This Saturday, September 18th, the Fieldston community gathered to celebrate the home-openers for Fieldston’s Varsity Football team and Boys Varsity Soccer team. Between the soccer and football games, Fieldston hosted a barbecue for Fieldston students, parents, families and alumni. Saturday’s celebrations seemed to be a kickoff for the great school year ahead. The event, although conscious of safety precautions, felt like the first normal school celebration since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The day began with a matchup between Fieldston’s Boys Varsity Soccer team and the visiting Portledge Prep Varsity team. With strong performances from our players during the whole match, Fieldston took a 10-2 win over Portledge. Goalkeepers Wyatt Rexer (V) and Thomas Venarde (VI) split the match, only giving up two goals. Venarde finished the first half with a clean sheet, and Rexer held the team’s lead in the second half to close out the victory. Nico Olbrys (VI) had a particularly strong performance, scoring five of the team’s ten goals. Tanveer Chabba (VI), Asaf Grofman (VI), Nate Abrams (V), Jedd Horowitz (V) and Lamine Camara (IV) scored the remaining five goals. Although nearly every player contributed to this win, Fieldston’s seniors led the team to a great result in front of their home crowd.
After the soccer game, most in attendance flocked to the Upper Field to prepare for the 2:00 PM football game kickoff. Tables of food were covered by several tents on the track. Fieldston’s school spirit was demonstrated by the amount of orange in the crowd. Almost everyone at the event was decked out in blue and orange Fieldston gear. Even before the football game began, students were cheering in the stands. “Protect the Nest!” was the loudest chant of all. At two o’clock, when Fieldston’s team captains met the team captains of the Dalton Football team at the fifty-yard line, the fans erupted in cheers.
The first snap of the game started at Fieldston’s 35-yard line. A strong first drive from Fieldston did not result in a touchdown due to the many fouls in the first quarter. Despite the lack of a touchdown in the first quarter, Fieldston came away with a safety and a 2-0 lead. After a slow first quarter, many in the student section moved down to the track to hype up the players on the sidelines. Before the end of the second quarter, Dalton managed to score a touchdown, going into halftime with a 6-2 lead. During halftime, however, the Fieldston Eagles kept their spirits up with chants from the crowd. As the last football players came off the field at the start of halftime, a chant of “Eagles on the Warpath” broke out in the stands. The Fieldston Eagles set out to change the narrative in the second half. At the start of the half, Dalton managed to score again, putting a score of 12-2 on the scoreboard. But then, the Eagles finally came alive. According to Luke Hanson (VI), “We had to show everyone what we were made of. It was a gut check victory.”
After allowing their second touchdown, the Eagles were able to flip the script. In the second half, Fieldston scored 26 unanswered points on three touchdowns. Elijah Johnson (VI) scored a touchdown, but the team relied heavily on Liam Thorpe (IV) to bring the team to victory with three touchdowns and two successful extra-point kicks. Fieldston’s win wasn’t only thanks to Thorpe’s talent however, the team managed to stop Dalton from scoring thanks to fumbles caused by the defensive line. Quarterbacks Billy Hort (VI) and Wes Heiman (IV) helped the team to a final score of 28-12 victory for Fieldston. On Saturday, the Fieldston Eagles did what they came to do. They protected the nest.
