Rain didn’t stop several SHFC teams

It was a mix of rain and sun this past weekend, but the Sleepy Hollow Football Club played on. Despite the weather, there were several impressive matchups in this third week of the season. The players came focused and the coaches determined. Read on for this week’s highlights.

The SHFC will hold tryouts across town on Saturday, May 1. Come join us! For more information about SHFC, please visit http://www.sleepyhollowfc.com

The Varsity Girls Mustangs had an exciting match full of offensive fire power against a challenging Bronx opponent. The visitors had a double threat at offense with a tall, fast, powerful forward who scored 4 goals on the Mustangs in the team’s last meeting. The forward was complimented by a skilled speedster on the wing who could penetrate the Mustang defense and get the ball to the star forward. The initial defensive plan was to have track star Lily Rodriguez man-cover the forward but she had to switch to the speedster as no other Mustang could match her speed. The remaining Mustang defenders tried to manage the star forward and had some close calls early. Fortunately the Bronx defense was average at best and the Mustang offense was easily able to get scoring opportunities....but unfortunately struggled to convert. Talia Fante struck first putting the Mustangs up 1-0 and giving the team a false sense of security. Sure enough, the visitor forward started shredding the normally stout Mustang defense scoring 3 quick goals. The Mustangs continued to play well offensively with 4 separate breakaway opportunities with just the keeper or an empty net left and were unable to finish on all 4. Down 3-1 at the half Lily Rodriguez took the vocal lead charging the Mustangs to physically fight back and not be intimidated by their star players and rough style of play. Star forward Arianna Vizcaino decided to move to defense to take on the Bronx forward. Smaller Maya Weitzen was switched from defense to forward to make the way for Arianna’s move. The second half started strong with talented Arianna dominating their forward with more slill, equal speed, and more toughness. Unfortunately, the speedster struck putting the Mustangs in a 4-1 deficit. Despite this quick score Ariana continued to completely shut down their star forward while Lily kept the speedster at bay the rest of the game. Maya then got a through ball, baited and beat the last defender with a pass to Melanie Urgiles who finished with a score. The junior linesman saw things differently (quite wrongly thought the coach and Maya’s father) and negated the goal for offsides. With 20 minutes left, the midfield of Britany Alban and Kathleen Sicha continued to out play the opponents and Kathleen put a shot in the top right corner from 15 yards out. Shortly thereafter the Bronx keeper made another save but the ball bounced away from her allowing now offensive forward Maya to punch in the rebound. The Mustangs kept pushing with only a few minutes left and Melanie finally scored after several near misses to tie the game. The Mustangs were going for the kill and quickly earned a corner kick. After several opportunities to score earlier on other corner kick opportunities, including a beautiful near miss by Sophie Sylves-Berry, the girls felt they were about to take the lead with only seconds left in the game. Oddly......the impartial referee did not want to see the outcome of the kick and decided the game was over right then. In either event the Mustangs came back from a 1-4 second half deficit to tie another premier team from the Bronx. The coaches were proud of the leadership and adjustments the girls made and look forward to their 6 remaining games.

The Varsity Los Gauchos won 2-1 over Deportivo Yonkers Red Bulls. Watch all SHFC Los Gauchos Varsity Premier goals and highlights from April 24 here: https://youtu.be/5hGagZbGziQ

Varsity Argentina drew 0-0 against Eastchester Strikers. Watch all SHFC Argentina Varsity Premier highlights from April 24 here: https://youtu.be/x0HQB_Lgrwo

Girls Varsity Red Angels had their game at Sleepy Hollow HS. Our opponents from New Rochelle had 10 players to start the game. The Red Angels started off the game with controlling the ball and possession. Within five minutes, the team went ahead with an incredible cross from Lily to find Diana on the far post as she vollied the ball into the back of the net. The team continued to maintain possession and pressed to find the second goal. Our second goal was made by Shea from the left side attack with a tremendous strike to find the far corner. Shortly after, Thalia found a breakaway attack with an incredible strike on goal finding the team with a quick 3 goal Our opponents suffered an injury in normal physical play and we decided to remove another player. We felt that having 2 more players and 3 goal advantage would be fair and displaying good sportsmanship.

In the second half, the Red Angels continued to display domination, the midfield was key in maintaining possession, this was led by Ali, Alicia, Caitlyn and Shea. They supported our attack creating opportunities for Jenifer, Bella and Thalia. Thalia was able to create another scoring opportunity with the support of our midfield to mark the team's fourth goal.

Our defense was held solid denying all attempts from our opponent's attacks. The defense was led by Lauren in goal, and Ywomie, Angie, Eve and Amy, they stayed organized and compact which was key in the team's success. At this point our opponents suffered another injury which resulted in us taking another player off momentary. Our team also suffered our own injuries, Diana, Leslie and Ywo all had their injuries we had to manage.

