Despite yet another own goal by Tom "Mr. Own Goal" Beaubien, El Toro was able to recapture the 30 and over league championship on Sunday night with a dominant victory over long time rival Cash Now by scoring four unanswered goals in the second half.
Both teams went into the game without the services of their starting goalies but it did not seem to matter the first 20 minutes of the game as neither team could muster a shot on net. However, after battling for possession in the middle field, Cash Now drew a free kick from 35 yards out in the 25th minute. A well served ball deflected off a Cash Now player to Beaubien who could not react in time and flicked the ball past a diving Andy Toth. Cash Now gained some confidence with its 1-0 lead and carried the momentum into half time.
El Toro came out in the second half re-energized, motivated yet again by the ever inspiring words of Coach Bridgett. After a string of passes put together by the Bulls back line, Beaubien would atone for his earlier mistake by springing Nathan Markee in behind the Cash Now defense. Markee made a good first touch and calmly placed the ball by the keeper for the equalizer. With momentum now clearly on El Toro's side the intensity of the game picked up. Ricky "I'm not a forward anymore" McQueary dominated the air and the Bulls central midfield began to win the 50/50 battles. El Toro would then go ahead for good when Mike Sly hit an absolute laser from 30 yards out.
The game was played even for the next several minutes but Cash Now began to earn dangerous free kicks as a result of untimely fouls. The free kick chances created havoc for the El Toro defense and Cash Now came close to knotting the game at two on numerous occasions. But Andy Toth and the Bulls defense stayed strong and weathered the storm. Building off the strong defensive play, the Bulls put the game away with 20 minutes to go. After taking his requisite 6 touches, Mike Vance played the ball through the Cash Now back line to a streaking Paul Vance who put the Bulls up 3-1. El Toro would tack on another goal in the final minute to make the final score 4-1. The win marks the return of the championship trophy after a brief hiatus.
Box Score:
CN - own goal (Beaubien), 25'
ET - Markee (Beaubien), 50'
ET - Sly (unassisted), 59'
ET - P. Vance (M. Vance), 68'
ET - P. Vance (unassisted), 79'
Man of the Match - Andy Toth
Note to Genesee Fieldhouse: Did you notice there were zero yellow cards given, no unsportsmanlike conduct and minimal b*tching? That was probably due to the fact that the game was officiated by a competent center referee in a three referee system. Coincidence? I think not.
4 comments:
Just wanted to say CONGRATS to everyone on our team for a great playoff run, culminating with the TROPHEY in in its' rightful hands! It has been a long yr for us, going a full calendar without a league title of any sort.
We played a very good game last night and deservedly won OUR championship back. I thought everyone contributed to the WIN in that NON-AIR having SWEAT-BOX where we play the OUTDOOR finals INSIDE! I am proud of all of us.
The New Gen (Sly, Tijerina, Markee, & Atkins) were all very instrumental in our run to the League Title and i am happy to have them on our team. I am also proud of the El Toro faithful who showed these newcomers what we are made of!! I did not want to get these guys and LOSE!!!
More importantly, to me, was how we faced a little adversity and came back. It didnt look good for a while, not scoring goals, losing games to our 2 rivals, BITCHING @ each other more than necessary, and crying like a bunch of GIRLS @ every call. BUT we shut our mouths and played solid soccer with some passion............. & HOLY S@&*, look what happened! We won.
I can understand how frustrated we can get with the officials, but we make it so much easier for them to give us a PK when we are running our mouths on EVERY call. This yr must've been a record for pk's vs. 1 team. We need to remember this feeling of winning and work hard to keep it up. I for 1 do not come out here for the exercise (should do more LOL) i am here for the competition and to win with my friends! Good job FSSC (el toro/a.vance)
One more thing, Cash Now has won the league title 1 time! That's it, 1 TIME. They werent in our heads, we were!! We were better in indoor, we had a better yr round record than them too. Except tourney (ringers and Cheats, age) and last yrs league (shawn who scored vs. us in semis was not of age either) GO FIGURE!
Well done boys, proud to play with u!
I have been waiting to change my profile pic from Platini losing to W Germany in '82 WC Semi to hoisting the Big One @ the Euros in '84!
Gentlemen, it was with great pride I heard of our success. I wished I could of been there. However, I had great trust that Andy would do what he did as he rides off into the sunset. Andy has been one of our most consistently good players since he joined the Sports Club. Kudos to you Andy.
Geoff
Way to go gentlemen...we'll miss you Andy, who am I going to tell jokes to at pre-game/halftime now? I hope you watch/come back many times throughout the upcoming years to watch/laugh at us.
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