Vermont Green FC faced bitter rivals Seacoast United on Sunday afternoon and were unable to get revenge on the Phantoms after tasting defeat down in New Hampshire earlier in the season.

Pfeifer rolled out a top-notch starting XI that featured Jaheim Wickham in net. Gerardo Castillo, Reid Fisher, Moussa Ndiaye, and Bernardo Prego made up the back line while Rodrigo Vaza and Sam Layton served as defensive midfielders.

Gabe Threadgold and Jackson Castro were on the wings while Zachary Zengue was once again the magician in the middle of the park. Golden-boot chaser Yaniv Bazini was the lone striker up top.

Bazini nearly scored in the 18th minute as he connected on a long ball and chipped a ball towards goal that was stopped. The striker got another chance early on off a set-piece but his header was easily saved.

The opener came in the 33rd minute as Layton headed home a corner from Castillo. The midfielder looked like he was the hero of the match but just before stoppage time, Layton turned the ball over in front of goal and Seacoast tied the game.

“I think we’ve obviously got to be a little bit better in those critical moments,” Pfeifer told The Blazing Musket. “Like our own corner kick and then the end of the half on our own sort of build-out that was kind of a self-inflicted goal.”

In the 64th minute, Seacoast would once again have a moment of magic as they capitalized off a corner and secured a 2-1 lead. The Phantoms shushed the crowd and even dropped a Jude Bellinghamesque celebration in front of the Green Mountain Bhoys.

After the goal, Pfeifer made his most significant change as Layton, Zengue, and Prego were replaced by Jacob Labovitz, Daniel Pacella, and Sebastian Gebhart in the 71st minute. Labovits and Bazini were tasked with finding the back of the net as Vermont searched for a pivotal goal.

Bazini and Labovits had their chances as corners and crosses were aplenty, but the opportunities were wasted and the match ended 2-1.

“But we’ve also got to have more quality in front of goal,“ Pfeifer said. “We had a lot of chances in this game, more than enough to score three or four goals and they got their couple chances and they finished them and we had probably more but didn’t do a lot with it. So you know, it’s a hard thing to to change overnight.

“Yeah, I don’t I don’t really have that answer to be honest with you,” he later said when asked about pinpointing the cause of the finishing woes. “I mean, it’s kind of plagued us these last few years. So, you know, I have a hard time thinking that we don’t have good enough players. We seem to dominate games and not quite get as many goals out of it as we should. Alot of the burden falls on Yaniv and he scored a lot of goals this year and I thought he was really really good in the game today and other guys need to score goals.”

With the loss, The Green will need some help as they look to make the playoffs. Seacoast has already clinched a playoff spot and seems poised to clinch first place. The Phantoms and Western Mass Pioneers only played once, with Seacoast taking the win; while Vermont faces WMP in the final match of the season.

The Green currently sit at 26 points while Western Mass has 31 points. If Vermont wants a chance to secure a playoff birth, they will need AC Connecticut to upset the Pioneers. On the flip side, The Green will need to beat the Boston Bolts on Wednesday and Western Mass on Saturday.

“I think this team from the beginning of the season, we made it our goal to try and win something big and although maybe the division is a little bit out of our reach right now, we still have a chance to make it into playoffs,” Pacella said. “And I think from the get go of this season, we made it our main focus to get to the playoffs and it’s still within our reach.”