’t played soccer before.”

During my conversation with Coach Reppucci, I along with him was finding out who these athletes are. But like any coach, he was able to find out the teams’ strengths and weaknesses only after five games.

After five games they have a record of 1-4. They beat Billerica to start off the season by a score of 2-1 with Charlie Buckley scoring both goals. When times looked good they suddenly changed. A loss to Methuen 5-0, a loss to Xaverian 3-1, a loss to St. John’s Prep, and a loss to BC High, 8-0 followed.

“We haven’t been consistent, one quarter we play awesome and then the next we aren’t the same team. To be a good team you need to have consistency from all your players”, said Coach Reppucci. Brian Lehane is not one to try and make excuses for the losses but simply stated, “That we have had some bad breaks during the game which the other team has been able to capitalize on, those mistakes always come back to haunt us in the end.”

This season Coach Reppucci is looking for better play out of his forwards and wants to see the team put more shots on net. The players on the team that he looks to carry a bigger load are defensemen Jake Lewis and Lehane, winger Jonathan Gravallese and midfielder Brett Saulnier. Dave Balliro has played net three games but Martin Cahill has played in one of the first four. During the last game Cahill played the first half and Balliro played the second half.

It’s still early in the season, so Coach Reppucci is still trying to feel everyone out, trying to see where people play their best and what they can do good and not so good. But with this team’s work ethic I’m sure by the end of the season this team’s goals won’t only be in the net.