FDR 3, Wallkill 1

Goals: Pat Noonan, Mik Khaldi, Jordan Williams

Assists: Jordan Williams, Andrew Carroll

Saves: Dan Roe (6)

Coach's Notes: We finally reached the part of our schedule that counts the most, the divisional games.  Wallkill would be our first opponent. It was a beautiful, warm and sunny afternoon. Once again my guys were fortunate enough to play on a pitch that was level, thick and green. While we were warming up I realized my guys were acting too loose again. They managed to leave the med-kit on the bus. Maybe they are starting to think that at 5 and 0 they are too good to be responsible. We'll get back to this later. During the first half of the game we did a tremendous job of passing and maintaining possession. It looked like we were playing Wallkill's JV team. The only problem was that we were not finishing on WIDE OPEN SCORING OPPORTUNITIES! It took my freshman phenom Pat Noonan, using his non-dominant foot, from 30yrds out to score the team's first goal. That was the only goal of the half. During half time I warned my team that Wallkill would not just roll over. We needed to keep the pressure on and someone needs to step up and finish. Sure enough, Wallkill came out like a different team, we were off balance, and they tied the game. I said to myself, "This should be interesting, we've never given up the lead before, let's see how they respond." The second half turned into a battle of both teams trying to get the next goal that could possibly end the game. My team continued to miss on WIDE OPEN SCORING OPPORTUNITIES; they began to argue like middle school girls, and managed to continue to turn my hair grey. We finally caught a break when Scottie was taken down in the box giving us one more scoring opportunity. Dan decided to give Mik the opportunity to score the goal that would give us the lead. Mik scoring on a PK is as sure as the sun rising in the morning. Mik blasted the ball past the goalie and quickly returned to the steel curtain, offering words of wisdom for both teams.

I was happy that we had the lead but was still very upset at how my team seems to be unraveling. Wallkill pressed most of their team up trying to tie the game when Andrew Carroll cleared a ball up to Jordan, whose speed was just too much for the Wallkill defense. Jordan attacked the goal with fury, it was another scoring opportunity. Jordan fired a shot that put us up for good. I was happy enough with the win to stop at McDonalds. While I enjoyed my meal it became clear to me that my boy's may need some good old fashion conditioning to refocus on the team's ultimate goal.