Soccer Roundup Barnabas bid falls short

St. Barnabas took on Oceanside of the Long Island League in the Dr. Manning Cup at SUNY Purchase on Sunday, losing 3-2 in overtime.

The first half was dominated by a full strength St. Barnabas. Chris Gonzalez and Anto McKeon delivered numerous fine crosses from the flanks and David Fitzgerald proved quite a handful for the massed Oceanside defense.

Deadlock prevailed until the 56th minute, when an innocuous-looking Oceanside free kick from 35 yards was fumbled by Jim Keady in the Barnabas goals and, to the dismay of the large crowd, Oceanside were 1-0 in front.

Just two minutes later, Barnabas were reduced to 10 men when George Gokai received his marching orders for a second bookable offense.

Barnabas suffered yet another devastating blow in the 65th minute when Paul Edwards was shown the red card.

Oceanside scored again in the 69th minute, a score that should have ended any slim hopes of a Barnabas revival.

Ten minutes from full time, David Fitzgerald sparked the nine remaining Barnabas players back to life with a precision free kick that found the top corner from 20 yards.

On the stroke of full time, Ian Hennessy latched onto a Denis McGowan cross and his side volley sent the Barnabas faithful delirious when it hit the net, so sending the game into extra time.

Although two men down, St. Barnabas looked the more threatening in extra time and Se_n Neales should have won it for Barnabas when he broke from midfield and outpaced three defenders. Somehow, the Oceanside keeper got a foot to his well struck shot.

With the light rapidly fading, it looked as if penalties would be needed to settle this game but, in the last minute of extra time, Oceanside broke down the right wing and a shot from almost the touch line found the far post and rolled in.

In a game with nine star performers, Se_n Neales, Andrew Hendrie, Ian Hennessy and Anto McKeon excelled.

Barnabas thirds

St. Barnabas third team continued their winning streak with a 2-1 win over SICIA.

The Saints wanted to avenge their early season 1-0 defeat and demonstrated this with their aggressive play early in the game.

Vinny Norton and Justin Mitchell came close to giving Barnabas an early lead but were unable to convert their opportunities.

James Joyce was forced to scatter off his line late in the first half to uphold a scoreless tie at the break.

The second half saw Barnabas push forward and were rewarded when Kieran Forkin’s cross from the right found Justin Mitchell’s precise header into the corner of the net.

The saints almost went two up minutes later when Kevin Burns’ cracking right footed crashed off the crossbar. Barnabas eventually got their two goal lead when substitute John Lynch found himself unmarked at the top of the eighteen yard box and calmly picked his spot in the goal.

A late penalty kick for SICIA was not enough to dampen the Saints’ spirit.

Other strong performers were Larry Carolan, Brendan McDough and John Egan.

Next week, the first and reserve teams play away to N.Y. Hungaria at noon and 2 p.m., while the thirds play Serbia at SUNY Purchase at noon.

Glen Cove Reserves 4

Rovers Reserves 3

The Rovers Reserves were knocked out of the Cup on Sunday after holding a two goal lead at the break.

On a beautifully manicured playing surface, forward Paul Keogh opened the scoring with a rocket shot following good work by Willie Dempsey and Kevin Kenny. Keogh then exchanged passes with Dean Gibson to cooly slot home his second and give the Rovers a commanding lead.

Mick Carby made a good save just before halftime, but in the second half the Rovers collapsed. First Carby allowed a free kick to creep inside his left post, then got a hand to a thunderball but couldn’t keep it out.

Glen Cove took the lead when a comedy of errors ended in the unfortunate John Browne deflecting the ball into his own net.

A fourth goal was added before Anthony Moran scored with a sweet left foot volley.

Astoria Gaels

Astoria Gaels were scheduled to play Scruffy United last Sunday in their final league game before the winter break. Alas, Scruffy failed to show up and, after being awarded the points by the referee, the Gaels were involved in one of the most spirited games of the year. The managers selection (Jimmy Ralph) took on the coach’s selection (Mark Bourke) in a tournament game within the club which was full of end-to-end action, hard tackles, great defending and plenty of controversy.

With an 11 a.m. kickoff on a beautiful sunny Sunday morning, both teams were kitted out majestically, with the coaches select in the Enjay Const. white strip and the managers in Boom Const. black and red.

Referee Pat Mulrey had his hands full immediately when Booms’ Lloyd Canning was booked five minutes in for a tough tackle on Enjays’ Sweeney. From the resulting free Kevin Nagle blasted just over for Enjay. The game was on with a blast.

With S. Deharde and E. Kyne strong at the back for Boom, chances were slim in the first 20 minutes for Enjay.

On the half hour, Eddie O’Reilly set up the first goal for Boom with a long throw in to Nestor Allen who set up Warner O’Reilly for a 15-yard blast home.

Enjay came on strong after that when Ger O’Brien was rugby tackled in the box with Nagle scoring on the penalty. Mark Kelly gave them the lead after a great build up by Ger Carty to Mick Sweeney onto Kelly who made no mistake.

The rousing affair continued in the second half with Boom Construction going all out for an equalizer, however, they were coming up against a brick wall in the form of Harris and Bourke.

Enjay were playing control ball with Clear, O’Brien and Damien proving their worth. When Jimmy Ralph slipped a perfect ball into space, Eddie made no mistake and joined Werner on the scoreboard for Boom.

A 2-2 draw was a fair result for both teams.