Firecrackers Continue Winning Streak to 5

24 July 2007

David Ahlgren

 It’s that time of the year when the games are starting to get dark at the end.  Not completely, and not enough to affect the game, but I’m starting to notice it.  The days are getting shorter now, and that means that the season is coming to a close.  OR so we thought!  According to the previous league coordinator, there will be 4 games added to the schedule, so instead of 1 season of 8 games, we’ll have 12, with the likely possibility of 14.  That’s about the equivalent of two season for the price of one!  As soon as the league sends me a new schedule, I’ll post it on the site.

 As to the game yesterday, the Firecrackers were formally introduced to Watson Bowl for the first time this year.  It is just a shell of what it used to be, with large dirt patches, and in other areas, long shaggy grass.  It was an interesting game, and a nice change from the compact Backesto park.

 The Firecrackers took the pitch with 3 subs on a picture-perfect day for soccer.  With many defenders out on vacation, midfielder Josh Patton took up the slack and played at right back.  He and the rest of the Firecracker defense, including Tone, Ronnie and Devin kept the pressure up, while Travis cleaned everything else up.  At one point, he cleaned one of the Halcones forwards who wasn’t smart enough to get out of Travis’s way.

 The Firecrackers opened up the scoring when forward David Ahlgren hit stopper (yes, as in a position from the defense) Ronnie Jenkins on a nice through ball.  The ball looked as if it was out of Ronnie’s reach, but he turned on the afterburners and blasted the ball home for a 1-0 lead.

 Not too long later, the Firecrackers were busy in the Halcones box.  After a feeble clearance, the ball ended up right at midfielder Gareth Williams feet, about 30 yards out.  Oddly, none of the Halcones pressed Gareth (who was playing against his brother-in-law).  Gareth, being the attacking minded Brit that he is, took a couple of touches to set himself up, and then he absolutely teed-off on the ball.  It looked as though it was heading towards the top post, but it took a dip right before and easily found the net.  The goalie could only wave to it as it went by.

 In the second half, Sean Stonehouse added to his goal tally after finishing a great through ball from John Basanese.  Playing through the flu for the past two weeks, you’d never know it—his shots keep finding the back of the net!

 Toward the end of the game, there was a miscue in the ‘Cracker defense, and somehow a PK was called.  There are a million reasons why there shouldn’t have been one, but, eh, what can you do.  With Johnny doing his trademark “He’s going left!!  LEFT!!  No, right!” to try and throw off the kicker, Travis dove right, but the kick went left, and the Halcones scored.  Not a big deal, just get the ball out of the net and start up play again.  Nope.  The referee decided that as Travis was getting the ball out of the net, he was wasting time and deserved a yellow card.  Not only that, but he made him go off the field.  When asked why he gave Travis the yellow, what the official call was, he replied, “Because I felt like it.”  You have to hand it to him, you can’t argue with that.

 The Halconian defender standing next to me laughing, and said, “I don’t know why we all get upset [speaking of his team]… it’s not like we are playing for money or anything.  You only get a crappy trophy if you win.” “And t-shirts too, though,” I responded in a manner dryly suggesting perhaps that was the root cause.  “Haha yea, we beat each other up for t-shirt we could buy 2 for $5.”  That’s was the end of Weddo’s speech.  He had a point—can’t we all just get along?

 Not until we get our Champion’s t-shirts.

 Photos of the game can be found HERE.  Thanks again to John Basanese, Sr.!

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