Bolts and NEFC Battle to Scoreless Draw Amid Stormy Delay
The inaugural meeting between the two clubs featured a nearly two hour weather delay, with neither side able to break the deadlock.
The Boston Bolts’ 2025 home campaign came to an end on Tuesday when they took on NEFC at Gordon Field. It was the first ever meeting between the two clubs, and at the end of the day, it was a pretty uneventful one.
Boston Bolts Head Coach Grieg Robertson stuck with the three-in-the-back system that he adapted around halfway into the season. The back three consisted of Bryant’s Tibo Jacobs, making his third start of the season after an injury, Northeastern’s Matty Gardner, wearing the captain’s armband, and Boston College’s Henry Wassarman, making his second start of the season as the central center back.
Meanwhile, NEFC was without both of their leading goalscorers. Both Thomas Angelone (4 goals) and Jack Burkhardt (5 goals) were not included in the traveling squad, just days after Burkhardt was named to the USL 2 June team of the month.
The first half was scattered with small chances for both sides, with the visitors having the better looks at goal. NEFC’s Samuel White struck the post off a free kick early on, freezing Bolts goalkeeper Mateo Buyu, who could only watch and thank the woodwork for keeping the game tied.
Buyu was crucially called into action twice in the half. He came far off his line to clear the ball away and stop a 1v1 chance, and then made himself big to deny NEFC striker Wade Johnson’s clear look at goal.
After some good play on the other side of the field from the Bolts, their breakthrough chance came in the 30th minute, when an under-pressure NEFC defense gave away a clear penalty in the box. Boston Bolts right winger and Harvard star Ben Kelly stepped up to take the kick, looking to score his third goal of the season. But instead of converting, Kelly smashed the ball off the crossbar, keeping the game knotted at zero.
Almost as soon as the first half came to an end, the sun went away and the clouds rolled in. Soon enough, thunder rumbled, rain began to pour, lightning was seen, and the teams headed to the locker room for a delay. There was talk of calling the game off but after a nearly two-hour delay, the teams finally came back out onto the field and resumed play around 9:30 (the game initially kicked off at 7:00).
The second half was more of the same, with NEFC having the better of the smaller chances, but neither team was able to find the back of the net. Just shy of three hours after the game initially kicked off, the final whistle blew, and the points were shared in a 0-0 tie.
For NEFC, the point pushed them back into third place in the Northeast Division, one point ahead of fourth-place Black Rock, who have a game in hand. Now, in their first ever season as a USL 2 club, NEFC are officially in a playoff race with two games left in their season. They will play host to the second place Western Mass Pioneers this upcoming Monday in a high stakes end-of-season clash.
For the Bolts, Tuesday's draw was their fourth of the season, leaving them in sixth place with 13 points. It’s been a mixed bag of results so far this season for the Waltham-based club. The Bolts have dropped points to all three of the bottom three clubs in the table, yet now secured a point against two of the top three clubs in the table, including a big 1-1 tie in Vermont against top of the table Vermont Green.
The Bolts and NEFC will meet again in a week, when Coach Robertson’s club makes the trip over to Worcester for a 6:00 kickoff on Wednesday, July 9.