When Jaybone and Chris G Are Playing Striker, Things Are Looking Good – Honey Badgers Roll Phoenix 6-0

Not sure I understand when the other teams says “It’s only summer man!!!” That must be code for “stop kicking our ass!” The final score was 6-0, but the Honey Badgers were out for Cobra blood and it could have been 16.

After last week’s hard-fought game against Waterloo, Cameron Road pulled out the can of whoop ass and fielded a 17 man wrecking machine on Field 1. Jefe was supposed to be in Colorado, but he was lurking in the woods. Chappy was back from Mexico, and played like he was still on the beach sipping margaritas and stuffing his face with fish tacos. Peterson was fashionably late. Dave had his wedding ring. Danimal brought the River Beer. Andy had his uniform….. it was all coming together.

From the getgo, the Honey Badgers were on the attack, and it only took Greg about 3 minutes to weave his way on a brilliant solo run down the left channel that ended with a familiar sight – the ball in the back of the net.

Next up, after being yelled at for pretty much anything the team could think of, Andy found himself upended way down in the deeper bits of the box and McKenna cooly slotted home the resulting penalty kick for a two goal lead.

With Phoenix barely getting a sniff, Cameron Road continued to attack. Adam was having himself a nice game up front, getting some opportunities, and Scotty Merritt was literally everywhere. I do not think the man gets tired.

The passing was looking pretty good, and soon enough Big Dave pumped in a cross that Adam sent into the upper 90 with a perfectly timed shot off his thigh.

3-0 at the half, Night Night Phoenix.

With an usually high Dragon to available tent space ratio during halftime, the Honey Badgers showed them how to properly motivate a team to seal the deal. (Zeke, hint….. oranges)

The second half was more of the same. Greg was busy terrorizing the back line, Chris G had some rare opportunities including a shot over the goal, Derek missed out on a trio of close-range cutback laden chances, and Chappy was most likely offside.

Enjoying a good run of summer playing time in an unleashed position on the left wing, Danimal was Da Man in the second half. First he scored a goal from a scrum inside the box. Then he delivered a great cross for Ryan to head home (quite spectacularly to the delight of the Bald Dome of Power who had a bird’s eye view of the whole play). He went flying five feet into the air as he launched himself over the keeper. And Finally he scored his second goal of the half as Chris G played him towards an open goal.

There were some other memorable moments during the second half, chiefly Bret getting sacked by a high boot (after getting clipped in the knee from a different high boot about 10 minutes earlier), and Ciro’s absolutely sublime little pass through the box for Jaybone to rifle at goal from a first time shot.

The game mercifully ended at 6 for Phoenix, but like Billy said, “it could have been 16”.

The postgame was on point. Hours of beer guzzling, near heat stroke inducing fun.