Flagler Field, 5pm kickoff
Flagler College 4 - St. Xavier 1
The word from John Lynch before the game was a phrase borrowed from ESPN's DickVitale; BlowOut City, lads. There wasn't anything less to expect after a good week of build up to the game. I'm not sure how it happened but the clock read 44:13 when Nyarady had scored the first goal. One of the fastest goals ever for Flagler, only 47 seconds after the kickoff. And there was more to come from Steve. His partnership with Zoltan proved to be money that day. At the end of the half Stevo had four goals with Zola assisting on most of them. As the all-time leading scorer for Flagler, it was time for Nyarady to just chill on the bench for the second half. His smile couldn't be wiped off.
I have to say that it was one of the best half of footaball we've played this year. Fantastic intensity from the word go, and as a result we dominated the play completely. Starting from the back four of Niall, Brandon, Stalin and the Rebound resident Denny, we won almost every tackle and then kept possession of the ball. In the middle Johan and myself didn't get much competition from the Chicago team. And as I stated earlier, Zoltan's creativity and Steven's finishing couldn't be contained.
With a victory all but secured at halftime, Coach decided to bring in the whole bench to finish them off. It proved to be a close contest with us keeping the ball but they managed to get the only goal to make it 4-1 at the end. Couple of nice plays in from the lads, Pete's wicked touch almost lobbed the keeper but came off the woodwork, and then in the dying minutes Jorgen's rocket header was cleared off the line. With Allard in goals, Coach let Peter Young replace Scotty in the striker position for the last few minutes. All set and ready to go in the number 15 uniform, I doubt Pete ever touched the ball as a forward. Didn't Allard score one last year when he came on?
Man of the Match: Steven Nyarady. Four goals and a fine performance.
Play of the Day: It was on either the third or fourth goal, when Zola played a little ball to "put it in the mixer" where Nyarady showed some amazing finishing skills. In the air, with one leg behind the other he somehow flicked it past the keeper. Sensational goal by Steve Nyarady. Watzupp Pootttts!!
