Rec soccer wrap-up
Presque Isle Recreation and Parks Department youth soccer is going strong at Presque Isle’s Riverside Park complex.
In the season opener of the 2013 fifth- and sixth-grade league, the Crew and Mutiny faced off. Although both the Crew and Mutiny teams showed great potential and hustle in their first game of the season, the game ended in a scoreless tie.
In the second game, the Sting and Rapid took to the field. From the start, both teams came out fighting with several close shots on goal. Though the Sting played a great defensive game, the Rapids pulled out a win with Ben Graham scoring two goals for his team, one being assisted by Mason Fletcher. Colby Bonville scored the lone goal for the Sting with two minutes left on the game clock. Both teams showed great sportsmanship. The Rapids won, 2-1.
In additional fifth- and sixth-grade action, the Rapids hit the field for a second time facing the Clash. Rapids’ defensive player Rebecca Gallagher received a great pass from Nathan Willett in the second half and tattooed the ball into the net for the lone goal of the contest in a close battle. Both goal keepers, Colby Buckley and Ricky Goupille, made extremely nice saves throughout the game.
In a matchup featuring Clash and Crew, strikers from both teams led the way for their respective teams. First, Crew’s Gage LeTourneau scored early in the game with a breakaway goal followed shortly after by another goal off of a Clash miscue. This gave the Crew a healthy first-half lead. At the start of the second half, Clash’s Carter Jackson made a nice through pass to a charging Tanner Smith, who finished and brought his team within a goal. With time running out, Hattie Bubar stole a Crew pass and led Tanner Smith again for the game-tying goal as it ended 2-2.
In the next game, Rapids and Mutiny tried to rack up as many goals as possible. Rapids started off strong and aggressive, scoring a quick goal from Rebecca Gallagher followed by two late first-half goals by Nathan Willett. Mutiny came back with a quick goal to start the second half from Noah Roy. Shortly after, Gallagher struck again to keep her team up by three. Roy scored another goal for Mutiny to keep his team in contention, but the Rapids were just too much with Colby Buckley moving up to the front line and scoring two more goals as his team rolled, 6-2.
Clash and Sting battled it out from the get go, exchanging punch for punch until Colby Bonville blasted a ball past Clash’s keeper to put his team up 1-0. The game was fast paced but scoring came at a premium as Buckley’s goal held up for the Sting victory.
In the nightcap, the Crew and Rapids took to the field. In the first half, goal keepers Colby Buckley and Gavin Akeley played lights out, saving all shots on goal along with multiple breakaway opportunities from both teams. In the second half, Rapids changed goalies and it proved to be a game changer. Buckley saved everything while in the net and ended up scoring two goals into the Crew’s net as the Rapids won, 2-0.
In grades 3-4 play, the Crunch and Galaxy kicked off the season. Galaxy’s Jonah Roy started off the game strong scoring two goals in the first half on end-to-end ball control. Crunch shortened the Galaxy lead when Asher Tuttle made a nice move around two defenders to score his team’s first goal. Galaxy’s Roy proved to be too much to handle as he scored a quick second-half goal to put his team back up by a pair. With two minutes left, Breygan Mahan took an indirect kick to find an open Tuttle, who torched the net for a late-game goal. However, the Galaxy came out on top, 3-2.
Shortly after, the Blast and Missiles showcased their talents. Blast started off strong with scoring a goal in the first five minutes of action with Bryan Searles crossing the ball to Ethan Shaw, who finished the nice pass with a blast into the net. The first half ended with the Blast clinging to the one-goal lead. The entire second half featured great defensive play by both teams until 1:30 showed up on the clock and a deflected ball landed at the feet of Missiles’ striker Jacob Watt, who made a nice move to get to open space and tied the game with a hard shot past the Blast goalie and the game finished in a 1-1 tie. The Blast and Tornados went head to head and Ryllan Thibault scored twice and Mia Casavant and Dawson Kinney netted one goal each as the Tornado prevailed. Ethan Shaw scored the Blast goal.
