St. Thomas Aquinas JV Boys Soccer vs. Kersage 9-3-04
It was a beautiful afternoon to play soccer. The Kersage Cougars arrived with plenty of time to warm up. The St. Thomas field hockey team held their season opener against Kersage at the same time.
The Saints were all warmed up and chaffing at the bit to get going.
Everyone was ready for the 2pm start. The only problem was the referees thought the game was a 4pm.
So we all waited an additional 30 minutes for a referee to be selected. Coach Suleski almost had to ref, but Mr. Maskwa stepped up and with the help of Ron Leary they got the game going.
Game Captains Brian Sullivan and Max Olsen went out and got choice of field as Kersage called the toss wrong.
The Saints took the field with Collin McBride in Net; Gabe Perreault at sweeper; Max Olsen and Brian Collins as fullbacks and Jon Campolo at stopper on defense. Midfielders Brian Sullivan, Jason Suleski, Jamie Phontharaska and Chris Rignoli. Kevin Schneider and Adam Bermingham on the points as strikers.
St Thomas started out on the attack against the Cougars. Two minutes into the game Suleski had a breakaway on a lead pass from Rignoli and was roughly fouled in the box by the Kersage defender. The Cougar keeper came up with a great save on the ensuing penalty kick.
Play worked back and fourth for the next 10 minutes as the Saints settled in and controlled the ball. The Kersage Keeper kept making some great saves to shut down the St. Thomas attack. The Saints defense held strong and kept the Cougars at bay.
Pat O'Brien and Tom Carroll entered the game as strikers. Richard Howard, Justin Gilbert and Faisal Gurwala went in at midfield and Matt Roginski and Andy Stone entered at defense.
At 19:17 into the game Phontharaska took a shot that rebounded off the post and Bermingham buried it into the back of the net to put the Saints up 1-0.
A little over 4 minutes later at 22:35 Suleski assisted another Bermingham goal to put St. Thomas up 2-0.
At 27:12 Tom Carroll sent a lead pass to Richard Howard for the Saints third goal.
St. Thomas began to get a little over confident. Midfielders were not coming back as far to help because the defense seemed to be handling the Cougars. The defense started to creep up further every time they shut down a Kersage attack.
The cougars broke through the Saints defense at 29:46 and scored to take away the shut-out.
The half ended with the score 3-1 and St. Thomas learning about over confidence.
The second half started with the Saints kicking off. They came out looking
to put the game away for good. There was some real determination in their
play.
Perreault worked with McBride to allow him to come out and scoop up a long Cougar lead pass. McBride's punt went out over midfield and because of pressure by Roginski was allowed to bounce over the Kersage defense. Roginski got a kick off to put it into the upper corner for the Saints fourth goal 3 minutes and 36 seconds into the half.
The Cougars pulled together and their defense tightened. St. Thomas still played like it was a close game.
Olsen, Collins and Campolo kept up great defensive play. The cougars were only allowed 3 shots on goal in the whole second half.
At 26:50 the Saints came alive as Justin Guilbert teamed up to assist Andy Stone with a goal to put St. Thomas up 5-1.
Less than two minutes later at 28:19 Jamie Phontharaska sent a chip pass over to Jason Suleski who flicked it over to Brian Sullivan who was wide open on the weak side. Sullivan put it in the onion bag to raise the score to 6-1.
The strong St. Thomas defense allowed the Saints to control the midfield and therefore the game.
At 38:20 Justin Gilbert assisted on a goal by Richard Howard to make number 7 for the Saints.
The game ended with St. Thomas 7 and Kersage 1.
The Saints travel to Kennett high School on Wednesday for there first away game of the season.