Matches vs. Chigaco Magic 5/16/09

Due to the storm that passed over Chicago on Friday night, the Saturday matches were moved to the astroturf field at Loyola University. After a meager breakfast at the Comfort Suites, the bus set out for the campus. The day got off to an unideal start when the referees for the 92's game arrived an hour late and the game finally kicked off at 1 o'clock.
Perhaps weary from the extended warm-up, the 92's started the game a little sluggish and surrended several early chances. Due to some strong goalkeeping by Liam Stapleton, however, the Magic were unable to capitalize on any of these chances. After making it to halftime unscathed, Dale did his best to rally the troops and they began the second half with new found inspiration. They created several scoring chances in the early going but were unable to find the back of the net. The rest of the game was very tight with neither team wanting to give up the decisive goal and as a result the game ended in a 0-0 draw.
Not wanting to repeat the mistake of the younger squad, the older team came out fast and forward Jared Tejada twice found himself behind the defense in the early going, but was twice thwarted by the Magic keeper. We broke the dead lock soon after, however, when Tejada found forward partner Seth Rudolph streaking through the middle of the defense. Not long after, yours truly intercepted a pass and found Aaron Lantz on the left flank. Showing his true class, Lantz bent the ball around the helpless keeper into the far corner for a 2-0 lead to the good. The score stayed that way going into the half, where Dale in his infinite wisdom warned us to keep our level of play up and not allow the Magic back into the game. Unfortunatley, we did not heed his warning and came out of halftime too comfortable with our lead. Our defense was broken about 20 minutes into the half and the Magic forward slipped the ball past Kent Kobernus. Still unable to regain our rhythm, the Magic created several more chances but were unable to beat the crafty Kobernus. Kobernus did, however, require the help of an acrobatic bicycle clearance by the long leg of Nick Marshall in the dying moments and the game ended with a 2-1 win.

Blog Written By:
Wade Martin '90 Academy
Aaron Lantz '90 Academy