'Crackers Tie With One Ref

2 August 2005

 David Ahlgren

 The “Lone Ranger” strikes again.  Although 20 minutes late and all by himself, a referee finally showed up to mediate the game.  For being all by himself, he didn’t do that badly, but I sure wouldn’t want to be in his shoes.  It’s not fair to him, and it’s not fair to the players.  I wrote a letter to Armando, exhorting him to assign a minimum number of 2 ref’s to the game, since I didn’t feel that we were protected the way we should be.  Because of the way the game was officiated, at least we have some fodder for discussion of the tie.

 Yesterday’s game brought the Firecrackers two new faces.  One, a familiar player from years past, Thomas Andalon.  The other, a new player, Franco Benevento.  Both are highly skilled players, who could really help the team.  Franco was added to the roster in the off-season, and I am trying to get creative in order to add Thomas, but am not sure at this point.

 The game also marked the end of an era.  The Donny Dequine era.  He’s heading off to greener fields and more referees at Azusa Pacific University.  We all appreciate his playing skills and his great attitude over the past season.  Best of luck to you Donny!

Donny Dequine avoids a cheap shot.

 The fodder begins with the ref showing up late.  25 minutes late to be exact.  It’s never easy to play when you aren’t sure if there’s even a game.  The field itself is also something to be discussed, as it had a range of elevation of +/- 5 feet.

 Things started out well, for the Firecrackers, though.  We had quite a good showing from our faithful fans.  One of the most animated, Heather, showed her support the whole game.  It’s great to have her and her friends come and cheer us on.

Heather is appaled with a call on the field.

 Within the first three minutes of the game, one of the Agave players mis-cleared a ball to Brian Montejano.  The level headed midfielder calmly took control of the ball and lofted it 35 yards, nicely over the outstretched hands of the Agave goalie and just under the crossbar.  Just like that, it was 1-0.

 Agave managed to score, but I can’t remember how they did it.  Oh well.

 Ten minutes later after the Agave goal, Donny Fugate powered a header home from point blank range.  Franco took a nice corner and lofted the ball into Jeremy Basanese.  Basanese headed the ball on-target, but the Agave keeper made a great save.  Unfortunately for Agave, the keeper was only able to redirect the ball to Fugate’s head.  Like a battering ram, he was able to put the ball away and absorb the blow he took as the goalie tried to stop him.  We were back up 2-1.

 The first half ended with the Firecrackers in control.

 The second half began where the first half ended.  After a lot of passing and a great build-up, Donny Dequine played a brilliant through-ball to Franco Benevento.  Franco beat the keeper with a shoulder dip and finished the ball easily.  Great play all around!

 The Firecracker scoring was rounded out by Donny Fugate.  John Basanese made one of his monster throw-ins land in the mix of the 6-yard box.  Agave failed to make much of a clearance, and after a few feeble attempts, the ball fell at Donny’s feet and once again, he powered it home.  4-1, Firecrackers.

Donny Fugate jukes a defender.

 Then the Agave’s decided to take advantage of the situation.  I’ll have to hand it to them, because they never gave up, but I did not like their tactics.  Because there was only one ref, they started taking cheap shots behind his back.  I was elbowed in the face with the ball on the other side of the field.  Most all Firecrackers have at least one time they can tell about in the second half where they had a major whack to the back of their legs.  They combined this cheap play with “hail-Mary” lobs down the field.  Things started getting out of hand when their players were allowed to push our players right in front of the ref.  They were clearly only trying to hurt us enough to get us out of our game.  I filed a formal complaint to the league, stating that there must be at least two refs at all games.  We’ll see how far that goes.

 They were able to score three straight goals.  Whether or not they would be legal goals had there been a second or third ref can only be topics of discussion now.  The ref counted them, and we ended up tying 4-4.

 Goalie Travis Bianchi kept that score from getting out of hand, once again.  He made several ridiculous saves that one would think no goalie had any business saving.  Big saves from a big man—it’s great having you back there!

 Overall, the team played well.  We just need to find our groove, and maintain our composure through the last whistle.  After the game, the ref mentioned to me that it appeared we were satisfied with the lead and tended to ease up in the midfield.  I told him it only looked that way, and that we were just getting hammered by them. In any case, four goals is a great result, we just need to cut down on the goals allowed.

 If you have comments you would like posted, or if you have ideas you would like to share with the team, please feel free to email them to me (dave.ahlgren@gmail.com) and I’ll post them.

 See you next week at Capitol Park, where we’ll take on a new team, Deportivo Independiente.

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