Gunners Loss Avenged – Badgers Deliver Second Half Beatdown in 4-1 Win

This day had been coming ever since Cameron Road had an off day at NEMP to the Gunners a few months back. Revenge is a dish best served up with a side of Cobra, and the 18 Honey Badgers who showed up for this 10am Summer Game were hungry.

Badgertown was bustling with activity during the pre-game warm up. There was a Scott Merritt sighting, Luke was back in the fold after many moons of rearing his young pups, Danimal was back to return to the scene of the crime, and everyone welcomed GREG into the fold to see what all the hype was about (just wait for it).

For the first fifteen minutes, the Honey Badgers overwhelmed the hapless Gunners and proceeded to set siege to their goal with attack after attack. Greg was feeling his way around his new non-Striker teammates, and there was plenty of action coming from the flanks to dump into the box.

Cameron Road seemingly took the lead after about five minutes as Dave’s lobbed free kick found Chappy’s head at the back post. The Bald Dome of Power dropped the ball right onto Derek’s foot to jam past the keeper, but the lackadaisical referee incorrectly called him offside from about midfield.

Things were starting to feel like the previous week where the Honey Badgers controlled the game and had plenty of chances, but just couldn’t find the back of the net. BT smacked a free kick off the crossbar, Jake hit the post (to be fair, he also hit the post 4 times during the warm up, so maybe that’s just what he was aiming at), Danimal (when he wasn’t offside) and Scott took turns blasting shots, and Ciro got off an attempt too.

And while Cameron Road controlled the game, the Gunners sneaked in one attack, got a lucky break when a ball hit a defenders turned arm, and were awarded a penalty kick to take the first half lead.

Typical.

The Gunners main threats were coming from a set of French twins, and although they had a few good moments, they basically had les blues for the rest of the match as they were shut down by the Cameron Road D.

So down a goal at the end of the first half, the Honey Badgers didn’t panic. With a fresh supply of oranges, they knew it was only a matter of time before they got back to business.

Wow…. what an opening fifteen minutes to the second half! After feeling things out for 45 minutes, it took Greg about five to take the game into his own hands. BT passed him the ball about 40 yards out where he proceeded to pass the ball around a defender and charge towards the goal with a full head of steam before slugging the keeper in the gut with a low angle heater. 1-1 and CRU was back in business.

While that showed off Cameron Road’s new attacking threat, the go-ahead goal came via an old Classic. As Dave lined up to take a corner kick, Chappy’s marker dropped off to mark Derek. From there, it was just physics.  “Chappy’s Ball!!!! was the call to alert BT to stand down, and the Bald Dome of Power crushed it into the back of the net from just inside the 18 yard box. 2-1 Honey Badgers.

From there, it was academic. The Gunners were going down. But the Honey Badgers brilliant start to the second half was not over. Oh hell no. At about the fifteen minute mark, Greg and McKenna combined for the play of the day.

Greg received the ball at about midfield and with the outside of his boot he sent the ball down the line for McKenna. Steve held the ball up and slid it into Greg’s path as he made a blazing run down the channel. Trapping the ball like a boss, Greg set sail for the far post where he carved open the goal like a can of tuna and smashed a ball into the far side of the net past the hapless keeper. 3-1 Cameron Road whose collective jaws were dropped.

After that, everybody wanted a nugget of Cobra before the game ended. Danimal was playing up top to switch things up and took a blast in the general direction of the goal, and Big Dave took a page from Lionel Messi’s book as he absolutely worked the Gunner back line with about 12 sweet moves before shooting from a tight angle. That shit deserved a goal! Greg also took a shot from way downtown, searching for his debut hat trick.

The final nail in the coffin came from another Dave free kick as Danimal just battered the defense and made himself a target for the ball to spin off his back/neck and fall into Ryan’s path. Ryan scuffed a shot to the near post that the keeper just couldn’t get to, and so it was 4 goals in 35 minutes for the hungry Honey Badgers. Danimal may have also been the first Honey Badger to perform a “back assist.”

With the game nearing it’s conclusion, the Gunners had a few more attacks in them, but Adam snuffed out one with a perfectly timed defensive slide tackle as they were on the break.

And in the dying embers of the game, MVP Chris took a spin up top to try to get his first goal, and it nearly happened as Ryan’s dummy inside the six yard box slid right by him. Instead, it found Chappy lurking just behind him at the far post – but in a respectful show of sportsmanship, obviously knowing he was offside, Chappy simply tapped the ball to the keeper instead of blasting it into the goal. (and that’s how that play will be remembered from here on out!)

So Summer Game #2 ended in a resounding success. It was great to see a tent full of badgers and a full complement of goals. Oh yeah, the general consensus is that Greg is pretty good – did we mention we have t-shirts, stickers and hats???

Post-Game Report: As thrilling and satisfying as the game was, the Post-Game was also on point. Jake and Chappy had a heated debate about the author of “Back to the Grill again” which he was rocking on his boom box. Chappy’s claim of 3rd Bass was much closer to Jake’s insistence of Main Source (it was actually from DJ Search’s Return of the Product). Ciro received a rare “frontal ice bath.” And around 10:30pm, Chappy received a text from Jefe with the following information: “I iced Derek, who then iced Billy, who tripped over his cooler and landed on his face. Then Billy lay face down on the ground, holy f#ck”