Travelers (1) vs Pratt Eagle (0)

July 18th, 2007 - LP Wilson, Windsor, CT

After losing our last 3 games out of 4 we faced the first place team in the league. And we held our own in the 1st half. They had their chances but none to serious. The game was mostly in our half of the field. The refs sucked as usually but I think it was them that fired us up for the 2nd half.

The 4 defenders (and Rick in goal) gave a great performance for another shutout. Will, John, Brian, & Jared literally shut down any offensive attacks that they tried to create. I remember one time in the 2nd half where they took a shot. All the other times they took a shot it wasn't anything to hold your breath too. In the first half although we played most of the game in our half they won a few corner kicks and took a few long distance off target shots. That was it.

Our lone goal was when Patrick got hacked in the box after a long pass to the corner from me, he was able to out run their 2 defenders for it. He gained control of the ball and held on to it, he waited patiently for the rest of us to get up there so he can cross, pass or shoot, but their defender took him down. The PK that Patrick took went in with ease, their good goalie had no chance.

After the goal I was expecting them to go all out and attack us, but again we stopped everything that they tried and kept applying great pressure on the defenders. We played hard the whole 2nd half and the result was that the majority of the 2nd half was in their half of the field, the ball was at our feet and we made them chase us around a bit. Patrick and Kevin combined to waste about 10 mins just holding on too the ball in deep in their corner of the field. Devito almost had another goal from a well place header that the goalie had to hit out for a corner.

The first half wasn't 100% Pratt Eagle. Basile had a header that he had to fight for with John. It took a lucky bounce that we weren't able to get to which led to a counter attack. They had 3 guys vs our 1. Will was able to slow them down for me, Jared, and John to get back. What should have been a classic counter ending with a good shot on goal ended with our defenders stopping them dead in their tracks.

We still had a few mistakes, but by far the least of the whole season. If we play like that the rest of the way we'll be playing deep into August for hardware.

Record:
5 - Win
5 - Lose
3 - Tie

Goals:
1 - Patrick Nevins (1 pk)

Goals to date:
7 - Patrick Nevins (2 pk)
4 - Marco DeMarco
3 - Derek Cedar
2 - Brian Zehnder (1 pk)
2 - Gordon Hines (1 pk)
2 - Kalee Moore
2 - Tim Carlson
1 - Alex Kushnir
1 - Mark Devito
1 - Jared Krechko