September 3, 2010

Dear Alumni & Friends,

The season opened yesterday and unfortunately we were on the losing end of a 2-1 result at intrastate rival Providence in the first semi-final of the 1st annual Ocean State Classic. The match was played in the 94 degree heat of the day that didn’t help either team in the end. It was nice to see a good group of alums and families including Gareth Elliott (I’m sure scouting us after his Siena Saints big 5-1 win over Syracuse Wednesday), Kevin Kennedy, Mario Pereira and Lonny Unger as well as the Tanke’s, Haught’s, Balicki’s, Kuklinski’s, Dragon’s and defender Eric Hutson (St. Louis, MO) mom who was there to celebrate his 21st birthday. Hopefully I didn’t miss anyone...

Anyway, it was a tale of two halves as the Friars dominated possession, but we got on the scoreboard first - just 2 minutes into the game. Senior defender Dwayne Williams (Westmoreland, Jamaica) drove a long pass into the PC defensive third where the ball skimmed off one of their central defenders and over their goalkeeper for an own goal. Before the half would end, we would trade bad goals as a miscommunication at the back allowed one of the Providence forwards to slip in and intercept the ball, dribble around goalkeeper Peyton Warwick (Prairie Village, KS) and deposit it into an open goal for the 1-1 tie. Our guy’s nearly got the lead back when a Jon Pereira (Barrington, RI) driven cross found midfielder Jamie Eckmayer (Harrington Park, NJ) at the back post but his shot went high.

The second half was a different story as the boy’s began to connect passes in combination with Matt Ribbens (Tinley Park, IL), Joey Haught (Brecksville, OH) and freshmen forward Tom Palmer (Hummelstown, PA) leading the charge. The pin point passing created numerous opportunities including one for senior Greg Balicki (Wilbraham, MA), Eckmayer from an angle and Thomas Lindroos (Espoo, Finland) and Palmer on a 2 on 1 break whose final pass was played too far ahead. The Friars got the last chance when with 3 minutes left following a Ram turnover, a nifty bent cross found a diving Friar player for the winner.

After a day off and some much needed rest from the heat we’ll be back at it on Saturday in preparation for the consolation game of the Ocean State Classic on Monday at Brown University. We will play the loser of the Bryant vs Brown game that is later today in Smithfield. Hopefully Hurricane Earl will not interfere with the game being played as the nasty weather is not supposed to get to Rhode Island until after midnight. If this is the case then the game will be played on Saturday and the result known then.

GO RAMS!
Coach O’C