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CSL Roundup Whitty provides early lead, but St. Barnabas collapse

February 16, 2011

By Staff Reporter

By Jay Mwamba

Veteran striker Tom Whitty scored twice but was let down by another late St. Barnabas meltdown in a 3-3 tie with Pancyprian Freedoms in the Cosmopolitan Soccer League last Sunday.

"We were up 3-1 and they came back and scored two goals in the last 20 minutes. We should have buried them," St. Barnabas official Aiden Dennis said.

Dennis attributed his men’s collapse to a lack of fitness, due to the Saints’ irregular schedule.

Whitty, a former club coach, opened the scoring with a fine header in the 20th minute from a Freddy Fitzpatrick cross.

He got the second on the stroke of half time when the ball broke to him on the edge of the penalty box after a bad clearance. Whitty banged in a right-footer.

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St. Barnabas led 2-1 at the break, but Mick Hennessy extended it to 3-1 on resumption (50th) with a shot from the near the penalty spot.

Then, like was the case against Koha on Memorial Day weekend when they squandered a two-goal lead, the Saints collapsed.

Pancyprian, third (10-4-3, 33) in the 10-team First Division, connected twice to come away from SUNY-Purchase with a hard-earned point.

Dennis gave the visitors credit for battling back.

"I think they were missing a lot of players. They didn’t have David Price or Ben Hickey," he said, noting the absence of Pancyprian’s two English aces.

Fighting to clear a backlog of matches, sixth-placed St. Barnabas (5-5-5, 20) are scheduled to meet Shamrock in an Irish derby at Downing Stadium this Sunday at noon. It will be the Rocks’ last game at Downing before the stadium is razed to make way for a new complex.

Koha’s revenge

With practically their entire first team a no-show, Shamrock’s reserves were called on to perform double duty at Brooklyn’s Erasmus High School.

They edged the Koha second team 5-4 in the opener, but crashed 7-1 in the senior fixture, thus ending Shamrock’s two-game winning streak against the Balkan side.

"More or less the whole first team was unavailable. We only had two players, (goalie) Paudie Moloney and (defender) Mick McCarthy, from the first team," John Guildea said.

Co-coach Eugene Smyth played in both matches and said: "In Shamrock’s history we’ve never forfeited a game so we’re really proud of the reserve team. They did well."

Brendan Reilly, on target in the 5-4 reserve victory, got Shamrock’s face-saver. Johan Lannon (two), Mark Behan, described by Smyth as outstanding in both games, and Chris Long were the other scorers in the reserve tussle.

Koha, beaten 3-2 by Shamrock the previous week, scored through Naim Behdzit (6th), hat trick hero Fatos Selimi (12th, 18th, 59th), Herolind Hajdari (65th) and Mensur Nikaj (70th, 85th).

"I don’t have to resign or retire," joked Koha boss Omer Hakramaj, who had earlier offered to step down if his side failed to beat the Irish this time around.

"I tried to beat (Shamrock) twice with my stars, it didn’t happen, so I went with my reserves. I used five reserves," he said.

NYAC title boost

As expected, Ronan Downs’s New York Athletic Club were awarded three points from their abandoned fixture with Banatul by the league, tremendously boosting their chances of bagging their sixth title in seven years.

NYAC, now 14-3 (42) and three points behind longtime leaders New York Albanians, can win it all if they beat Polonia in their remaining match.

Albanians, who ended the season with a 3-0 romp over Fairfield/Westchester United on Sunday — Tony Camaj (two) and Nino Pjetri netted — were predictably upset.

"That is so unfair," Joe Shkreli said. "You wait four months to make a ruling, it’s not right. We worked hard all year."

Shkreli’s argued that the ruling, if at all, should have been made soon after the disputed game last fall and not when the season is ending.

Metros out

Guyana Veterans "A" shut out GH Metros 2-0 to reach the Saunders Cup final against the Jersey City-Brooklyn Celtic winner. Guyana had a goal at the end of each half.

"Armandio Rodriguez played a great game," Metros coach Rory Finn said of his goalie.

"We hit the crossbar, hit the goalpost but nothing would go in. Then we lost Clario Braga, Julio and Guyla Hegyi to injury."

Finn, nevertheless, complimented their opponents. "Guyana played a good game. I wish them luck in the final," he said.

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