Honey Badgers Crush Bat City 4-0 On Opening Day 2014

For the first time in two and a half months, Cameron Road beat a team that wasn’t called The Punters. But it looks like all the sparring with their Clark Field sister team paid off as the Honey Badgers routed Bat City 4-0 to win their sixth straight game!

It looked like and All Star game today as Cameron Road fielded a nearly full squad, bolstered by the glorious return of reigning MVP Luke and a (knock on wood) fully fit BT. With an in-shape squad raring to go, the Honey Badgers started off strong, and hoped to capitalize off their two month training regimen at Clark Field. And although they looked crisp and lively, it was those sneaky bastards of Bat City who dropped the first guano off Jay’s crossbar with a point blank blast.

With a little luck on their side (probably karma from all of Jefe’s clean livin’), Cameron Road road out the first ten minutes and then started to assert themselves. With a quick line change of forwards up top, Stevie Mac and Gianluca combined like S.A.S. for the opening goal of the season. Steve headed the ball down to Gianluca out wide on the right, and with a few dance moves inspired from his Columbian tea, he ripped off an absolute stunner of a goal from a crazy tight angle – his Italian missile flew true (hey, not that one, come on man!) 1-0 Cameron Road.

With CRU’s high defensive line, Bat City wasn’t troubling Jay too much on the day. Billy, Crosley and Dave were superb at thwarting attacks and the twin towers of Danimal and the Kraken were formidable in central defense.

The second goal was a thing of beauty as Cameron Road applied pressure to the Bat City defense and kept the ball in their half of the pitch. Luke’s long range “I’m back” shot was deflected and fell to Chappy with his back to goal inside the 18 yard box. Clear as a bell, he heard GiGi call for the ball behind him, and with a daft, delicate flick of the size 13 battleship, Chappy back-heeled the ball to Gigi who was cutting in from the left. Gianluca’s left-footed shot/pass flashed across the face of the goal where Andy was making a run into the box to finish it off with style. Nice to see the reigning Golden Boot holder get back on the score sheet after suffering through the sophomore curse.

The first half ended with Ciro getting chopped down just outside the box on the right. Ryan stepped up for the free kick, but his outside of the boot right footed curler was smothered up by the keeper. Bat City were furiously complaining that Ciro embellished the call, but everyone knows that the only thing Ciro dives into is a cozy folding chair after a game and a 6 pack of Mexican beer.

2-0 Cameron Road at the half.

Cameron Road actually played better D in the second half, smelling a shutout. As they wore down Bat City, chances were coming often: Z had a few nice touches and played some guys in with his back to the goal, Ciro had a pop that went wide, and BT ripped a free kick off the referee – and then took him to task for not letting him retake it. But his tirade fell on deaf ears… literally. But it was Chris Peterson with a cheeky ass play that resulted in goal #3. Assuming the position for a corner kick from the left side, Chris sent in a near post “squirt shot” that went low and not-so-hard, but somehow managed to miss every offensive and defensive player on it’s way into the net. 3-0 Honey Badgers and the route was on.

Now Cameron Road was really pushing forward. Billy was seen dashing through the middle of the park from his defensive position, Ryan scampered for a few back post runs, and Stevie Mac put the icing on the cake and rounded out a spectacular day for the forward line as he smashed in a ball inside the six yard box after Gianluca got it to him. Since Steve he had a fantastic game, we can forgive his face down trip inside the box at the end. He was probably just being chivalrous and didn’t want to rub it in with a 5th goal.

So it was a great win and a great way to start 2014 with a 4-0 drubbing of Bat City. Next up is what could be a title defining game with the dreaded Austin Athletic Club.

Man-of-the-Match: With a goal, two assists, and no bicycle kick, Gianluca started off 2014 on fire and is the year’s first official Man of the Match.