To open their season, Alvirne’s boys’ soccer team hit the road for an away match against the Dover Green Wave last Thursday. In their first regular season match of the season, the Broncos battled the Green Wave, a team the Broncos beat 2-1 a year ago, to a 2-2 draw.
The 2-2 draw saw two different goal scorers for Alvirne as Nathan Chava opened the scoring for Alvirne and Garrett Howard picked up the other goal for the Broncos.
Solid defense and goalkeeping kept the Broncos in the game, but Thursday was an example of a game where their opponent was able to keep up with them and create issues for the Broncos at times, leading to the pair of Dover tallies. Owen Suprenant was still solid in the draw, making saves when he was called upon. This was a game that Alvirne entered as the favorite, even with a relatively young squad, going up against a team that was just 3-13 a year ago, and the Broncos were unable to prevail. A tie isn’t the end of the world, though, as it does give each team two points, which may end up being critical for the Broncos in their quest to return to the playoffs. Every point matters in high school athletics, so Alvirne, like any other team on the bubble of playoff contention, will need to do what they can to get points, and when they get them, take the positives from their performance and build off them by improving in areas where they may have struggled.
Alvirne will, once again, play just one game this week, traveling to Salem to take on the Blue Devils on Thursday. Salem lost their opening game last week against Merrimack and will take on Exeter on Tuesday before the matchup between the Broncos and Blue Devils. The Broncos will not play their first full week of action with multiple games until next week when they finally get a home game on September 10 against Nashua South before hitting the road for the third time in four games when they travel to Keene to take on the Blackbirds in the original Elm City.