When the New Hyde Park Kool Kats traveled out to Bohemia to battle the Bohemia Blue Jays, Coach Wheeler did not expect his team to be coming home the victors.
It is not as if he did not have confidence in his team, but the Kool Kats were short six players, including their starting goalkeeper. So Wheeler knew that the Kool Kats had their backs against the wall.
The game started out just as predicted with Bohemia taking advantage of the fact that the Kool Kats had only one substitute player. At the 12-minute mark the Blue Jays had a two on one develop.
The Kool Kats defender made a great play to kick the ball away from the streaking forward. Unfortunately the deflected ball took a bounce and ended up right in front of the Bohemia player who gathered the ball and placed the ball in to the corner, out of the reach of the keeper for a 1-0 lead.
The Blue Jays put a lot of pressure on the Kool Kat defense and goaltender Lisa Famularo. Famularo came up big stopping 10 of 11 shots taken on her in the 1st half. The Kool Kats were struggling to get the ball upfield. However, they started to make some runs late in the half. This resulted in some quality scoring attempts. In the 37th minute Emily Bunyon (assist) found Lady Abikaram streaking down the wing for the tying goal. The half ended in a 1-1 deadlock.
The Kool Kats had been outshot 11-6 in the first half, but were starting to turn the tide. In the 2nd half the Kool Kats came out to play on all cylinders.
Led by the spirited play of Lady Abikaram, the Kool kats were able to dominate her portion of the midfield. Abikaram was constantly on the ball and throwing her body around to help thwart any Blue Jays scoring attempts.
The Kool Kats second goal of the game came on the first shot on goal of the 2nd half. Alyssa Franco (assist) took a shot on net that forward Samantha Wheeler knocked down and hammered home past the Bohemia goaltender for the go ahead goal.
The Blue Jays continued to pepper the Kool Kats and keeper Famularo time and time again had to come up big. Famularo also had a great day punting the ball, consistently putting the ball on the other side of the center circle. With the Blue Jays stepping up the pressure, looking for a tie, midfielder Bunyon stole the ball from an attacking player, made a pass to Wheeler (assist) who made a beautiful crossing pass that found forward Franco breaking for the net. Franco finished in fine fashion for the goal.
The Blue Jays continued with their frenzied pace to try and get back in the game when one of their defenders fouled Abikaram. Coach Wheeler had Casey Naab take the direct kick.
Naab struck the ball, which arced like a streaming comet to the top right corner and over the hands of the leaping Bohemia goal tender. Naab’s goal put the Kool Kats up 4-1.
But the Blue Jays did not stop their barrage on the Kool Kats goal, finally putting one past Lisa to make the score 4-2. When the final whistle sounded the Kool Kats had a 4-2 victory.
Famularo stopped a record number of shots during the contest. She had stopped 22 of 24 shots on goal.
