Cameron Road 2 – Grackles 1

The streak continues! Cameron Road beat Grackles 2-1 yesterday to run their win streak to 4 games.

It was an unseasonably HOT day at the Onion Creek Soccer Complex, temperatures were soaring into the 80’s which made it tough going for the 11 Honey Badgers who were available for the game. For the umpteenth week, Cameron Road was forced to play musical chairs on defense as Crosley, Billy, Cuyler, Dave and Peyton were all missing. And for the second week in a row, Daniel was the glue that held the rag-tag group together – barking out positional orders and organizing the troops in front of Jay’s goal.

Luckily for the 11 Cameron Road players, the Grackles only started with the bare minimum of 7 players. (although their 7 quickly turned into a full compliment of 11 players within 10 minutes. ) As to be expected, Cameron Road started off strong against the under-matched foe and pressed for some early goal action.

Ryan was first up on the board with a powerful volley from the left side of the box. Gigi crossed it from the right and Ryan slammed it home past his buddy Joey who was manning the Grackles goal. After that opening goal, it looked like the floodgates would open, but Cameron Road couldn’t capitalize on their good passing and possession. Ryan almost scored again with a powerful shot from the other side, and Adam took a long range pop at goal as well.

The Grackles managed to get back into the game off a set piece as their 6’5″ forward knocked in a header late in the first tying it up at one a piece.

The second half was pretty rough, all 11 players were running ragged from the heat and lack of subs (or was that only me?), but Cameron Road still managed to press forward and create chances. And with the game on the line, Stevie Mack was the one with the golden touch in front of goal as he side-footed a shot into the back corner to give CRU the winning goal.

As the Grackles pressed for the tying goal, it was up to the defense to shut them down, especially after the Grackles won a slew of corners late into the game. But shut them down they did, and as the final whistle was blown, Cameron Road emerged with their fourth win in a row.

Man-of-the-Match: There is no questioning El Jefe’s Honey Badger spirit. The man is recovering from a broken arm, but still wrapped it up against all medical advice and took the field for 90 minutes to make sure we had a full 11. Crazy…. yes. But that’s the kind of determination that has seen CRU through the past 4 games.