The Toll Gate boys’ soccer team suffered a 3-2 defeat at the hands of West Warwick on Tuesday night to drop to 0-6-1 on the year.

The Titans came out of the gates playing some very aggressive ball, holding possession of the ball for a majority of the first twenty minutes. Despite the dominance of possession, however, Toll Gate began what would be a theme of the contest when a defensive lapse left West Warwick with an easy scoring opportunity, which it quickly capitalized on to take a 1-0 lead.

Toll Gate would respond with a goal of its own after a West Warwick defenseman turned the ball over in the right corner, leaving Toll Gate with a one-on-one opportunity that led to a goal to knot the score at 1. Despite the equalizer, however, the latter part of the first half seemed to belong to West Warwick, as it displayed synchronicity and deft passing in creating a number of good scoring opportunities that it simply didn’t cash in on.

“We outplayed them for the first half and it was 1-1,” said Toll Gate head coach Tim Hayes. “Off a dead ball they exploited a mental lapse by us to tie the score, but we played very well in the first half.”

As much as the first half had belonged to Toll Gate, however, the second half belonged firmly to West Warwick, as it continually jumped passing lanes to gain possession and turned those turnovers into quality scoring chances on the other end. After myriad near misses – several of which were snuffed out by supreme stops by goalie Kyle Brown, including a few where he sacrificed his body to dive on balls in the box.

West Warwick was finally able to score, though, on a beautiful top-shelf kick to reclaim the lead at 2-1.

After allowing West Warwick to take the lead, Toll Gate began frantically trying to score as time dwindled. It missed on a few easy chances, including a one on one that was masterfully broken up by the West Warwick defense, and looked to be headed to a 2-1 loss. However, as they say, it only takes one play to turn a game around, and Toll Gate got that play when West Warwick flubbed a clear, giving Toll Gate an open opportunity to net its own top-shelf goal to knot the score at 2.

West Warwick would return with a flurry of its own, keeping the ball in Toll Gate’s end of the field for the majority of the last five minutes. The game was sent into extra time after the Toll Gate defense endured a non-stop attack that nearly lost it the lead twice. A West Warwick header then hit the crossbar and bounced straight down and a scooting kick to the opposite side of a sprawled Brown was kick saved by a Toll Gate defender. The heroics would not last, however, as West Warwick’s Andre Flor took a beautiful pass from the right sideline to open space in the middle of the field and delivered a crushing, game-winning goal to down Toll Gate 3-2

With the loss, Toll Gate remained winless on the year, but continued a trend of making its games more competitive as the season wears on. It may not be in the hunt for a championship, but its quest for a win, should its upward rise continue, may not be too far off the horizon.