Rover 0-30's Snatch Points from Old Boys 10/11/09 by Ben Weiner

Rovers 030s 5 Rovers Old Boys 3

Starting with no subs is always a scary proposition. In this case we had to do more than that to juggle positions and personal. With 10 signed members either hurt, out of town, or left in the gutter on Saturday night, we had our work cut out for us. The Old Boys had been on a winning streak to match the depth of our losing streak, and all the momentum seemed in their favor. This head-to-head club match, however, was to tip in the 0-30's favor.

The lack of numbers put several people in unusual positions, such as Zee at left back, and forced us to reach out to Ron Baskin to make one of his re-occuring appearances for us through the years. The new positions ended up suiting people fairly well even though we switched to a 4-3-3, and the first 20 minutes saw the ball mainly in the Old Boys half. We could not break into the Rocco directed defense as of yet, and one of their many counters saw an unfortunate hand ball in our box leading to a nicely slotted penalty by Bazza. 0-1 Old Boys

The 0-30's were not to be denied when a few minutes later Ben made a rare leap where his feet actually exceeded 10" off the ground thereby launcing him over Greg for a header which found Ron at the 6yd where he neatly volleyed it in the net. 1-1.

The Old Boys pushed hard and had a few clear chances, even a breakaway, most of which were kept out by a couple key saves by Jean-Marc.

Then the dam broke. The order of the following goals may be off, but suffice it to say it was a flurry. Jason gave one of the better through balls of the year, piercing the defense and leaving it perfectly at Brian's feet. Brian neatly stepped it around Mark Artis and slammed it home. 0-30's 2-1. Ron took advantage of Artis stuck at the near post and sent a punishing shot from the 25 into the far netting. 3-1. Jason put the nail in the coffin with a shot rounding past Artis. 4-1 . Game over.......

.....Or so we thought. Right when most teams would start to buckle, the Old Boys got warmed up. They pushed us back on our heels and Bazza starting launching shots from outside. Two of them in the span of 5 minutes found the back of the net, and we stood suddenly on the other side of the seesaw. 4-3 with 16 minutes to go.......Not being much help, the ref became to predict a 4-4 tie.

Mike then knotted up his hamstring leaving us with the wounded Gary bravely standing in as a warm body to keep our numbers. It wasn't looking or feeling good for the 0-30 side until Brian did put the final nail in, once again chopping it past Artis. 5-3

Good cheers, beers, and war stories were had by all.