Game 12

Game 12 – 10/2/07
Rebels Suffer Disappointing Loss to St. Pius

This wasn’t how the Priory J.V. soccer team had planned things. On Tuesday afternoon they made the long journey to St. Pius, hoping to continue their winning ways. In the first half, things were looking good for the Rebels. They controlled the ball and built some nice attacks. Unfortunately, many of their attacks were stalled by a panicked and careless pass or by a lazy offside play. However, the Rebel defense looked steady in the first half and limited the St. Pius chances. Finally the Rebels opened the scoring when Liam Ware found Tony Cribbin making a run down the right wing. Cribbin received the ball and took it straight to the goal. When he got into the box he fired a flawless shot into the bottom left corner of the goal and gave the Rebels a first half lead. The Rebels had several other chances in the first half, but could not figure out a way to stay onside. At halftime, the Rebels led 1-0, but they knew that they should have had more. Unfortunately, their inability to finish in the first half would punish them in the second half.

St. Pius jumped on the Rebel defense in the first minute of the second half. St. Pius earned a free kick from 35 yards out and quickly played a ball into the box before the Rebels could get organized defensively. The ball found a forward’s foot and he put it into the back of the goal with ease. After the goal, the Rebels began to play even more panicky and continually turned the ball over in the midfield. When the Rebels did manage to play a nice ball up to the forwards, the forwards weren’t patient enough to stay onside. Even with the mistakes that the team was making on a less than mediocre playing surface, the Rebels still looked like the better team and built the majority of the attacks. Unfortunately the Rebels could not finish and St. Pius was a bit more opportunistic with their chances. With fifteen minutes remaining in the half, St. Pius played a difficult ball into the Rebels’ box. With forwards running onto the ball, Rebel keeper Steve Hoerr was forced to make a difficult play on the ball before it bounced. Unfortunately for the Rebels, the ball took an unpredictable bounce and found a way to sneak by Hoerr and into the net. The team responded to this 2-1 deficit and continually created chances at the other end of the field. Unfortunately the ball wasn’t bouncing the Rebels’ way and they couldn’t avoid the offside call that killed many of their chances. At the end of the game, the Rebels suffered a frustrating 2-1 loss. However, the game taught this young Rebels team that they have to put away a team when they have a chance. Hopefully they can use this experience to improve and excel in future games.

Goal: Cribbin (4)

Assist: Ware (2)

Game Ball: Cribbin