Bay State Conference - boys soccer 2014

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Braintree should consider approaching the Needham game with a defend-and-counterattack strategy. Don't just dismiss this as boring, or playing for a tie. If you are Braintree, and Needham is the team you need to find a way to beat to finish atop your division of your league, your league overall, and eventually in the tournament, you need to find a way. You will get another chance to play them during the season, so tomorrow's game is a chance to experiment with 1 or 2 things. Defend-and-counterattack takes practice to do well. Most teams' chances would not be improved by trying this strategy. But Braintree's might.

The alternative is to play Needham the way you play everyone else, and hope somone else will knock them off. Not likely.

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Braintree should consider approaching the Needham game with a defend-and-counterattack strategy. Don't just dismiss this as boring, or playing for a tie. If you are Braintree, and Needham is the team you need to find a way to beat to finish atop your division of your league, your league overall, and eventually in the tournament, you need to find a way. You will get another chance to play them during the season, so tomorrow's game is a chance to experiment with 1 or 2 things. Defend-and-counterattack takes practice to do well. Most teams' chances would not be improved by trying this strategy. But Braintree's might.

The alternative is to play Needham the way you play everyone else, and hope somone else will knock them off. Not likely.

Braintree has always played this style against the stronger teams. Scrappy defense and scoring off of set pieces.Don't see them beating Needham though. But if they need a win or tie in the second match to make the tourney, they usually find a way to make it happen.

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W-l-t in league games
Needham 5-0-1
Framingham 4-0-1
Braintree 4-1-1
Walpole 3-1-2
Brookline 2-1-2
Natick 3-2-1
Wellesley 3-3-0
Weymouth 3-3-0
Newton North 1-4-0
Norwood 0-4-2
Dedham 0-4-1
Milton 0-5-1

The interesting thing will be to see which of the 6 teams immediately below Needham and Framingham make the tournament. All made it last year, but 3 of them narrowly.

Framingham is technically 5-0-1 in league standings due to the Dedham forfeit. League purposes only, not tourney seedings.

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Braintree has always played this style against the stronger teams. Scrappy defense and scoring off of set pieces.Don't see them beating Needham though. But if they need a win or tie in the second match to make the tourney, they usually find a way to make it happen.

If you're referring to that deep sweeper stuff they've sometimes played in recent years, that's not what I had in mind. As for beating Needham to get in the tourney, when did that happen? Seems that braintree's pattern is to have a losing league record, and qualify for tourney by making up the necessary wins in non league play.

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If you're referring to that deep sweeper stuff they've sometimes played in recent years, that's not what I had in mind. As for beating Needham to get in the tourney, when did that happen? Seems that braintree's pattern is to have a losing league record, and qualify for tourney by making up the necessary wins in non league play.

I think the previous poster's point was that they've gotten results late in the season against random teams not necessarily Needham. It's probably been a while since Braintree has beaten Needham.

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score

Needham 4
Braintree 2
Needham was the better of the two teams, however, both teams missed opportunities. Braintree hit the post on one, and was denied a well earned penalty kick on another.

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Framingham 4 Newton North 1
Brookline 1 Weymouth 0
Natick 2 Norwood 0

Braintree is going to be really good in the coming years. I got a roster at the game and they start 5 sophomores and a freshman. Seem to be playing pretty well against more veteran teams. Maybe some growing pains this year.

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Framingham 4 Newton North 1
Brookline 1 Weymouth 0
Natick 2 Norwood 0

Braintree is going to be really good in the coming years. I got a roster at the game and they start 5 sophomores and a freshman. Seem to be playing pretty well against more veteran teams. Maybe some growing pains this year.

First year weymouth don't make the tourney

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Framingham 4 Newton North 1
Brookline 1 Weymouth 0
Natick 2 Norwood 0

Braintree is going to be really good in the coming years. I got a roster at the game and they start 5 sophomores and a freshman. Seem to be playing pretty well against more veteran teams. Maybe some growing pains this year.

Walpole 5, Dedham 0
Wellesley 6, Milton 0

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First year weymouth don't make the tourney

I tried to tell you about the Dark Age coming to Weymouth months ago. The next few years are going to be bleak.

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Braintree has always played this style against the stronger teams. Scrappy defense and scoring off of set pieces.Don't see them beating Needham though. But if they need a win or tie in the second match to make the tourney, they usually find a way to make it happen.

You have that right..Braintree's goal came of a beautiful corner kick. The second goal was a fluke. Needham clearly dominated this match with several missed opportunities in the first half but Braintree hung in there and finished strong. Lookng forward to BC High on Saturday. No love loss between these teams.

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I tried to tell you about the Dark Age coming to Weymouth months ago. The next few years are going to be bleak.

Why? They have a very good in town/travel & club program. Leaving Weymouth for private schools or a lot less kids in town playing. It's a town with 60+ thousand people in it. Should be good by accident.

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Why? They have a very good in town/travel & club program. Leaving Weymouth for private schools or a lot less kids in town playing. It's a town with 60+ thousand people in it. Should be good by accident.

It's just chance. Yes, populous town and among the largest HS enrollments in the state, so should be good. But there are random ups and downs around the average, and it does look like they're in a down for boys soccer. Doesn't seem that any more kids are going to private school than at other times, because again, Weymouth HS's enrollment is still huge. But seeing them play, they have a ways to go to return to what their level should be. And they're not alone. Newton has the same issue, tneir dip just started a year or two earlier.

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First year weymouth don't make the tourney

Let's look at their schedule. As usual, they maxed out the games with 20, so they need 20 points. Through 8 games, they have 7 points. On the remaining schedule:
Probable losses: St Johns, Framingham, Needham, BC
Underdog, but reasonable chance for at least a tie: Braintree, Walpole, Natick, Brookline, Marshfield, Braintree
Have to win: Milton, Newton North
So in those 6 games in the middle category, they need to go 4-1-1 or better. Highly unlikely. Milton and Newton North capable of tieing Weymouth, too.

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W-l-t in league games
Needham 6-0-1
Framingham 5-0-1
Walpole 4-1-2
Brookline 3-1-2
Braintree 4-2-1
Natick 4-2-1
Wellesley 4-3-0
Weymouth 3-4-0
Newton North 1-5-0
Norwood 0-5-2
Dedham 0-5-1
Milton 0-6-1

Add a win to Framingham and loss to Dedham if you want to reflect opt-out games.

Braintree and Natick are ones to watch this week. Largely because of how the schedule falls, Braintree roared out of the gate again this season, undefeated through 5. Then they faced some quality, and dropped both. Next 3 are Xaverian, Weymouth and Natick. Weymouth should be a win, but the others?
Natick's season has been the opposite. They fell to the leaders in the opening week, but haven't lost since. Next 2 are Wellesley and Braintree.