On September 3, the Boys Varsity Soccer team made the trip east to the cornfield-surrounded George Brendler Field to open their season in the annual Frankie Garrow Tournament in Chazy and play their first game against the Beekmantown Eagles. The Bears took this game in a competitive 3-2 win.
As the game kicked off, Beekmantown came out of the gate hot and pressured the Bears in the opening minutes with many scoring opportunities but all were shut down by Canton’s defense. Canton had begun to string together a few counterattacks using forwards Will Andes and Wyatt Francey as targets.
Canton struck first 19 minutes into the game on a direct free kick. The set play was run to perfection as after two runovers, Will Andes drilled the ball from 25 yards out into the net to make it 1-0 Bears.
After the first goal, Canton kept the pressure on and just five minutes later, midfielder Colden Francey made stellar moves in the midfield to establish possession and put the ball in front of the net. After a scramble and a series of bobbled plays from the Eagles defense, the ball was put in the net. The goal was credited to senior Will Mcdonough who had the last touch on the ball.
The Bears continued the play with more offensive scoring chances. Key defensive plays from Matthew Holbrook and Andrew Downing let the Bears go into the half with a 2-0 lead.
Canton came out the half rolling and continued playing hard. A minute after a shot off the crossbar from forward Will Andes, Griffin Coakley made a great feed past the Beekmantown goalkeeper to Simone Leonardelli who scored the tap-in goal to make it 3-0 Bears 13 minutes into the half.
Beekmantown had not given up just yet, in the 68th minute, the Eagles scored off of a strike from 18 yard box and eight minutes later scored off of a scramble in front and a shot just over Goalkeeper Sean McCluskey’s hands to make it a 3-2 game and four minutes to try to tie it up.
After a series of defensive errors from the Bears, Beekmantown had many chances to even the game up but all were unsuccessful. Finally, after a missed free kick and a clear on the goal kick, the clock ran out and the Bears came out with the win.
A strong game from Canton’s defense and seven saves from goaltender Sean McCluskey in his varsity debut helped the Bears secure their first win of the year
With this win, Canton gained a spot in the championship game and were later set to face the tournament host Chazy Eagles under the lights two days later.