WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN
Mechanicville’s dominance leaves Red Raiders wondering, “what if?”
Looking at the scores of the games the Mechanicville boy’s soccer team has played this season, it often requires a second look to verify that it’s actually a soccer score.
The Red Raiders have been scoring an absurd amount of goals in their first few games to begin the season.
“A lot of us play on travel together, so we have a lot of chemistry and I think that shows on the field,” said Mechanicville junior Andrew Kraszewski, who leads the team in goals and assists trough their first six games.
Mechanicville has scored 12, 12, 10, 11, 12 and 6 goals in those first six games, a total of 63 goals - an average of 10.5 per game. They have only allowed one goal during that span as well.
With the early dominance the Red Raiders have shown, you can only wonder what could have been if it was a normal season.
“It we had the typical endof-season tournaments, I’m very confident that we’d have a lot of success in sectionals
and in states,” Kraszewski said. “This is probably the best team we’ve had here.”
“If there were sectionals, I definitely think it’s possible we could have won,” added senior TJ Bisaillon.
Last season, the Red Raiders got some opportunities to play larger schools, something they aren’t scheduled to do this year, since most of the AA schools played in the fall.
“Last year we played a couple bigger schools. We won one and lost a couple close ones. It’d have been cool to get another shot at a bigger school this year,” Kraszewski said.
The junior leads Section 2 in goals so far in Fall 2, with 16 goals and 13 assists to begin the season, though some of his teammates are close behind. Colin McNutt has scored 14 goals and contributed 10 assists. Wyqie Aguda has 10 goals and 11 assists so far.
“I know that a couple guys are close to me - Colin and Wyqie,” Kraszewski said. “It’d be cool to see it become a bit of a competition since we have so many guys capable of scoring, but I don’t really care who has the most goals or assists as long as we keep winning games. That’s really the only thing that matters.”
Mechanicville is next scheduled to face Waterford on Tuesday April 13 at 5 p.m, as they begin the second half of their schedule. It is their goal to win their remaining six game and make the most of the opportunity they were given to play soccer this year.
“Since it kept getting pushed back and pushed back, I didn’t think we were going to have a season, but I’m really glad we did because we have a really good team,” Kraszewski
said.
“This year is one of the best team’s we’ve ever had here,” Bisaillon added. “I know we’d have a chance to compete with the bigger schools, in sections and states, but really I’m just happy to get the opportunity to play.”
Bisaillon isn’t quite in the top three of Mechanicville’s scoring leaders, but he’s working his way up there. So far, he has scored six goals and had eight assists.
“I’m usually more of an assist player, but when I get the opportunities, I’m going to make the most of them,” he said.
In the Red Raider’s last game, they defeated Tamarac 6-1, the only other undefeated team in their league to that point.
“I think beating one of the best teams in the league by five goals just shows how much work we’re putting into this season and how seriously we’re taking these games and that doesn’t just show during games, but also during our practices,” Kraszewski said.