First of all, a full-throated apology to Spruce Goose. Congrats on your 8-0 win last week and sorry we got the score backwards in the round up. We can’t verify this, but it was probably Chris Seitz’s fault.
Abierto
Spruce Goose: Let’s make up and move on, starting with your 13-0 victory over Sons of Ben Union. Four goals from Lamar Arrington and a hat trick from Brad Perry gave the Geese a goal differential that puts them above AOH61 in the table. AOH – the only team to beat the Geese – dropped points for the first time this season as Sons of Ben Zolo’s Dave “Remdawg”Remm scored the only goal of the game to move Zolo to the top of the table. Zolo has been playing a dangerous game this year, while Spruce Goose wins with great offense and AOH wins with great D, Zolo just keeps finding ways to win. This was their first shutout of the year, and they’re a team that nobody will want to meet in the playoffs. Elsewhere in Abierto, Sweet Lucy’s FC beat Sidewinders 2-0 behind a goal from Jonas Persson, whose CASA bio reads: “Wingspan and agility of a HAWK”. Revolving United beat The Incredibles 4-1 to stay one point behind Pennypack Park Rangers, who snuck by FC Kilbanes 3-2.
Tercera
In a battle of the top and bottom teams, Mt. Laurel dispatched Sons of Ben Independence 5-1. Patrick Bisignaro scored the lone goal for Independence while Ian Zolty put in two for Mt. Laurel, who remain at the top of the Tercera, ahem, mountain. FC Spartans and Loose Cannons battled to a 0-0 draw in a game so tight that no Man of the Match was named! Spartans, Loose Cannons: Who were the men/women of the match? Let us know in the comments. Bayern Makefield and Quaker City also drew, with goals from Tom Nevinger and Chris Herting canceling each other out. Nevinger won Man of the Match, and if we don’t hear from Spartans or LC, we’ll give him MotM for that game too. We can do that because Messi said we could. Tri-County and Park Towne United both took full points over the weekend with Tri-Co knocking off Lot Lizards while PT pulled out a tight win over Revolution 76, Andrew Hale netting the winner for Park Towne.
Segunda
Segunda is an offensive division, and three teams have already hit double-digits in goals. Nittany United and Stoney United can aspire to score 30 apiece this season at the pace they’re on. With that in mind, it is the defenses that dominate the Segunda headlines in week four. Four of the five matches were shutouts, with only Skulls and Steagles 2-2 tie to break the pattern. By knocking off NewPhillyUnited 1-0, Nittany moved into a first place tie with NPU. Unfortunately the goalscorer, #12, is not named on the Nittany roster, so we’re going to assume it was the kid from Ladybugs until clarification. This also opened the door for Stoney United, who dropped six on Philadelphia Athletic and sit only two points behind the co-leaders. Matt Fiedler had a Man of the Match performance to lead the Stones. United Nations kept pace with Stoney with a 2-0 win over Organized Chaos The winning goal was put home by the mysterious #21, whose number honors the legal American drinking age. Cheers, mate. Sporting Philly is a hard team to get a handle on. They gave up 5 in week one, scored 7 in week 2, then let seven in a week later. The only guarantee seemed to be that their matches would be high scoring affairs. Now even that guarantee is void, as Sporting closed ranks and earned a tough 1-0 win over Memphis Taproom. Keelan McWilliams netted the only goal to earn Man of the Match honors.
Primera
Primera remains a tight division. Grey Lodge stayed on top after a 2-2 tie with West Philly. Sebastian Sanchez scored the first for Grey Lodge with a fantastic volley into the top corner. Real Optimus handed KS Cracovia their first loss with a 3-1 win, while Cannons grabbed their first points behind two goals from Brian Kenyon in a 4-1 victory over Drinker’s Pub. Cannons can crawl out of the relegation zone if they pick up points against West Philly this week. Penn United also got their first win by dropping Philly United 1-0 in the State/City derby. Philly Soccer Firm and AC Milan tied at 1 apiece. Tom Gritter netted for Firm, and he remains the only player to score for them this year. Coach Dave Scott returned from Rafa Benitez’s Coaching Seminar determined to bench Gritter in favor of Leiva Lucas.
This upcoming week will be huge in Segunda, with the top 4 teams squaring off. Stoney takes on Nittany United while United Nations travels to NewPhillyUnited. If Stoney and United Nations are winners, the top 4 will flip like a Nani goal celebration.
A reminder that Casa games will be played at Philadelphia Soccer Club fields, not Pennypack Park this week. Directions are here.
On the Spartans end our keeper Luis Sierra had 2-3 saves in a row off rebounded shots a few times in the game…he was ridiculous. And our guy Tom Teschner controlled the middle for us with a ton of won headers…either of them could be MOM in my opinion.
Thanks Derek – Big ups to Luis because it was a tough day to play goalie. That wind was playing with keepers’ heads all day.
I’ll have to change my bio now. I believe our janitor, John Dicriscio, wrote that, and it’s not accurate. My mobility is terrible. I have the agility of a refrigerator, though I might have the wingspan of some kind of bird. I even managed to injure myself in the last game, so I might not be back until the play-offs. But Sweet Lucy’s will be a contender, mark my words. We’ll at least make the QF, maybe even the semis.