On October 15th and 17th, the Rebels had two power house opponents coming to play at Bird Middle School. Natick and Wellesley both are in front of Walpole in the Carey Division, and with hopes of making the playoffs, the Rebels needed to salvage points from both games. But, they would fall behind early and be left looking dumbfounded as they tried to manage unthinkable comebacks.
Lately the Rebels have gone with a lineup that includes some of the most energetic players over the skilled ones. That includes the likes of junior Nabil Chumon and senior Wesley Doolan starting over experienced seniors AJ Chauvin and Matt Brownsword.
Within the first five minutes against Natick, Walpole came out flat, resulting in a three goal defecit before half time. “I could not belive it”, said Ian Fair, “We belived that we were the better team, but we just played awful”. The message at half time was, ‘win the second half’, and not only did the Rebels win the half, but they dominated.
With a quick goal from senior Cj Weinacht, the Rebels were able to cut down the lead. But as the played continued to favor Walpole, they had trouble finding the back of the net until Chauvin burried a shot from the 6 yard line to put the Rebels within one goal with the score of 3-2. However, the Rebels could not complete this historic comback as they failed to score in the final fifteen minutes. “It was a little bit of too little to late” said junior Tommy Helm, who had been recognized as to have played the best game of his young career.
The Rebels tried to continue their second half success against a Wellesley team that recently tied a weak Dedham squad. The game started off with total domination from a Rebel side who looked desperate for points. The best chance came when senior Captain Bobby Ivatts took a shot just outside the 18-yard box that was just saved by the Wellesley keeper. Even though the play was in Walpole’s favor, Wellesley would score first. By half time, the score was 2-1 in favor of Wellesley with junior Chris Gallivan scoring a late goal.
“It was good to score right before half, we needed some momentum” said junior Chris Gallivan.
The momentum would not carry over though. As Wellesley would score twice within the first ten minutes of the second half to put the game out of reach. Walpole would gain two more goals from seniors Bobby Rabaioli and Mark Niden, but it would not be enough as Wellesley would hold on 4-3.
The Rebels did not gain any points and now need to get six points out of their last eight games to make the playoffs. Their next game comes next Tuesday, October 22nd against a weak Milton team that they tied 2-2 in September.
