DEA Bedford Masters 2

Ugh-ly.  The first half was apparently very similar to the first game against these guys.  Back and forth, no one getting any real opportunities.  The second half on the other hand....  No energy shown on the field.  Coughing the ball up to the other team and then not chasing it down.  Letting their players get the shots off unchallenged.  No fault to Joe, everything I hear is that he had little if any chance to stop any of the shots.

I wasn't there to witness/contribute to the disaster, but the reports I've got are pretty consistent.  We didn't show energy or a desire to win.  No drive equals big loss.  That's not the way we started this season and it sure as hell shouldn't be the way we end it.  Next game is against Derry and it better be a huge win.  Run your asses off, mark the opponents, beat them to the ball.  Take your shots, deny them theirs.  If you can't do that, sit down and let someone who can do it.  We can't win scoring zero goals.  We can't win letting them score five.  We can win if we go out there and want it and play our game.
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GM NOTE:   WTF !!!!

Jay Fest 3.

John joins Jimmy and Jeff as our third player to score a hat trick this season.  Good to see that people aren't taking it easy when they get a goal, and that we're spreading things around.

We started this one out pretty flat.  Maybe a bit early in the morning for us or something, but our passes were clearly off at the start, your trusty narrator being one of the worst offenders.  We kept our cool though and didn't let them take advantage of our missteps.  While we weren't putting together a lot of pressure on their goal, not much was coming through to ours either.

We started to pick things up on a corner by Jimmy.  The first one didn't work so well, so he called a mulligan and tried again.  This time John V. got a good one touch redirect on the low fast ball and it was 1-0.  Going to work on his hat trick, John made it 2-0 with a well paced shot from outside the box.  The keeper got in front of it and probably would have had it most times, but it had some pace and a little spin and it came back out of his hands and into the goal.

Andover then brought themselves back into the game with a strong push.  They brought the ball down the right side, then crossed it on the ground to the top of the box.  There were 4 or 5 Andover players there and coverage broke down.  The D had the guys on the line man covered but when the cross came behind instead of in front, an Andover midfielder running in got a clean strike on it and put it home.

That gave Andover a bit of boost and both teams were hotly contesting the middle when John completed his trifecta with a long high shot from well outside the box.  It was one of those shots where most of the field just stopped, squinted against the  sun and tried to decide if it was going in.  The keeper backpedalling was the only guy really moving on the field as it came arcing down and slid under the bar.  Highlight reel slo-mo replay stuff.

The quick counter strike took some of the gas out of Andover and we controlled the rest of the game pretty well.  Our final strike came on a throw in from Scott on the right sideline who passed it back out above the box where Jeff G. hit a nice left footed chip shot.  Hint for next week guys, hit those high shots when the sun is in the goalie's eyes, not behind him.  Can't argue with the results though.

Overall, another good showing.  Certainly being in a lower division makes it easier to look good, but that doesn't account for all the improvement.  Most obvious is that we aren't injury riddled like last year.  But we are also moving to the ball much better and taking the time to think about our passing.  Next week Ipswich plays Derry and we've got to figure that as a win for them, so we need a good solid win against Westford.  Ipswich just beat them 4-1 so we held steady with our goal lead, but need a good performance to keep that up, and to keep our momentum going.

And finally, a solid performance in the third half.  They put up a good effort, but the beer held out and our core team had the staying power for a clean win.  Some kids must have come by and raided the cooler because the gatorade and water were gone, so guess we'll have to use some of the fund to replenish that for next week.  Hate to use beer money on such stuff, but gotta keep up appearances.
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GM Note:

Great Win Boys!!!   Keep up the scoring and defending.   Screw the gatorade and water..... 

Godfather 

As always, there's good news and bad news.

The good news: We still haven't lost a game and we're still in first place.
The bad news: We didn't put the game away and so we'll need to win when we face these guys again.

The good news: We're continuing to add Patriots players to the roster, with Mesko in goal and now Gostowski at stopper.

A pretty good game in general.  We've gotten to where the first three passes almost always work well.  After that we start to get a bit sketchy, but it's getting better each week.  We had the first good chance for a score, but their keeper made a good effort to block the PK.  We'll have to work on a little more aim and a little less oomph for the next time.  Unfortunately for us, they converted on their first good opportunity at the goal.  A cross from above the box for a header in front of the goal (I believe I've mentioned that our defense can't jump).  Joe did a good job covering the goal and had the ball been aimed straight in he probably would have had it, but it hit the post with a lot of spin and slid into the goal with almost no bounce back.  Nothing Joe could do.

No let down from the team though and we kept the pressure up.  We missed a few opportunities, then finally converted on a long shot from Jeff G. which
hit the crossbar and came down at a sharp angle.  German was there to collect the ball and put it in to tie the game.

Second half was back and forth again.  Joe warned us at the start of the game that the goal seemed low and he could easily reach the bar, so of course
we had to test this out with several high shots that their keeper tipped over.  Good effort by the keeper, but next time, let's trust in Joe and shoot for the
corners when he tells is the goal is short.  Once again Ipswich took the lead as John V. "impeded his ability to shoot the ball" just outside of the box.  The shot was a hard dropping ball that went right over the wall (have I mentioned that we can't jump?) and inside the near post.   Again, no way for Joe to do anything about it.

As we neared the end of the game, still down by one, came a play that I think says a lot about the team.  With everyone pushing forward to try and get the
equalizer, they lobbed a ball over the midline and their two strikers were setting up a 2on1 against Joe.  John Morin ran down the guy with the ball on the right side, forcing him to cross over the striker coming down on the left.  Dave ran him down, and when he made a 6 foot dribble, stripped him of the ball and turned it back upfield.  He played the ball to the midfield (sorry, I don't remember just who was there), which fed it to Jimmy in the left corner.  He then crossed to the back post where German headed in the tying goal.  From a position that could easily had us down 3-1, our defense ran down two strikers.  When the ball turned back up field the midfield was there in support providing several outlets.  When they collected the ball and turned it Jimmy was already running hard for the corner.  When the ball came to Jimmy, German was already pushing in to the back post to receive the quick cross.  That's a team wide effort even though we were down and running out of time.  As long as we keep that up, we'll keep winning.

Looking to our rematch, there are some reasons for optimism.  Other than their two scores, they only had two other real chances, a goal line clear and
one that bounced around a few times in the box, then was cleared.  We had a fair number of chances, at least 3 tipped over the bar, one that rolled right
in front of the goal but just out of reach of two players and Mr. Gostowski's shot that cleared the goal, the field behind it and possibly the first rank of trees.  We controlled the game and didn't let being down get us down.  This is the third week in a row that we've scored a goal because someone followed up  on a shot, a big improvement from seasons past.  Looking good, let's keep it up.
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GM Note:

Good Game boys.  We are still in first place.  We need to run the table now to ensure promotion back to D4 where we belong.   No missing PK's...  thats a 30 pack fine...    Go get them this weekend !!!

 Godfather