Cat Fight at Cardigan. KUA Comes Home with Victory

We always expect that when we face off against Cardigan Mountain, we will have an exciting match, and yesterday we were not disappointed.  Our boys were thrilled by the opportunity to play on Cardigan’s brand-new turf field.  As it turned out, ours was the second match to be held on it.

 

In the first minutes of the game, it was a back-and-forth game, and both Bleyton Hopps-Thompson and the CMS keeper both had shots fired on them.  But it was seven minutes into play when the Cougars ventured too close into our box.  They took a point-blank shot and sent it into the far corner to put themselves onto the board.

 

We followed up with several aggressive plays.  Ryder Perry crashed the keeper in one opportunity, but the keeper got the save.  Flynn Bunk sent a cross that was also snagged.  Devon LeBlanc tried his luck with a long shot, but again the keeper was there.  Matt Fussteig changed tactics and tried a give-and-go with Alvaro Olivo.  Alvaro took a hard shot, but the ball went careening off the top bar.

 

With sixteen minutes left in the half, we had a great opportunity.  Will Sewell was tripped just outside the box and Ian Surgenor set the ball up for the direct kick.  Ian, again the crafty athlete, took advantage of the chaos by setting up and taking the shot quickly.  It would have been a beautiful goal if it, too, had not gone off the top bar.  Daniel Pimentel worked with Simon Nowlan on a drive and sent him a long pass.  Simon took a quick shot, but it went wide.  We were a bit off, but we were honing in on the net.

 

Through all this, Cardigan was making drives deep into our territory; however, our defensive line was doing a great job of shutting down the attacks and kicking the ball up to our offense line.  Jacob Hebbel was like a laser-guided missile.  He’d lock in on his target and remain focused until he blasted the ball out of our end.  Michael Jung used his head, literally.  He headed the hall out more than any other player on the team.  Aiden Bean displayed his amazing speed more than once and shut down several drives that were feet away from the goal.  Eric Chung was effective both with his legs and his face (yes, he sacrificed it, but was successful in stopping a drive.) 

 

With eleven minutes left in the first half, Will dribbled the ball deep into the right corner before sending a cross to Ian.  Ian received the pass and deftly sent the ball into the net to tie things at one apiece.  Not to be outdone, Dan chipped a pass up to a crashing Will, who got the ball behind the goalkeeper and we watched the ball dribble into the net.  It was not an amazing shot, but it didn’t have to be incredible to be counted and that goal put us ahead.  We continued to attack right up until the mid-game whistle.

 

Cardigan returned from the halftime break with renewed vigor, but so did we.  Ryder, Ian, and Matt all had shots and received several passed up from Angus Spence.  Mikey Winham hustled and Adi Lesbek worked hard in the middle.  Michal Jung took advantage of an opportunity and moved from the defensive line up into Cardigan territory and slid a pass over to Alvaro who went one-on-one with the goalkeeper.  The keeper dove on the ball and turtled it for the save. 

 

The game was exciting.  Bleyton had some great saves, but we were doing well and keeping Cardigan back.  Cho Man Bian had an amazing reverse kick that not only saved a lobbed pass from going out but was able to redirect the ball up the field to our strikers.  Then with half of the second period spent, Finn passed the ball up to an attacking Alvero.  Alvero tipped the ball around the keeper and sent a finesse shot into the net for our third point.

 

In the waning minutes, we saw a left-footed shot on net by Simon and long blasts on net by Devon and Angus.  Bleyton also displayed two more diving saves before, with 4:11 left in the match, Cardigan chipped the ball behind our defense.  Their striker went one-on-one with Bleyton and put the ball just out of his reach.  However, seconds later Jacob received the ball in the middle and passed it up to Simon.  Simon took control of the pass and deked the goalie before sending a finesse shot to make the final score 4-2.

 

Overall, it was a very well-played match.  Everyone from the goalkeepers up to the strikers displayed hard work and talent.  It was a fun afternoon.

 

We look forward to traveling to Proctor Academy on Friday for a 4:30 start under the lights.