Megha Athmakuri
Juniors (pictured left to right) Nick Dubon, Soren Stevenson, and Brendan Gruneich. All three recorded either a goal or an assist and were instrumental in the Spartans' victory.
As the ref blew the full time whistle, both fans and players of New Hartford soccer couldn’t help but celebrate this
dominating victory over their biggest rival. The match was essentially already decided at halftime with New Hartford up 5-0. Brendan Gruneich, Soren Stevenson, and Sandi Muric all hit the back of the net–with the latter even scoring a hat trick. The sixth goal was an own goal. Gruneich also had two assists, and Nick Dubon had one. Goalkeeper Thomas Wameling also had an exceptional game with four saves. He also recorded a personal clean sheet (he wasn’t in net when Whitesboro scored).
This win felt exceptionally satisfying after the heartbreaking 4-2 loss New Hartford had suffered against Whitesboro in early September. In that game the Spartans were up 2-0 early when Whitesboro scored four consecutive goals to win them the game.
This loss to their biggest rivals, only fueled the Spartans desire to win the second time around, and made the final victory even sweeter.
“It felt great, not only the win, but knowing we played better to get redemption,” Clayton Stewart, one of the New Hartford team captains, said. “Our whole team wanted to win even more than usual.”
Senior Denis Dzehverovic was initially nervous when the Spartans took the early lead.
“When Soren scored the first goal in the first 58 seconds, I started getting flashbacks because in the first 20 seconds of the first game we scored and Soren scored that goal as well and then a few minutes later we scored a second one which was Sandi and that happened the first game too,” he said.
However, his worries were quickly resolved.
“But then we just kept scoring and scoring and scoring (by the end of) the first half It was 5-0,” Denis said.
So what went differently this time around?
According to Clayton Stewart, “We regrouped and moved the ball, not forcing any bad shots or bad passes, we came in with a different mindset.”
“This time we went into the game with intent to win, not playing down to Whitesboro’s level, but playing our own level of soccer,” Senior and Team Captain Owen Runkhe said.
His biggest takeaway: “If we play our game we are a very good team, and if we play every game the same, we will be a very difficult team to beat.”
Clayton Stewart’s biggest takeaway of the game was: “We need to stay hungry, the first game we lost, we were up 2-0 at halftime, that game ended 2-4 loss for us, the second game we kept our foot on the pedal the whole time.”
As the regular season draws to a close the boys begin preparing for sectionals and the teams they play are only going to get tougher. However, Clayton has nothing but confidence.
“My expectations are higher than ever, sectionals is the ‘real season,’” Clayton said.
Perhaps it was actually Denis that said it best: “No matter how good a team is or how good you think they are, whoever wants it more at the end is gonna win.”
The Spartans played their last first sectionals match against Mexico on Thursday, October 23rd. They won 5-0 and will advance in the tournament.
