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Astros pick up where they left off

Thursday, September, 20 By Bob Albright
Staff writer

With the addition of seven new players to this year's varsity squad, veteran Pinkerton soccer coach Kerry Boles predicted that his Astros would face some inevitable growing pains as they looked to build off last year's stellar 15-3-2 season which took them all the way to the Class L final.

Closing in on the halfway mark of the season, Boles is not backing off that assessment, but an impressive 7-0 start by his Astros has served notice to the rest of Class L that there has been little dropoff on the soccer pitch in Derry this fall.

"I wouldn't say I'm surprised, pleased is probably a better word," said Boles. "There's still a lot of work to do and we've got the big part of our schedule coming up."

Starting with an 8-0 rout of Spaulding in their opener to Tuesday afternoon's 3-2 cardiac-special OT win over Manchester Central, Boles' side has taken on all comers and lived to tell about it.

The impressive streak has featured four shutouts by one of those seven newcomers, junior goalie Chris Doyle, and an Astro defense which has allowed just four balls to reach the back of the net all season long.

Tri-captain and returning Eagle Tribune All-Star defender Kenny Kolbeck says the secret of the Astros' back line has indeed been a case of strength by numbers.

"We have a lot of guys playing well back there," said Kolbeck. "By double- and triple-teaming, we have been able to do the job so far. Even if a team has an amazing striker, it's difficult when you have that kind of pressure." While conceding that the meat of their schedule is clearly ahead of them starting with a game Saturday at Salem (1-6) and huge tests with Londonderry (4-2-1) and Exeter (6-0-1) after that, Kolbeck admits that he did not expect to be still staring at a goose egg in the loss column in late September.

"I honestly did not see this coming," he said.

Kolbeck said he got an inkling that this team might get off to a faster start than expected when the Astros made the lengthy trip to Keene in the third game of the year and brought a 5-0 victory back home.

"After a two-hour bus ride to come out and play like that on the road, which is hard to do anyway, was big," said Kolbeck. "You could see just by the way the ball was moving that we were going to have some chances."

Given the fact that after playing overtime against Manchester Central Tuesday, a good part of the team could be found in the stands that evening watching Londonderry battle unbeaten Exeter to a 1-1 tie, speaks to both that chemistry and the focus of the team.

"They really are a great group of kids who are extremely hard working," said Boles. "The other day it was raining and they still wanted to be out there practicing. It killed them not to be out there."

Junior Omar Khartabil (6 goals, 4 assists), who scored the game-winner in OT Tuesday, leads the team in scoring and Jordan Ward (7 goals) is ahead of his 13-goal pace from last year while also playing a lot of time in the midfield. Only a sophomore, Alex Germaine (five goals, two assists) has impressed.

"Omar is quite a talent. He knows how to take the ball off people's feet and turn it into a quick scoring opportunity," Boles said. "He also knows how to play individual and team defense."

While Boles reiterated that he is pleased thus far, it's clear that he's not ready to make more out of this quick start than is warranted.

"It doesn't matter what the records are each year when we see Londonderry," he said. "You can say the same of Salem who we have (Saturday). We've got a lot of those type of games coming up."