By Ted Waddell
LIBERTY — September 26, 2006 – After 99 minutes and 22 seconds of play, all it took was 38 seconds to win.
After a couple of 40-minute periods of regulation competition during Thursday afternoon’s boys varsity soccer match between the home team Indians of Liberty (0-4) and the Sullivan West Bulldogs (3-2), the score was tied 1-1 in a hard fought battle on the turf that saw the referees dish out two yellow cards to the home team booters.
In the wake of the scoreless first 10-minute overtime period, SW’s Kienan Garn scored on an assist from Kevin Cappiello at 9:22 in the second OT.
As the Bulldogs erupted in cheers of jubilation, the goal left several Indians pounding the ground in frustration at seeing what might have been their first win of the season vanish like smoke in the wind.
In the first half, Liberty’s Nick Vasquesz scored on an assist from Michael Dunnigan at 29:54.
At the 14:18 mark in the second half, Garn scored for the Bulldogs on an assist from Justin Armstrong to tie the match at 1-1.
Until only 38 seconds remained on the overtime clock, when Garn’s goal snapped the tie.
Stats: shots on goal (SW 45, Liberty 20); corner kicks (SW 6, Liberty 5).
Goalies during the match were Kevin Pinkel for the Bulldogs and Scott Hamlin for the Indians. Pinkel had 10 saves, while Hamlin made 19 saves.
“The best thing was coming back from that terrible first half,” SW Coach Debbie Owen said.
“We were totally out of sorts, out of position, collapsing into the middle and our shots weren’t crossing, but we came back in the second half and here we are,” she added.
“It was a very hard fought game,” Owen continued. “They were ready for us, knew who to be manning, who to be marking…and that was very effective. They made us come back in the second half with a different outlook.”
“Liberty’s Justin Garrett did a phenomenal job at stopper, shutting down our defense,” she added.
Two of the Indians’ losses were by one goal in overtime against Monticello and SW.
Debbie Simpson, Liberty’s first year coach, summed up the game in a few words.
“Our guys played a great game. They put their hearts and souls into it, they did everything they could, but we had just on minor slip.”
“I’m very proud of their effort and expect good things from them,” she said.
On Thursday, yellow cards were handed out to Liberty’s Gerardo Romero and John Snyder, in a ripple effect of the New York State Public High School Athletic Association’s (NYSPHSAA) move to tighten up rules of soccer governing sportsmanship.
One yellow card was issued for “language” and the other for stepping in beyond the 10-yard marker.
At its August meeting, the NYSPHSAA’s sportsmanship committee issued a policy statement regarding the “accumulation of excessive yellow cards.”
As approved during the summer meeting, the consequences include:
• Five yellow cards accumulated by a single player in the regular season will result in a one-game suspension. Disqualifications due to an accumulation of five yellow cards occurring in the last game of the season will carry over into the next season of participation, if the team does not enter postseason play.
• The continued accumulation of yellow cards by the same individual will result in a one-game suspension per additional yellow card.
• In the event that the player receives two yellow cards in the same game, resulting in a red card, the two yellow cards will not count toward the season total, since the player will receive a one-game suspension as a result of the misconduct and ejection.
(For more information, visit the OCIAA Web site http://ociaa.ouboces.org.yellowcardpolicy.html.)
On the subject of the yellow cards issued to the opposition, Owen said, “They were deserved, and frankly I think they could have had a couple more.”
Her take on the new “Five Yellow Card Rule”?
“It can really create some issues, it’s a tough one,” she replied.
Simpson said she doesn’t have a problem with the new rule when it is enforced for unsportsmanlike conduct, “but if the officials hand one out because they think something happened, that’s another story.”