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Patriots Drop Non-League Game
to
Darien
9 - 10!
2nd Loss Brings
Record to 10 – 2!!
Ward Melville dropped it’s second
consecutive loss by a score of 9 – 10 to a tough
Darien
,
CT
team in an annual interstate rivalry at Patriots home field on a cool, but
clear Saturday night under the lights. After coming off a disappointing last
second loss at Northport, the Patriots tried to regroup, but came up 2 goals shy
to bring the season record to 10 – 2.
It was tight, close game throughout each quarter.
Darien
scored first at
11:41
by midfielder Matt Newton (#21). It would be his first on what became a
tremendous individual game performance by scoring 7 of the
Blue Wave’s 10 goals. WM responded within seconds after, however, when
senior attackman Peter Kasper scored on an assist from senior midfielder Eddie
Rogan. A few minutes later, senior attackman Jon Matsui added
another for the Patriots unassisted.
Darien
hit on two more and the first quarter ended Darien 3 WM 2. It looked like the
Pats were in for a dogfight, and they were!
The Pats won the 2nd quarter 4 – 2, and picked up some momentum
when the Blue Wave coach was hit with two penalties for yelling the ref and at
one point, Melville had a 6 on 3 situation which they scored on. Junior
attackman David Schwartzberg hit on 2 of his 4 on the night, assisted by Matsui,
and junior midfielder Michael Ward. Jon Matsui scored once more for the Pats to
end the 1st half at WM 6 Darien 5. You could feel this was going to
be a tough game all the way to the end!
The 3rd quarter was a tight as ever, in fact only one goal scored by
both teams.
Darien
scored first, but attackman Pete Kasper hit on WM’s only goal in the quarter
when he took his defender to the top of the field and made great dodge and move
to the cage.
End 3rd quarter WM 7 Darien 6.
The 4th quarter was action packed and once again, like the Northport
game, would go right down to the wire for he finish.
Darien
scored first to tie the game at 7 when senior defenseman Thomas Theodorakis
went up high for a “jump ball” but somehow the ball popped out to the Blue
Wave’s
Newton
right in front of the cage and shot uncontested.
Darien
scored again on a WM penalty man down situation, but then the Pats took
advantage of a
Darien
penalty and Schwartzberg hit on two goals with Matsui’s assist on one and
senior middie John Keysor’s assist on the second. At
04:49
, Coach Cuozzo calls a much needed timeout as the Pats needed some fresh legs
and to discuss the final minutes strategy. It seemed to help, as the Patriots
played the next minute with some tough defense lead by Theodorakis and fellow
seniors Doug Seale, Kevin Sullivan, Eric Redeker, and Brian Lange. But
Darien
’s
Newton
would not be denied for his 7th goal of the night when he scored
unassisted at the
03:00
minute mark to tie the score at 9 apiece.
Then, unbelievably, the Blue Wave scored
a minute later when a rebounded shot after a
great initial save by senior
goalie Rick Freud, somehow came
right back to #10 who shot it back in, unfortuneately, this time past Freud. In
all, Ricky had 12 saves in the game tonight.
Melville fought hard in the last minute of play to gain possession, then called
a timeout with 15 seconds to play. A setup for another nail biter finish to the
last second, but this time we had the ball. Unfortuneately, the boys could not
covert the final offensive play and time expired. End of game, and
Darien
wins 10 –9.
The Patriots second straight loss brings the season record to 10 – 2 with 4
regular season games left before playoffs begin. Coach Cuozzo commented, “We
just are making too many mental mistakes out there. We really missed some
opportunities to finish them off, but it didn’t happen for us tonight. We gave
Darien
the bragging rights this year, but we have four league games to get the ship
righted before playoffs.”
THE PATRIOTS HAVE A
LOT
OF PRIDE AND WILL COMEBACK!!!
WM plays Bayshore on Wed May 08,
4:00 p.m.
at the Patriots home Field.
Please be
there to support your Patriots 2002!
Go
Patriots!
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