Dover hosted Dragon Friendship Boys’ Soccer Tournament on September 14 & 15

Dover played Beacon tough, fell 1-0 on Friday

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By John M. Benson
September 15, 2007

Dover High School hosted Pawling, Webutuck and Beacon last Friday and Saturday, as the four teams played an exciting round robin of soccer.

The Dragons played their first game of the season on Friday afternoon, playing the perennial powerhouse Beacon Bulldogs in Dover’s first game of the tournament.

Dover stood toe to toe with Beacon, allowing just one goal and sharing ball control almost evenly all over the field, but the Dragons found it difficult to get off a quality shot against a very tall and athletic back line for the Bulldogs.

The game was clean and hard fought, and offered Dover an opportunity to play a very physical opponent. The Dragons showed they are prepared to play the very physical game.

Coach Bob Esposito said after the game, “It was a good first game for us, a good physical game, and that is a good club, so we will be okay. We will make a few changes here and there and we will be good. We have only three starters back from last year, so with this being our first game, they are definitely coming around.

“Keeper Eric Merling played a very good game, Eric Kelly played a good game, Arlex Leon on the outside, we had a number of guys play well in our first game.

“I think the guy who was keeping score said we had six or seven shots on goal early on, and if we had scored early on when we had the pressure on, it would have been a totally different game. We played a very good team even in our first game. I told the guys I was happy with the way they played. Beacon is an A School, a large school, and we had just the one miscue.”

Playing his patented 3-5-2 positioning, Esposito started Eric Merling in goal, backs Matt O’Neill, Shaun Marshall and John Ferraro, midfielders Eric Kelly and Nick Esposito in the middle and Nick Quinn, Christian Torgensen and Arlex Leon on the outside, and forwards Jorge Aldano and Scott Garcia.

Varsity roster: Eric Kelly, Matt O’Neil, Shaun Marshall, Nick Esposito, Nick Quinn, Christian Torgensen, Jason Paradis, Scott Garcia, Arlex Leon, Gene Boo, Ed Sheehan, Jesse Franks, Joe Casson, Eric Merling, Joe Vinci, Steve Wool, Dillon Nugent, Mike Lloyd, Joe Stanley, Jorge Aldano, Hunter Marshall, Marco Hernandez, John Ferraro, Eduardo Baila, Mike Lloyd, Christian Fabian and Juan Messina.