Honey Badgers Emerge From Winter Hibernation To A Scrappy 1-1 Draw With Madrigal Dragons

Ahh, remember the good l’days of December yore when the Honey Badgers were making their Fall Cup run straight through the hearts of the Punters and Dragons? Well, it was time to put the past to bed and suit up for the first competitive soccer in two and a half months.

For the first game of the season, it looked like Cameron Road were going to be hard pressed to field a full starting 11. But Ciro arrived just in time to remove his twelve layers of winter padding and slot into the lineup. Latecomers Brian S and Jake rounded out the sidelines with two available subs.

The Madrigal Dragons fell right into the lumpy middle of the table along with the Honey Badgers, so it looked like a fairly even match was on the books, but if the early ten minutes were any indication, the Honey Badgers would be under the gun for the entire match.

The “Dragons not Dragons” started out strongly, keeping the ball in Cameron Road’s half and rattling off shots…. most were wildly off target, but they were starting to put some pressure on the Honey Badgers. And on one of their first corner kicks, the slippery soccer ball somehow found its way into the back of the net among a sea of Yellow Jerseys. Cheap goal, but it was the wakeup call that Cameron Road needed to kick things into second gear.

Going forward, Ryan, Ciro and Brian roamed the middle of the pitch looking to release Sweet D and McKenna. McKenna’s first touch tested the goalie with a shot on target from about 30 yards, but it was Derek to curled in a peach into the far corner to tie up the game at one a piece – but the linesman wasn’t having any of  Chappy’s pre-game $5 bribe and instead went for the old offside call. Bastard.

Still, the Honey Badgers pressed forward and even though the Madrigal Dragons were still rattling off shots, Danimal, Jefe, Peterson and Chris were more than up to the task of settling in and providing Jaybone some cover.

With another attack, Cameron Road won a free kick and went to work. As the blast sailed past the goal, Chappy dug out the ball and dropped it to Danimal who was calling for that shit. Danny swung in a sweet cross to the far post where Adam did a, well, Adam thingy, and knocked that ball right off his knee past the keeper for the tying goal. Somebody give that man an orange.

The half finished up with a ratio of about 20 shots to 3 in the Dragons favor, but the Honey Badgers were winning the grit and determination battle that is their entire raison d’etre.

Thankfully, Cameron Road would be churning up the dust and running downhill in the second half as they worked over the NEMP pitch, which resembled a pile of spent wagon filling from Luke’s Grandmother’s Christmas Biscuit Hayride.

More back and forth for 45 minutes, as each team tried to score the winner and not concede the loser. Jay was in full MVP mode, making clutch save after clutch save as the back line absorbed the pressure like a sponge sopping up the sweat from Chris G’s pre-game warmup.

The Honey Badgers were also attacking looking for the winner. Ciro sliced and diced his way through the heart of the defense on several occasions, Derek and McKenna each tested the goalie with probing shots, and Chappy nailed a header off a corner kick that went just over the damn bar. But no winning goals were to be had.

To make things interesting at the death, the Dragon’s keeper let a routine ball run by him and almost into the back of the old onion bag as time expired. That would have been some winner.

As it stood, the Honey Badgers did themselves proud with a gutsy display on opening day with a thin bench. Up next, El Clasico with #FTP! Although they are probably praying to every available Rain God they can muster up to stay out of the Cameron Road crosshairs….. especially after they lost to Verity early Sunday morning.

Man-of-the-Match: Gutsy 2nd half performance from Jay, hard-charging display from Danimal, extreme versatility (and a nice Hello Kitty backpack) from Peterson, but Adam’s goal and yellow card earned him the first MOTM award for 2018.