After checking out the foliage this past Saturday in western Massachusetts, the Big Red traveled east to Berwick, Maine to take the Bulldogs of Berwick Academy.  On a picture-perfect New England fall afternoon SPS played a consistently strong match.  The Big Red possessed the ball from the start of the game and opened the scoring twelve minutes into the match.  A well-paced through ball by Samson Nguyen '25 put Pat Ricca '24 behind the Berwick defense.  Pat's baseline cross found Pat Cooley in the box.  Cooley's well hit ball found the back of the net for a 1 – 0 lead.  Despite the edge in possession, the next quality chance came midway through the half when center back Randy Fu '25 deftly played the ball over the top to Alexander de Burgh Codrington '28.  Alexander took advantage of the step he had on the Berwick back to strike a nice ball past the outstretched fingers of the Berwick keeper only to have the ball carom off the left post – so close.  The half would end 1 – 0.
 
The second half saw more quality chances by the Big Red.  A Carter Corbett '25 free kick to the head of Will Iller '26 caused the Berwick keeper to make a brilliant save.  Evers Saleeby '27 pushed a rebound of a Cooley shot inches wide. A serve from Ricca to the head of de Burgh Codrington '28 forced another diving stop by the host's keeper.  As the game pushed on the Berwick side battled and created several offensive pushes knowing they were one chance away from leveling the game.  SPS keeper Hunter Morton '26 stayed composed and held tight the dangerous balls that got through to him.  Well done by all and a deserved win for the visiting Big Red.
 
SPS returns to the road on Friday as all our teams head south to take on the Big Blue of Andover.  Looking forward to another hard-fought match.
Go Big Red!