Cataraqui Soccer Club

Cataraqui I 3 vs Fanatics 0

It was a hot and humid evening, but out at the smaller Woodbine field in the west end of town, there was a nice cross field breeze that kept things cooler, and kept the mosquitoes away until the dying minutes of the game.

The Cataraqui players came into the game carrying a number of knocks, but despite this, played a solid game for 75 minutes.  Unfortunately, the first 15 minutes were a bit shaky as Fanatics came out with revenge in their minds for the 1-0 loss they took last time around.  Fanatics attacked the ball well, pressuring the Cataraqui team and throwing them off their game for the early stages, garnering a number of free kicks around the goal.  Their best chance was on a kick taken about 10 yards outside the box, one that went just past the wall, but hit Roman’s foot and deflected the other direction, forcing a good diving save from today’s friendly scribe.  A few minutes later, said same scribe misjudged a throw-in that hit the post and fell to Vardy, the sweeper, for a solid clearance.  Doh.

With these two mishaps out of the way, the Cataraqui team regrouped and started taking the game to Fanatics.  Mark Schultes up front started running hard at them and stated in an interview post-game “I was getting angry because the ball wouldn’t fall right.  I channeled that into my play and ran harder in the second half and made things happen!”

Over the course of the first half, there were several decent chances for both teams, the best Fanatics chances came off of corners, where Jason Akers made two excellent stops, one by taking a shot off the chest and redirecting it into your scribe’s hands, and the other stopped with his legs, and it fell to a Fanatics player who took the shot which was stopped by Matt Herod on the back post.  The best Cataraqui chance of the half came from a shot from 30+ yards by Ciarren Boyle, one-timed a veritable bullet a couple of inches off of the ground that the keeper spilled, but recovered before any of the forwards could jump on the rebound.  The first half ended in a 0-0 tie, with Cataraqui having two players booked, Matt Herod and Ted Bailey (who will have to serve a suspension for being a dirty player next week in our first match against Benfica).  Matt’s caution was for clearing the ball well after the whistle, but in an interview after the game, he was certain that he had not kicked the ball anywhere and that it was for complaining.  He was quickly set straight by the rest of the team.

The second half began much as the first ended, with Cataraqui pressuring the Fanatics players constantly.  Eventually, in the 56th minute, this led to Fanatics giving up a throw-in deep in their own end.  Andy Nador stepped up to the line and fired a bullet in, about seven feet off the ground.  Junior leapt up and flicked the ball into the back of the net for a 1-0 Cataraqui lead.  The team celebrated a hard-fought goal and settled into a defensive posture, to attempt to avoid the fate of Croatia against Turkey.  The play swung back and forth, with neither team gaining much of an advantage, and nobody creating good chances, or capitalizing upon them.  As the game continued, the feeling began to grow that one goal would be enough, and a second would end the game, but the goal was not coming.  Until a strange play in the 84th minute saw the second shortest Cataraqui player, Dave Ryding, leap to heights previously unreached as he flicked a header past the keeper (who stood at least three feet taller!) and into the net.

Victory was within reach.  And, just like Pilot House two weeks previous, Fanatics began to collapse, pressing forward in an attempt to make the game respectable again.  This led to a decent chance on the Cataraqui goal that was cleared up the field with an abject apology coming from your scribe, but Mark Schultes managed to rescue the ball before it went out of play and took it down to the corner.  In the corner, he flicked a cross in to Eoin Boyle who “passed” it over to his younger brother, and Junior juggled the ball into the back of the net to complete his brace and make the score 3-0, racking up the fourth clean sheet of the year, and third for your trusty scribe, and keeping Cataraqui on top of the A Division at the end of week 10 of the season.  Who would’ve thought it?

Special mention has to go to Stuart Reid who is getting his touch back and getting a good feel for the game.  He started the game by fouling early and often, but ate up the opposition without remorse.  Andy Nador also managed to throw several of the opponents off of their games by chattering at them, sneaking in some shirt pulls, and using the body to force them off of the ball.  However, the MVP of the game was Steve Vardy back at sweeper.  He was an ANIMAL, just without the drum kit.  At the pub post-game, he was modest on his performanace, stating that “the win is what matters... but it’s nice to be the best!”

Alex Fletcher