Booters remain perfect in conference

The Dukes boys soccer team went to Avon to play the Eagles in a non-conference game on Monday, Sept. 29. The game was to be another showdown of two of the top Division II teams in Lorain County.

Within four minutes Avon took the lead with a goal off a header. Then with 20 minutes gone, Avon scored another goal as Wellington was trying to figure out how to make adjustments to swing the game their way. After the adjustments, Wellington slowed the attack of Avon's game plan and tried to score in the process. Though the first half ended with Avon up 2-0, the game still seemed to be in reach for the Dukes.

They had come back in a game earlier in the year with Elyria Catholic to win it 3-2, so the fans and players were hoping they could come back again.

The second half of the game was played for the most part at Avon's end of the field with the Dukes trying to score a goal to get them started on their comeback. They thought they had one goal back when Chris Coker put one in the back of the net, but they were whistled for off-sides on the play. It seemed that Avon was packing its defense in and just holding on for the win in the second half, as the Dukes put more shots on goal than the Eagles in the second half. In the end Avon prevailed 2-0 in the game and the Dukes record went to 8-3-1 and 5-0 in conference play.

On Wednesday, the Dukes went to Oberlin High School to play the Phoenix in a PAC conference game. Wellington was looking to keep a perfect conference record intact after six games. The game started slow even though the Dukes in the first half controlled the ball and the game. Then with four minutes to go in the first half AJ Hyde received a pass from Michael Coley and scored on a breakaway to make it 1-0. Then with 49 seconds to go in the half, Chris Coker assisted AJ Hyde for his second goal making it 2-0 at the half.

In the second half the Dukes kept the pressure on while limiting the Phoenix to only one shot on goal for the whole game. The score stayed the same 2-0 until 7:59 left in the game when Hyde made a great assist to a wide open Will Pabst, who put the ball in the net to make the score 3-0. The final score ended at 3-0 and the Wellington boys soccer team kept their conference record perfect at 6-0 and improved their overall record to 9-3-1.