The Red Angels continued to dominate the game and scored two more goals by Alison (Ali) assisted by Alicia and Caitlyn bringing the final score to 6-0. The last 15 minutes of the game was the team just maintaining possession and not allowing any scoring opportunities for our opponents. There was some frustration on the opposing team, but it was not our intention. As one of our player's clearly stated, they should show up with a full squad.

This Sunday we have an away game in N. Salem with a 12:00 noon kickoff.

The Junior Varsity Boys Red Legends had an exciting and challenging rematch against their toughest opponent. The defending champion Red Legends had an impressive 1-0 victory 6 days earlier against this same Shrub Oak team. Unfortunately, two starting center backs were suspended from previous red card incidents leaving the defense vulnerable. Without the “quarterbacks” of the defense the other defenders were confused early on their defensive assignments and Shrub Oak took a 1-0 lead on this miscommunication. They scored again going up 2-0 before Aiden Smith finally got the Legends on the board. At the start of the second half the visitors scored again putting the red legends on the ropes 1-3. Late in the game super star play-maker Kenneth Suqui worked his wizardry off an indirect kick inside the box from an illegal keeper grab off a pass back. The indirect kick was passed back to Kenneth who blasted the visitors’ wall. The ball rebounded back to Kenneth who scored off his own rebound. Shortly thereafter Aiden Smith broke through to tie up the game 3-3. With time running out the Legends pressed but couldn’t get the fourth score. After winning and tying against their top competition the Red Legends earned 4 points in the standings while Shrub Oak only earned 1. The Red Legends now control their own destiny and continue to play for yet another premier division championship.

Fusion, SHFC's boys 2008 team, hosted the Lansdowne Yonkers Meteors. Immediately into the game, Alessandro Soto was moving well and well poised to score but his attempt resulted in an injury and he had to leave the game. A few minutes later, Luke Tonaj scored off a rebound from his own corner kick to put Fusion on the board. After attempts from Edwin Dutan Pillacella and Ian Papadopoulos, Kieran Degen assisted Eoghan Glynn on a goal just before halftime.

Immediately into the second half, Luca Dominguez sent a flurry of attempts which each missed their mark but were thrilling to watch. Additional attempts from Josh Ortiz, Kieran Degen, and Raul Socualaya were deflected or saved by the Meteors' goalie. Sebastian Londono scored when a crush of offensive pressure from Fusion resulted in the Meteors' goal being left unattended.

Goalies Pierce Davis and Jonathan Figueroa each deflected the Meteors' numerous attempts, holding them scoreless. Aiden Lee and Luca Simbana played an exceptional defensive game, well supported by Bruno Flores, Shyam Manjanath and Dylan Largo.

Coaches Ken Mackiewicz, Michael Glynn and Michael Degen were pleased with Fusion's control of possession and a deep roster kept Fusion moving quickly and aggressively. Fusion will host the Rivertowns United Wolfpack on Sunday.

The 2011 Girls Chaos played a make-up game on Saturday, hosting New Rochelle. It was a tremendous team effort and Chaos showed a lot of spirit and field awareness in their 6-0 victory.

Claire scored a goal in minute two on a speedy breakaway and Arlee converted a penalty kick to take Chaos up 2-0 going into halftime. Pressure from Chaos in front of New Rochelle's goal resulted to a well-placed score by Ella. Later, Saffron would score on a penalty kick and Ella would score her second goal of the day on a breakaway. In the game's final minute, Ali rebounded and scored off of New Rochelle's goal kick. Olivia, Rebecca, Zoe and Kaylee each had attempts on goal. Gabriella played excellent defense, while Savannah and Arlee each played goalie for a half, deftly saving several attempts.

Coach Judkins was pleased with the team's effort and cohesive play. While their game last Sunday was rained out, Chaos looks forward to travelling to Rye this Sunday.

The SHFC 2012 Gators travelled to a soggy Tibet’s Field in Yonkers to take on the Patriots. Despite a driving rain and wet conditions, the girls played a crisp team game to secure a 3-1 come from behind win. After falling behind 1-0 in the first half, the Gators put their much improved field awareness, ball skills, and team passing on display to storm back with 3 goals in the second half. Olivia Montolio, assisted from Ella P, got the Gators on the board to tie the game at 1.

Shortly after, the Gators took the lead on a goal by Sienna, which was the result of a field length march up the pitch with touches by all 6 players. The Gators capped the scoring at 3, with Olivia assisting Ella P on a beautiful cross with time winding down. Kaylee played great at keeper, and the defense communicated well to keep the Patriots out of the Gators end in the second half. The Gators travel to Eastchester next week to take on the Eastchester Dash.