By Paul Vozzella
Hometown Weekly Sports Reporter
The Raiders were unable to get back to their winning ways on Saturday afternoon, as they lost on the road to Natick by a score of 7-6. After mounting a six-game win streak, consecutive losses have moved their record to 9-4.
Dover-Sherborn showed plenty of promise on both sides of the field early in competition. On the defensive side, sophomore Archie Abstoss made several impressive saves in the first three minutes. On the attack, junior Henry Fowler played a pivotal role in the Raiders’ success.
Fowler was responsible for his team’s first goal after receiving a pass from junior Oliver Atwood. With 1:11 left in the first quarter, it was No. 11 to No. 1 for a goal, as Fowler hummed a pass through over twenty yards of traffic to junior Robert Olsen just outside the crease to create the scoring opportunity.
Natick was able to sneak in a goal with four seconds left in the first quarter to cut the Raiders’ lead to 2-1.
The second quarter showed more of the same. Abstoss made an incredible save by blocking a point-blank shot with his stick.
“Archie's been great,” said head coach Dan Morris. “He started towards the end of last year as a freshman, and I think he's grown a lot in his ability to be a leader on defense and be a backstop. He makes a lot of good safes; he steals a lot of shots for us… It's great when you have a goalie who can make some of those raw saves.”
Midway through the frame, Olsen and Fowler scored again to bring the score to 4-1. Natick would answer with two goals of its own before the end of the second quarter, however, and would continue its offensive attack into the third quarter by scoring two more times. With the goals, the Redhawks came back to gain a 5-4 lead.
It took a penalty from Natick for the Raiders to get back on track on the attacking side of the field, but with a one-man advantage, Atwood was able to score his first goal of the game. Natick answered two minutes later, but captain Simon Hart immediately took matters into his own hands with a goal to tie things up at six apiece.
The Redhawks scored what would wind up being the final goal of the game with 2:34 remaining in the third quarter. Two more great saves from Abstoss before heading into the final frame kept the Raiders right in the thick of things, but to no avail.
Despite the loss, Morris saw a promising performance out of his team: “I think it's a good confidence booster for our guys to play some teams in a higher division than us,” said Morris. “We hadn't really had a defensive slugfest like today, so that was a good experience.“
Four out of Dover-Sherborn’s next five games will be against teams with losing records. Their only opponent with a winning record will be Medfield on Senior Night.
