Norton Boys Soccer Falls To Dover-Sherborn

The Norton boys varsity soccer team fell to the defending state champion Dover-Sherborn Raiders Friday night in Dover.

Norton let up a goal in the first five minutes of play and failed to get the ball in the back of the net in the 3-0 loss.

Head coach Eric Greene was disappointed in his team's performance.

“I don’t think we competed with them at all today. I think they’re on a much higher level than we are. They’re the defending state champions and they played like it and we certainly did not,” said Greene.

Norton was also the product of some bad luck during the game.

In the first half, with D-S leading 1-0, Raider foreward Sam Jordan booted the ball from the top of the box, hitting a Norton defender in the head which then deflected past Norton keeper Ben Donovan into the net to give D-S a 2-0.

For Greene, he felt it was his team's lack of aggressiveness to the ball that kept them on the defensive.

“I tell my boys all the time if your going to win games, you have to win the 50-50 balls and I think they won every single one. And the team that wins more 50-50 balls is going to win the game so we have to do a better job with that,” Greene said.

 After having their first game of the season delayed because of rain, Raiders head coach Joe Gruseck was pleased with how his team competed.

 “I was real impressed with the way we came out,” said Gruseck. “We knew they’d come out hard so I was real impressed with the attitude and the composure.”

 D-S midfielder Sean Forward scored the first goal with an assist on a crossing pass from Christ Flight.

 Flight added a goal at the end of regulation for the final score of 3-0.

 Norton is now 0-1-1 on the season.