CRU 3 – Stoney Point 1
Cameron Road 3, Stoney Point 1. As I write this after a big pasta dinner, a beer or four, and a giant bowl of Dutch chocolate ice cream it still sounds sweet. Wearing our always effective alternate ARM jerseys, Cameron Road finally produced a winning performance this afternoon against a pesky Stoney Point squad.
I’m not sure if we were simply fed up of losing, or just continued to play well and got the brakes today, but it was sure sweet to celebrate a win instead of being frustrated by another “good performance.”
The game got underway very quickly when our Hillary Clintonesque referee decided to start the game when pretty much nobody was ready. I don’t even think we had time to get into proper positions with the quick start, but away we went, hoping to bring a swagger to our play and turn our current run of form. Just as luck would have it, we got a break early in the game off of a corner kick. The ball bounced around in the box and found Luke’s left foot just in time for him to skim a shot on his weaker foot past the keeper. We were up a goal early and everyone could feel the momentum creeping our way.
Stoney Point were much younger, and much more the fragile of the sides… but Hillary was having none of their wining and diving. They got several cards for either faking injury or talking back to her, which only fueled our fire.
We escaped the first half with a 1-0 lead, but could have lost a crucial player to injury when Ciro went down with an obviously severe knee injury. He had to be carried off the pitch by his teammates; let’s hope it’s not as serious as it looked because he has been a vital member to our back line all season long. We’re all pulling for a speedy recovery Ciro!
Feeling ambitious with our 1-0 lead, the second half started with a quick move down the left flank from Andy. You could tell that he was feeling frisky, maybe from his recent marital bliss, or maybe bullied by the fact that it was his birthday… whatever the case, as we would soon find out, he was surely in the mood. Another good spell in the Stoney Point box ended with Andy thumping home a thunderous strike and doubling our lead. Where did that shot come from? It was a beauty. And to top off his birthday celebration, someone played in a nifty pass to me inside the box and I patiently slid the ball to Andy who was coming from the left – he did the exact same thing as before and smashed it home! We were flying high and off to a 3-0 victory.
Stoney Point would not just lay down and die though, they were skilled and fought to pull a goal back, although it certainly looked like they played the ball after it was out of bounds on the back line. For the final 15 minutes or so, Cameron Road defended as a team with Onome, BT, Chris, and Crosley beating back the attacks, and Jay making some truly fantastic saves.
Final score, CRU 3 Stoney Point 1. It sure feels good.
Hope to see everyone at next week’s final game of the season, especially since it’s going to be John Ammerman’s last game. I hate to even think about it because he’s been the midfield rock for so many years, but the least we can do is send him out on a high.
Man-of-the-Match: Birthday boy Andy and his second half two goal assault earns him MOTM honors and a spot atop the goal scoring leaderboard. Nice job Neely, you’ve tamed the beast and given him a new scoring touch!
