Published in the September 13, 2017 edition

JUNIOR MIDFIELDER Joshua Ell gets ready to strike the ball against Lexington. (Donna Larsson Photo)

By DAN MARGARITA

WAKEFIELD — The Wakefield High boy’s soccer team hosted a powerful Lexington squad last night and was beaten solidly by a score of 7-0 at the Galvin Middle School.

“I don’t know if there’s a harder schedule to open up against…a Middlesex League champ (Winchester) and a state champ (Lexington) in the first three games. That’s tough, but it’s a good indication of what we’ve got to do and where we need to go,” said Wakefield coach Andrew Tetrault.

Lexington took charge right away, with Dylan Corbett leading the way. Midway through the first half Wakefield seemed to get their bearings and took control of the game for a while. Josh Ell had a shot hit the cross bar for Wakefield’s best scoring chance.

“We worked our tails off for the first thirty minutes of the game, and we had our chances. We hit the cross bar and we were all over it, but I don’t know if there was any mental or physical let down or if Lexington found our weak spots and just capitalized,” said Tetrault.

Wakefield’s defense kept Lexington off the scoreboard until Anthony Clough scored to give the visitors a 1-0 lead.

Lexington got a pair of goals late in the half from Corbett and Lucas Aguirre to send Lexington into half time sporting a 3-0 lead.

“The guys fought hard. You never like to see the score like that but we have a lot to work on. It’s the beginning of the season and now we have the small teams coming up, so we’re looking to that and hope to get some wins,” said Tetrault.

Lexington broke the game open in the second half with a barrage of goals. Corbett scored to notch a hat-trick and then Alex McLaughlin scored to make it 5-0.

Sancho Maroto finished with a pair of goals to put the score at 7-0, where it would stand.

“The boys fought hard the whole way from the front line to the back line. We’re trying to execute some of the things we worked on in practice, playing in the direction we’re facing and trying to spread wide. You can tell they’re trying to do it but we’re just not stringing enough passes together to get any type of offense going,” noted Tetrault.

Box score

Lexington     3 4 7

WAKEFIELD 0 0 0

First Half Scoring: Lex, Clough (un) 22:45; Lex, Aguirre (Chung) 3:30; Lex, Corbett (McLaughlin) 2:55.

Second Half Scoring: Lex, Corbett (un) 18:00; McLaughlin (un) 16:32; Lex, McLaughlin (un) 8:10; Lex, Maroto (un) 5:38.

Keeper Saves: Wak, Ritchie (16 shots, 11 saves), Farrow (3 shots, 1 save); Lex, Caliri (7 shots, 7 saves).