Burlington strikes fast to beat Hampshire

In the span of just over a minute, Burlington Central served notice that the Rockets are the defending Big Northern East champions, and they don't intend to relinquish the title without a fight.

Michael McCurdy and Enrique Alvarado scored goals 1:10 apart as the Rockets handed Hampshire its first loss of the season, 2-1, on Rocket Hill.

Hampshire (6-1-1, 0-1) took a 1-0 lead on Jose Lopez' goal with 8 minutes left in the first half, and it looked like that goal might hold up.

Then McCurdy got behind the defense. His shot from close range ricocheted off the crossbar, hit Hampshire goalkeeper Cameron Rath in the back, and caromed into the goal.

Just over a minute later, Scott Knewitz sent a perfect pass to Alvarado, who had penetrated deep into the Hampshire end. Rath had no chance at his shot from point-blank range.

"We've been working on that for quite awhile now," said Alvarado. "It's been two weeks trying to get down the give-and-go. One of the basics of soccer, and we still couldn't get it down. I have a lot of chemistry with Jordan Werrbach. He's the one who started the play, then Knewitz molded it."

"When you're down a goal and you're not playing well, how do you respond in the second half?" said Burlington coach Mike Gecan. "Lately, our first half has been a little rough. And I thought the boys showed a lot of character tonight by coming out down a goal, coming back, keeping a positive attitude, and showing that they are the defending conference champs and they need to start acting like it."

The start of the game was delayed 45 minutes by lightning during the JV game. Once the game started, there was a feeling-out period during which neither team generated much offense.

Then Lopez pounced on a loose ball in the middle of the field and drilled a shot past Central goalkeeper Kyle DeRaedt from about 30 yards out.

Unfortunately for the Whip-Purs, that was the extent of their offense.

"We haven't played this poorly all year, and I'm not very happy about it," said Hampshire coach Patrick O'Brien. "We regressed."

Central (3-2-1 overall) moved to 1-1 in the conference after Wednesday night's tough loss to Harvard.