After getting edged by Xavier 2-1, the Branford boys’ soccer squad bounced back emphatically by trouncing East Haven 8-2 on Sept. 17 and fellow division rival Career/Hillhouse 7-0 two days later. The wins improved the Hornets’ record to 3-2 and put them at 2-0 in the Oronoque, which they are looking to win for the fourth consecutive season.

In upending the Yellowjackets, senior captain forward Max Condon dished out five assists and senior forward Aaron Radulski netted three goals. Senior captain forward Jack Pottenger scored two goals and junior midfielder Carson McCarns added one with an assist for Paul Hunter’s team, which saw senior starter Billy Bustos and sophomore Nick Cordero split time in goal.

“The kids came out and played how we know they can play. I would give us an A-minus from the standpoint of our movement of the ball and the way we attacked,” said Coach Hunter, who enters his sixth season on the heels of a 12-6-1 campaign that included an 8-0 Oronoque mark in 2013. “The only negatives were the three mistakes we made in allowing the first goal and then giving away a penalty kick later on. Those things should not have happened, but getting them out of the way in a game like this is a learning experience and so they hopefully won’t be repeated in a tight game.”

Although Branford controlled about 90 percent of possession early on while hosting East Haven, the Yellowjackets scored the game’s first goal on a breakaway in the 16th minute. After that, the Hornets began their barrage.

First, Radulski scored from Condon to knot the game just a minute later. Then in the 25th minute, Radulski posted his second score from McCarns on what Hunter called “the goal of the game.” The play started when Pottenger hit a long diagonal pass from the left midfield to the right wing to McCarns, who fired a low cross about six yards to the goal, where Radulski side-footed it in for a 2-1 lead. Seven minutes later, Pottenger headed home an assist from Condon off a corner kick and it was 3-1. In the 34th minute, Pottenger converted again—this one from Radulski—to make it 4-1. Just three minutes after that, Radulski earned his hat trick by scoring from Condon to increase the damage to 5-1. One minute before halftime, sophomore midfielder Trey Duval scored on another assist by Condon and the Hornets had a 6-1 advantage.

Five minutes into the second half, Condon recorded his fifth assist by finding McCarns for the score and Branford led 7-1. East Haven earned a penalty kick in the 65th minute and converted, although Branford had the last laugh as forward/midfielder Ethan Boileau scored from fellow freshman Ian Cabahug, a midfielder, in the 78th minute to seal it at 8-2.

Then facing Career/Hillhouse in New Haven on Sept. 19, it was Condon’s turn for a hat trick, a quest he started by scoring from Radulski for a 1-0 lead that held up at halftime. The Hornets then scored six times in the latter stanza as Boileau scored from Condon, then Condon scored from Pottenger and tallied another from Bustos for his third goal, after which Boileau netted his second from Duval, followed by Radulski scoring on an assist by senior defender Paul Howard-Flanders and then senior captain midfielder Joe Roca’s goal from Pottenger.

Earlier in the week, Branford dropped a 2-1 decision at Xavier in Middletown. Condon notched the contest’s initial tally on assists from Pottenger and senior captain sweeper Mike Caminear and the Hornets led 1-0 at halftime. Unfortunately, the Falcons tied the game in the 50th minute and used an own goal from Branford for the game-winner 10 minutes later.

“In the first half, we pretty much had our way with Xavier. We must have had close to 70 percent possession as just about everything was down at their end,” said Hunter, who’s assisted by Bob Faulkner and JV coach Marc Harris. “In the second half, we had some defensive lapses that started with our forwards and put the rest of the team under pressure. Xavier stepped up their tempo and that added more pressure. The second half was certainly not what we wanted and we felt we should have come out of this game with a win or a tie.”

In the previous week’s action, Branford lost at home to Shelton 4-1 and then rallied for a thrilling 3-2 home victory versus Amity. Roca scored against Shelton and then Condon netted the first goal in the Amity game. The Hornets trailed the Spartans 2-1 in the second half before Radulski tied it and then Pottenger buried the winning goal on a header off a corner kick.

Along with its quartet of captains in Pottenger, Caminear, Condon, and Roca—the latter two who were All-Oronoque last fall—plus Radulski, Bustos, and Howard-Flanders, Branford’s senior class also features starting outside defenders Zach DiNoto and Gobari Idamkue. Junior Dylan DeMaio is a starting midfielder, Nick Roca starts at stopper, and fellow junior Steven Hacker is another goalie on the roster. Sophomore John Tratnyek is a starting defender for Hunter and company.

“Coming into this year, we had seven returning starters and needed to replace a sweeper, an outside back, a central-midfielder, and an outside-midfielder. It’s been a little more difficult than we originally thought to find the right pieces, but it’s a credit to our players that a lot of them can play in a lot of different spots,” Hunter said. “It’s a growing process. We don’t want to peak too early. We’ll learn more about ourselves and hopefully continue to improve through our Oronoque games and then, come playoff time, we should be in very good shape.”