Charm City Spoil Inferno Opener
May 30, 2008
It was a beautiful night for soccer in Lancaster, PA that saw the Charm City Blue Crabs pinch out a 2-1 victory against a young Lancaster Inferno team.
It was the season and home opener for Lancaster. This is the second time in as many matches where City traveled to face an opponent on their home opener. City dropped a 2-1 decision on May 18 at the PA Stoners for their home opener but would not be denied a victory today.
The Inferno opened the scoring in the 12th minute as Josh Wolf played a nice ball down the left side behind the City defense that forward Joe Miller ran onto and calmly slotted a left footed shot to the far right corner past City keeper Mike Svehla.
City began to step up the pace and capitalized in the 23rd minute when Midfielder Luke Pardew placed a beautiful through ball to forward Powell Cuchiella whose fancy foot work first beat an Inferno defender and then beat the keeper on similar foot skills and simply passed the ball into the open net. “It was a goal for the highlight film. The type of goal we expect from Powell. He has some great foot skills and played a tremendous match.” City GM Jim Oman.
City began pressuring more and controlled most of the second part of the half. They created numerous opportunities but could not find the mark. The half ended knotted at 1.
City started the second half as they finished the first by continuing to press forward and peppering the keeper but again could not capitalize. In the 60th minute their fortunes almost took took a turn for the worse. The City defense was caught sleeping when a nice through ball past the defense found a wide open Inferno forward speeding in on a breakaway against Svehla from 30 yards out. Svehla came out of the net and was beaten as the forward pushed the ball far to his right side and appeared to have an open net. His shot however was rushed as defender Elon Backer raced back in a desperate attempt to interfere with the shot. Svehla bouncing up from the turf and hustling back to the center of the net made a spectacular recovery and dove to save the ball a foot before it crossed the line.
Svehla’s heroics seemed to inspire his teammates. Nine minutes later midfielder Luke Pardew broke through on the left side of the penalty area and slotted a beautiful pass across the six yard box that found midfielder JC Cole wide open at the right corner of the six yard box. Cole who entered the match a minute earlier calmly settled the ball and slotted a high hard shot into the back of the net for a 2-1 City lead. “Luke played an incredible game. He was all over the place and made great decisions. His two assists where obviously the difference in the match.” said Oman.
City’s defense then took the match into their own hands. The Inferno stepped up the offensive rushes but time and time again they were denied by a sturdy City defense.
It was a good effort by City for their first road win of the season. They take on Queen City FC in Buffalo on Sunday, June 1 which will surely be a good physical match.