October 3, 2009 - Downingtown, PA

The Kixx had their first home game today, a drizzly, dreary morning at United Sports Training Center. The fields were holding up pretty well, apart from a muddy patch in front of one goal. The teams were ready to go . . . but the ref was nowhere to be found! So, the game was ably reffed by our own Chris Buysse (Tristan's step-dad). Today's opponent was Sporting Radnor, who came to Downingtown sporting a 2-1-1 record, and in 3rd place in the league standings. They were wearing red tops with black pants, which meant our boys wore blue again, hoping to keep our string of luck going!

The game started out as a close battle, with neither team having an obvious upper hand. Radnor had some individual players who were very strong on the ball, but the Kixx seemed to do a better job of stringing things together when they had possession. The turf was very slick, and there were lots of turnovers. Radnor seemed to fight harder for the loose balls - our age-old nemesis of not being aggressive enough was rearing its ugly head again!

The Kixx broke through first, though, on a nice play. Our midfielder played the ball up to Dalton Musselman, who pushed the ball to the left, where a streaking Brian Miller knocked it home for his first goal of the season! But Radnor wasn't going to give up easily. On a day when we didn't play our best defense, there were constantly red jerseys pressuring our goal. First-half goalie Mike Battisti made an outstanding save on a high, hard shot, knocking it down with his hands. But a few minutes later, Radnor evened things up when a seemingly innocuous shot caromed off a defender and into the net. They went into half-time tied at 1 apiece

The second half was more of the same: a tense, see-saw battle between two solid teams. Matt Tutterice made several nice plays in his return from a long hiatus. The Kixx continued to show flashes of some of the stuff we've been working on in practice. The kids are looking to pass more, with Tristan Hummel and Dalton Musselman in particular threading some nice passes together up top. Now we just need to work on finishing, since we left a few opportunities on the field when kids were unable to strike the ball well with their off-foot!

Michael Bolger and Daniel Good shined particularly in the second half. Michael was hustling everywhere. It seemed like every time the Radnor team got the ball at midfield, Mike was involved in getting the ball away. And his efforts paid off when he sent a great pass to Dalton Musselman for the go-ahead goal late to give the Kixx the lead! The rest of the game, though, belonged to Daniel Good, who stole the show in goal, making a number of crucial saves as Radnor poured it on in an attempt to even up the score. With about a minute left in the game, he rescued the Kixx from a heart-stopping moment, as he came out to challenge a forward who proceeded to bang it off the post. David fell on the ball and helped preserve the 2-1 victory!

The Kixx are now 4-0, and tomorrow face a Lower Merion team that, like Radnor, is 2-1-1. So, expect another battle! Meanwhile, in other league news, West-Mont won again today (against Lower Merion) to run their record to 5-0. The Halloween face-off with West-Mont is looking more and more to be a big game! We're tremendously proud of the kids, they're doing a fantastic job!