New Kent falls 6-1 to Grafton in storm-shortened soccer clash

New Kent's Alan Walker (17) uses his body to keep Grafton's Andres Cortez away from the ball.

Alan Chamberlain photo

For the second straight evening, weather has shortened a New Kent home soccer match. Thursday night, the girls’ encounter with Northampton ended five minutes into the second half due to an approaching thunderstorm. Tonight (Friday) with the boys’ team entertaining Grafton, that scenario repeated almost to the second.

When stoppage came the night before, the Lady Trojans held a 3-0 advantage. Tonight though, the Trojans faced a 6-1 deficit. Both contests go into the record books as complete games.

Grafton took the lead for good in the opening moments. Then over a nine-minute span beginning at the 27-minute mark, the Clippers poured it on with four more goals, taking advantage of New Kent playing a man short following an infraction.

“Once we went down a guy, that pretty much was the deciding factor,” said Trojan coach Keith Grant.

“[The Clippers] are a well-established team,” he added. “We knew it would be that way going in and we sort of prepared for it, but being down to 10 men forces you the make changes, especially against a team like them.”

New Kent could muster little offense until late in the first half when Josue Benitez fired a shot from long range. The ball sailed over the head of Clipper keeper Andy Sabochick and into the net to close the gap to 5-1. As the final seconds ticked away, the visitors tacked on their sixth goal.

The decision dropped New Kent to 2-6.