Day 3 – Saturday, April 19, 2014
The day dawned as an overcast Saturday morning, after many hard rain showers throughout the night. The boys were well rested and ready to play. Little did they know that they would have a very loooong day ahead!
Their first match saw them meet their neighbors, the BVI Babes, whose team was made up of predominately National players. LaRaza came out on the field ready to play and struck first blood on a breakaway goal by Quinn Farrell. Quinn dribbled the ball past the defenders and aimed for the corner of the box beating the goalie. BVI was a much improved team from the last time they met the St. Thomas players, but LaRaza was able again to use their strong defense and very alert goalie, Sole Chinnery to hold off the four shots on goal that the BVI offence was able to get off. The LaRaza offence had many more opportunities, which they weren’t able to convert, one in particular when Muhari Cortijo missed a close free kick. Theses missed shots would later come back to haunt them. In the end LaRaza out played BVI and won this match 1-0.
The second match of the day saw LaRaza meet Saint Martin Nord. LaRaza had the benefit of having watched this team play earlier in the morning, but what they saw was a very physical team with a very solid defense. They had their work cut out for them. Saint Martin Nord took away all time and space from the LaRaza players. Saint Martin’s physicality came into play by the many solid checks that boarded on fouls, especially against the much smaller players of LaRaza. LaRaza found themselves bunched up at times, and sometimes out of position. Despite the tough wingmen Karan “Fluffy” Gaikwad, Nickolas Swan (playing while sick) and Siddhant “Kaka” Sharma playing their hearts out, Saint Martin Nord scored first and LaRaza found themselves again, playing out of a hole. Saint Martin’s defense was a solid wall that LaRaza was only able to find a few plays through. There were a couple of solid shots by Jimson St. Louis and Muhari Cortijo that just couldn’t find their mark until, a flick over the defense by Muhari found Quinn on the left side where he was able to take advantage and beat the BVI keeper putting the ball squarely in the goal, tying the game 1-1. With a very hard fought final draw score, in a game being played for a spot in the final day of play, it turned into a heartbreaker for the LaRaza team as they didn’t advance due to Saint Martin having scored more goals in previous games played than LaRaza. LaRaza was now faced with playing their third match of the day to decide 5 & 6th place in the tournament.
The third and final match found LaRaza again playing against a very hungry BVI Team, this time it was the BVI Rockers. The Rockers were anxious to avenge a loss they had during their last meeting with St. Thomas. Once again, LaRaza found themselves playing out of a hole when BVI scored first. After the emotion of the entire day, and knowing this was their last game, LaRaza dug deep and managed to tie the game off a sweet pass by Jimson St. Louis to Quinn Farrell who managed to plough the ball deep into the center of the goal. The half time break saw the game tied 1-1. The second half of the game started with high spirits after a very fine pep talk from both LaRaza coaches. This lasted until a poor call went against the LaRaza team when the referee whistled a goal on a ball that was cleanly cleared by the goalie, Sole Chinnery. LaRaza found it very hard to bounce back from such a disappointment. The BVI Rockers took advantage of the scattered and distracted play by LaRaza and scored two more goals in quick succession. Score 3-1. The LaRaza coaches made some substitutions and bought in Drake Nemeth who had fresh legs and who supported the defense as valiantly as possible, but on the last play of the day, BVI saw through the spent defense to score once more. LaRaza’s tournament ended in 6th place with a 4-1 loss to the BVI Rockers.
larazavisoccer 