October 31, 2009 - Royersford, PA

The Kixx had a Halloween showdown with the West-Mont Wizards for first place in the Delco League, and all sorts of monsters abounded...

The game was played on a busy field in Royersford, with at least six games going on, and kids and parents everywhere. It was another cool, rainy, blustery day for the Kixx, who were charged up for their big match! The game started well, with the Kixx fighting hard from the opening kick, challenging the Wizards' players for the ball at every turn. Their hard work paid off, as the Kixx tallied first on a nice pass from Charlie Beale to Dalton Musselman.

The Kixx continued their hard work, winning the battles and playing tough defense, with a few nice saves by goalie Mike Battisti, and they leapt to a 2-0 lead when Mike Bolger tallied with a strong shot midway through the first half.

Things were looking good, but the Wizards didn't have just one loss for nothing, and they scrambled back into the game with a tough-to-stomach goal off a misplayed ball, to bring the score to 2-1 at halftime.

Unfortunately, the Wizards took it to us in the second half. Although the game remained close, the Kixx missed their opportunities on the offensive end, and the Wizards took advantage of theirs, tallying early in the half to tie the game, and scoring again halfway through the half to take a 3-2 lead.

The Kixx fought hard, getting chance after chance in the last few minutes of the game, but the Wizards played great defense, and the Kixx just weren't quite able to tie it up, falling to their first and only defeat of the season. Regardless of the outcome, we were all extremely proud of how tough the kids played! It was really a great game, and the kids showed great sportsmanship in the loss!

The Kixx remained tied with West-Mont for first place in the league, at 6-1-1 with 19 points, but the West-Mont team holds the tie-breaker against us and controls their own destiny for the playoff seedings. However, both teams face tough opponents this weekend, with the Wizards facing the third-place Haverford Celtic (4-1-3), whose only loss of the season came to the Kixx. The Kixx in turn face the Marple Newtown Union, who are tied with Haverford for third place, and whose only loss of the season came to Haverford! So, it sets up a very exciting weekend of soccer, with the four playoff teams likely all playing each other on Saturday in a preview of the following playoff weekend! Ironically, each of the four teams has lost just one game, and each team lost to a different team! Also in the picture is Sporting Radnor, who has a game in hand and two remaining games against teams with a combined one win between them.

The Kixx are guaranteed a playoff spot, and I believe that they have locked up at least the #2 seed, and a home game on Saturday.