Derby Day Delight as Honey Badgers Retain Trophy and Stick It to the Dragons…. Again.

In the Second Annual Clark Field Derby, Cameron Road retained the glorious (and ever-expanding) trophy by beating the Dragons 2-1. The Clark Field melting pot took center stage on Field #2. Ben christened the field by refereeing the previous game, A-A-A-Ron took turns tent swapping and not being on anyone’s official roster, and fellow Punters Eric and Ryan choose allegiances by playing with the Dragons. The only thing missing was Nick doing push ups in the parking lot, or Ernesto eagle-clawing a hawk egg out of the tree line.

On the pitch, the Honey Badgers summer lineup continued its weekly evolution, but the formation remained the same. Ryan sacked up and put his cracked rib on hold to be part of the festivities, Andy showed up while being under the weather, and there was a Peyton sighting for the second week in a row. On the enemy side, there were some notable Clark Field absences with Nate and Edgar missing out.

The game began with the trophy prominently on display at midfield, the ultimate prize to be cherished until the next meeting between these two galacticos of amateur soccer. It had been a good week with the trophy for the Honey Badgers, and they did not want to part with it just yet.

As both teams battled for supremacy, things got a little heated when the tiny foot of Ciro stepped on the tiny foot of Uni. That foul, coupled with a sniper shot from the woods, caused quite a stir as the Dragon playmaker went down for quite some time.

As both teams started to get into a groove, the Honey Badgers scored their first goal of the day. Unfortunately, it was a perfectly placed own goal. Seeing that his Cameron Road teammates were obviously not playing up to their potential, Billy decided to stoke the motivational fires himself. Pure genius from the fiery Scottsman – right out of the David Moyes playbook.

1-0 Dragons.

More back and forth after the goal from both teams, but it wouldn’t be long before the mighty Honey Badgers would even up the score with a spectacular goal. With a game under his belt, Peyton seized the moment and was deployed in a more attacking midfield position. As Gigi dazzled with a run down the left side and delivered a cross to the far post, Peyton launched himself at the ball and smashed it home with a diving header.

1-1 and Cameron Road was back in the game.

The Dragons came close to going back up as they earned a free kick just outside the Cameron Road 18 yard box. Drew, fresh from viewing Roberto’s “How to Cover Your Entire Face in Sunscreen and Look Like a Pro” webinar smashed a great free kick past the wall that Jay made a fantastic save on. The rebound fell to another Dragon, who smashed his follow-up shot off the post and the Honey Badgers cleared play. Sometimes, the luck of the tree line smiles upon you.

As the sun baked the field and everyone on it, tempers flared up a bit as Jorgés from the Dragons went on a one-man shoulder charge mission. His commitment earned him a yellow card, but his over exuberance only set off the fury of Big Zeke in goal.

Perhaps that fury was partially to blame for Cameron Road’s next goal, as Dave sent in a kryptonite ball to the mighty paws of the Dragon keeper. As he spilled the shot onto the ground, Cameron Road’s handsomely bald Captain pounced on it like Luke snatching up a fresh plate of his Grandmother’s hot biscuits. Chappy took a few touches and turned with an eerily Steve McKenna-like motion inside the box until he could see past the big keeper and fired a shot into the left corner for the lead.

2-1 Cameron Road and they never looked back.

Kudos to Ryan for sucking it up and giving it a go, but his last action of the day was a combination of fouling Uni and pulling his hammy as he ejected himself from the game and went straight to the tent for Modelo treatment. Fortunately for him, the doctor was in.

The Honey Badgers finished off the half on a high as BT’s cross found the B.D.O.P. at the back post, but Zeke was able to snuff out the headed shot.

Halftime was A Tale of Two Tents. Over in the Shire, Zeke was busy laying down his manifesto in boisterous fashion. But over in the Badger Den, it was straight up peace and love as each player reflected on the effort it would take to defend their slim lead and see out the game. All energy needed to be conserved to make sure the trophy did not fall into enemy hands.

The second half started out with a flurry of activity. The Honey Badgers were looking to close out the game with a third goal (fourth if you’re into statistical accuracy), and there were loud shouts for a hand ball inside the box as Ryan (the Punter one, not the one who burned his chin making a marinara sauce), inadvertently handled a shot. Soon after that, Peyton almost doubled his pleasure as he attempted to head in the rebound from Peterson’s wicked shot that Zeke pushed off the crossbar back into play. And the Honey Badgers were gifted another fantastic chance as Gigi and Adam worked a fast break like they were the ’88 Lakers. Gigi’s shot was parried away by Zeke, and  Adam used all of his race-winning speed to tap in the rebound, but Punter/Dragon Ryan there with a sliding block to give the Dragons a lifeline.

As the Cameron Road defense started to assert themselves, you could feel the Dragon’s frustration mounting, and unfortunately for them, they had a Cuban Missile Crisis of fouls that put them behind the eight ball. Jorgés picked up his second yellow for throwing his weight around and put the Dragons a man down for the final 30 minutes. In that time, the Honey Badgers played spells of really nice fitba- switching the filed, keeping the ball, and passing it around like the Punters on a Wednesday night.

With precious time running down, the Dragons made one final push at a comeback. For the last ten minutes it was all hands on deck defending, and New Chris made his push for honorary Legion of Boom status as he lit up oncoming attackers and headed balls to safety with Danimal-like abandon. Cameron Road also successfully defended numerous close-range free kicks while BT and Travis quietly and calmly conversed with the referee about on-field etiquette.

As the final whistle sounded, the Honey Badgers emerged victorious yet again and greeted the trophy like an old friend. It was a good match by both teams and after the game battle lines were withdrawn, beers and tents were shared, and ice baths were equally distributed.

To be continued in the Fall….

Man-of-the-Match: With a week-long love affair with the trophy directed at Drew, Jefe proved to be just the thorn in the Dragon’s side that Cameron Road needed to put them off their game. Here we look back at some of those fond memories shared by a man and his inanimate object of desire.