Clarence Coyotes, Co-Contributing Conte, Keeper, Keep Quieting Competition, Continue Cup Crusade

Italia must be proud. Signoris Andrea "the rifleman" Conte and Leonard "the anchor" Previte single-footedly and single-handedly (respectively) helped Clarence move on in the Tehel Cup last night.

Clarence played against Amherst in the first round of last year's Tehel Cup on the same field at the Soccer Center.

The game started with little energy. Although there was hustle, the air was heavy and pretty warm, and I failed to sense any real Hutzpah. I tried to scream out a few times early, from my perch on the bench, but, the spirit wasn't there...

Anyway, there wasn't much to report during the first half. Brody rolled up in a shiny, red motorcycle 1 minute prior to kickoff. We (Clarence) won the majority of 50/50s. We (Coyotes) had the majority of the chances. Amherst had, maybe, one or two chances. LP1 made an amazing save. I played 17 minutes.

0-0 Halftime.

During halftime, Gary spoke well and rallied the troops. I tried to say some s#*t, but nobody really listens to me...

Tyler Hamill provided the spark we needed in the second half: Like a hockey player sniffing those smelling salts, Ty shot off three or four early second half hustle plays that lit a fire under the Coyote band (a group of coyotes is called a band - Yahoo it if you don't believe me). His hustle culminated about 5 minujtes in, with a little flick near the left sideline; Dre collected the ball, rope-a-doped (ala Cassius Clay) the defender near the end line and rifled a shot off the post and past the goalie on the short side from an impossible angle. Huge goal.

1-0 good guys.

We continued to slightly outplay our opponents after that. We all played very hard. Hustled to every ball - and were strong on the ball (Spragguer and JJ held the ball well for us). Our makeshift defense was as stalwart as always. Shout out to JJ, Incho, and Brody, who filled in nicely back there in (somewhat) awkward positions.

I have been playing soccer for 33 summers and have watched hockey for a while as well, but I still don't get what it means when folks reference a keeper "standing on his head." Needless to say, Lenny STOOD ON HIS HEAD last night. That dude may've played the best game I've ever seen him play. He made at least 5 amazing stops from the regular field of play....and....with about 13 minutes left in the game and us up 1 zip, the ref (Ashley )[the refs were very good last night, by the way - as have been most this season] called a foul in the box. As the Sharpshooter lined up to take the kick, one of our guys said, "you've go this Lenny," then, a Sharpshooter on the sideline said, "no you don't." Lenny saved the PK! Unreal.

With about 3 minutes left, Dre received another pass from Ty, walked the 18-yard line and rifled another past the goalie. He kept running to the far sideline and was met by myself and the rest of our team. I shouted, "we're all a plus one, we're all a plus one!!"

2-0 final.

Co-MVPs: LP1, Dre

And then there were eight.