BACK IN THE SADDLE AGAIN

O-30 TAKE CROWN FOR SIXTH TIME

The onslaught began with a goal by Mike Hogan. It ended with a goal by Guillermo Cortez. In between, SSL rode on the back of Jason Adelsberger, with 3 goals, & David Hipperson, with 2, & another single tally chipped in by Edin Coralic, just for good measure. In the middle of the game, the Adelsberger-Hipperson connection scored on back, to back, to back, to back, to back goals. At the half, it was 5-0. Then, Adelsberger got the motor running in the 2nd half with his 3rd, & first of the half. It was quite the offensive show.

SSL came out of the gates flying. With only minutes gone in the first, Hogan, on a 2nd effort deep in the right hand corner, corraled the ball, shot, collected the ball again &, from an acutely poor angle, buried a rocket in the back of the net for an early 1-0 lead. Then a goal by Adelsberger. Then one by Hipperson. Then one by Adelsberger. Then one from Hipperson. You get the picture. At the half it was 5-0. Looked like they'd be popping the champagne early in this one. But, not so fast.

The Sinclair & Rush side, a truly formidble opponent, didn't get to the championship game by being lucky. They're a good side with excellent players. They never quit, & they didn't quit here. They continued to apply a lot of pressure, getting lot's of shots requiring David Shelton, the SSL keeper, to be on his game. He was! Twice he was called on to make point blank saves to his left, once getting his left hand on the ball that was headed for the upper ninety & slapping it away. Another time he was required to dive to his left for yet another difficult save. But, the S&R side kept coming & the SSL defense couldn't hold them out. They notched two unawnsered goals, to narrow the SSL lead to 5-2. Just that quickly, SSL found themselves with a difficult match on their hands. The championship didn't look nearly as close as it did at the interval.

Then Adelsberger took over the match, with a run the length of the field down the left side, stepped around a defender, & deposited the ball neatly into the back of the net for a commanding 6-2 lead, & SSL  would never look back. SSL would then trade goals with S&R, with Edin Coralic contributing a hard shot from the top of the box, upping the score to 7-3. Then Guillermo Cortez would close out  the scoring for the evening with his patented left-footed bomb from the left side of the box  to the right side upper ninety, resulting in the final score of 8-3.

Not to overlook what took place with the SSL side as a whole was that their possession, ball movement & attack was probably the best its been since a 7-4 win over PLS Zoom in the first game of the session. The defenders would collect the ball, move it up to the offense, who were running off the ball with much more consistency & quickness then they had shown in the last few games. That alone resulted in multiple scoring chances for SSL. Additionally, their defensive pressure, marking S&R players, even in their own end, was almost flawless. Seldom did an S&R player receive the ball & not be marked. It was a marked improvement from several previous games.

All in all, this was certainly a team win. Yes, the scoring was spread among 4 players. But, make no mistake. Without the stellar defense of Casey Walsh, Tony Meadows, Ronnie Rowden & Bernard Anic, & timely goal-tending, distribution & shot-blocking by David Shelton, this outcome could certainly have been different.

As far back as my records go, it would appear that for the 12th time in the last 17 sessions, SSL has played in the championship match. In those 12 championship matches, they have won 6 & lost 6. Truly, a remarkable record & a credit to their consistency. Congrats to all the players on their hard-earned crown. But don't get too cozy. It starts all over again next week. Thanks for reading.

	SOCCER ST. LOUIS STATS O-30
	NAME		GAMES	GOALS	ASSISTS	POINTS
	JAYSON ADELSBERGER		7	11	3	25
	DAVID HIPPERSON		7	6	6	18
	GUILLERMO CORTEZ		8	4	4	12
	IVAN BODUL		4	5	0	10
	EDIN CORALIC		7	3	4	10
	TONY MEADOWS		8	3	1	7
	BERNARD ANIC		8	2	1	5
	RONNIE ROWDEN		7	1	1	3
	JOHNNY PENS		8	1	1	3
	DAVID SHELTON		8	0	3	3
	MIKE HOGAN		5	1	0	2
	CASEY WALSH		8	0	2	2
	WILL SUK		5	0	1	1
	SLADAN KURTOVIC		5	0	0	0

Date			Location
Thu 8/13 8:00 PM	W 7-4	Zoom Motors	Concord, Field 2
Thu 8/20 10:00 PM	W 3-2	at Sinclair & Rush	Concord, Field 1
Thu 8/27 10:15 PM	L 2-5	at Soco Utd (BLUE)	Concord, Field 3
Thu 9/3 11:20 PM	W 6-4	Freaky Shakra(WHITE/BLUE)	Concord, Field 2
Thu 9/10 7:50 PM	W 4-3	CD Cobras(BLUE)	Concord, Field 1
Thu 9/17 8:50 PM	L 2-5	at Zoom Motors	Concord, Field 2
Thu 9/24 7:00 PM	T 5-5	at Freaky Shakra(WHITE/BLUE)	Concord, Field 3
Thu 10/1 7:10 PM	W 8-3	at Sinclair & Rush	Concord, Field 2