The Rye Boys Soccer team clinched their eleventh straight victory on Tuesday, October 6, knocking off daunted rival Byram Hills 4-0. The Garnets and Bobcats have a history of playing close games, but the Garnets had control for most of this one in their second shutout victory over Byram this season.
“Our early goals were fantastic, but it took us until the 30th minute before we really started to put our stamp on the match,” head coach Jared Small told MyRye.com on Tuesday. “Late in the first half, there was a sequence in which Christian Hofmann pinged a 50 yard ball from the left side of the midfield to Harrison Zimmer on the right flank. Zimmer used his first touch to control the ball and second to hit a 40-yard sidewinder to Connor Dehmer’s head in the six-yard box. While we didn’t turn this into a goal, this was the moment when we knew we had matured into the match. We didn’t look back from there.”
Despite missing out on that opportunity, Dehmer still finished the evening with two goals. The sophomore struck right away in the fourth minute and again to close the scoring in 66th minute. Harrison Zimmer assisted on both Dehmer’s 10th and 11th goals of the season.
“I thought we all worked extremely hard as a group,” Dehmer said after the victory. “The work rate from all the forwards really helped put pressure on their center backs and create scoring opportunities which led to our success.”
Sandwiched between the early and late goals, Felix Wismer and Kasen Scarperi scored on impressive individual efforts. Wismer played himself a self-pass to elude a defender prior to his tally, while Scarperi – who leads Rye with 13 goals in 11 games – intercepted a pass, made a move, and finished with his right foot.
Defensively, Cole Furber and Gabriel Chared-Sandstrom stood out in front of keeper Will Alexander. Rye secured their eighth clean sheet of the year (compared to two games with one goal allowed and only one contest with 2+ goals allowed). Two of those eight shutouts have come against the Bobcats.
“Will was vocal and decisive off his line, Cole was so poised on the ball and assertive in his defending, and Gabriel did a bit of everything in both the defending and attacking aspects of his left back role,” Small said after the shutout.
Rye (11-0) will look to keep their remarkable offensive and defensive paces going in their next game tomorrow, Thursday 10/8, against Peekskill. The Garnets host the contest at Nugent Stadium at 5:00pm. Small and his club enter the showdown having won all 11 of their games up to this point, with 45 goals for and just six against (+39 goal differential).
