Game Recap for Saturday, April 30th: Mariner United 2 vs Martha's Vineyard 0

What a great day we had on Saturday! We got perfect weather for our ferry ride and the boys followed it up with a nice 2-0 win over a very good Martha’s Vineyard team. George and Johnny Marmelo hooked up again for a pair of goals, one from a trick play corner kick executed perfectly by Bowman and Marmelo to George. And the other from a great bang-bang play from George to John. These guys are really coming up big for us in the clutch when we need it most.

The other big story of the day was the play of our defense! They didn’t let many easy shots get through to Remy and John Butler had probably his best game of the season. He was dominant! I got a lot of comments from other parents on his all-star caliber play this week. I think he won 90% of the balls he was fighting for and almost scored a couple of goals from outside the box. He was feeding George give and goes on the right side all game and almost had a couple of assists with his great passing. Nice job John! Johnny Bowman played his usual shutdown defense in the middle. I say it every week and I will continue to point out the obvious week after week... without John running down breakaways and playing like a pitbull in the middle, we wouldn’t be undefeated. Christian and Vincent did a great job on the left side. They are really getting used to playing give-and-go with each other. And when we switch them up they do the same thing. Vincent has only been playing with this group for a short time but you would never know it. He plays like he has been on our team since we started out 3 years ago. He really has been a HUGE addition to this team! Tres came in and gave us a lift on defense and continues to apply what he learns at practice to the games. He took a page out of Johnny’s book of tricks and chased down one of the opponents faster players and snuffed out a scoring chance. Nice job Tres! Anthony played probably his most aggressive game to date, he was winning balls and refusing to get pushed around and even got his uniform dirty. He has been very sore since Saturday. Remy stepped in and started for Ryan and didn’t let up a goal all game! Coach Marmelo gave him some punting tips at practice and the ball was jumping off of his foot. Which gives us a huge advantage. Coach Geerdes was keeping our forwards high and making sure our defenders pushed up and were always in position. It was close to a perfect game all around and our best all around team performance this season.

But the most amazing part of the game for me was the mini mutiny we had at halftime. As usual, I was planning to switch goalies and move Bowman and Butler up to midfield to give them some time on offense. When I started to let them know the lineup for the 2nd half all 3 Johnny’s and Remy and the rest of the boys said “no no no coach it’s 0-0 lets keep things the way they are”. We were surprised but we kept the same rotation going into the 2nd half and they had it right. We preach unselfish play and passing all the time...but for 9 and 10 year olds to tell their coaches to keep them on defense because they want to win more than they want to play offense? That was something that I have never seen! And the coaches were very proud of the boys. Especially John, John and Remy. That is some serious leadership!

Deb got both of our goals on video and they are attached. Thanks Deb! Watch them a couple times with your sons if you have a chance. On one of them notice the positioning of our mids and forwards. If the ball goes past george on the corner kick we have two other players in perfect position for one timers and/or rebounds. Also notice the positioning of our defenders and Bowman racing upfield to help out on the attack in case of a rebound or attempted clearout. We have some very smart soccer players on this team!

Fall River beat Nantucket in a close one so Fall River is in first place at 4-0 and we are in a 3 way tie for 2nd place at 3-1-0. We play Fall River at home the last game of the season.