Aidan Maguire eyed up his matchup, then promptly put his foot in the ground and barreled down the right alley. Once he got to the spot he wanted, the Laxachusetts 2022 midfielder by way of St. Sebastian’s (Mass.) effortlessly snapped home a high rocket to tie the NLF Futures at IMG 2022 championship game.
On the ensuing possession, Maguire tried his luck with the left alley and ripped a low shot that went five-hole on the goalie to give Maguire’s Team 3 a lead it wouldn’t relinquish en route to a 9-3 win. Maguire, who also set up Drew Filanowski (Joel Barlow, Conn. / Express North) for Team 3’s first goal, later added another marker to finish the hat trick.
It was a dominant performance from Maguire, one that helped continue to prove his status as one of the nation’s top ’22 midfielders, but it took him some time to get there. He started off the event by not finishing chances that are usually automatic for him, and it took some perseverance to not discouraged and keep shooting.
Good thing he did.
“At first, they definitely weren’t going the way I wanted to,” Maguire said. “I haven’t been shooting a lot lately, but being able to shoot with both hands is definitely a good thing to have. I definitely knew that practicing with both hands is something that will set me up in the future and having two hands is a really big advantage for a midfielder.”
