Wild play in boys wild cards

Rick Devereux

The wild card play-in game between Carden Hall and Lincoln in the

boys fifth- and sixth-grade gold division lived up to its billing

from the get-go with a ‘wild’ delay at the Costa Mesa Sports Farm

Complex Friday evening. Carden Hall won, 3-1, and advanced to the

quarterfinals against Kaiser, winners of pool F.

Lincoln was denied using a referee it brought in from Los Angeles.

“I asked [Daily Pilot Cup coordinator Kirk] McIntosh if I could

bring in this referee, and he said it was fine,” Lincoln Coach

Frederick Welch said. “He was a FIFA certified referee.”

The Eagles thought the referee would show preferential treatment

to Lincoln and vetoed the idea of even playing a two-referee system.

“They paid to get a ref here and they knew each other,” Carden

Hall Coach Rick Morse said.

Once the game did start, the action was constant.

Alex Maddox from Carden Hall applied pressure with his big right

foot, sending the ball into the Lincoln zone throughout the day.

Tyler Kring answered for Lincoln, attacking the center of the field

for the Leopards.

The Eagles scored first when Ben Capaldi took a throw-in from

Trevor Davis and sliced through the Lincoln defense inside the

18-yard box and placed the ball inside the left post.

Morse later received a sending pass and out-ran all defenders and

sent a shot that bounced off the cross bar into the net for a 2-0

Carden Hall lead.

Lincoln made some offensive pushes, most notably by Kring, but the

half ended with the two-goal Eagles advantage.

Lincoln assistant coach Sasan Sadri told his players at the break

that in order to score, they needed to pass.

“You guys are dilly-dallying out there trying to dribble past

everyone,” he said. “Use each other. [Carden Hall] is spreading the

field. That’s what we need to do.”

The kids took the coach’s advice and began to play more and more

on the Eagles’ side of the field.

Reed Williams, a fixture in the Leopard offense all game, took a

centering pass up the middle of the field, but Carden Hall goaltender

Steven Andrew shut down the chance.

Morse and Maddox led a counterattack, putting Lincoln on its

heels. Justin Tam finally cleared the ball for the Leopards. Kring

was able to push the ball the other way for Lincoln, and he flipped a

nice shot from right-to-left over the goaltender’s head, but the ball

was slightly off-target and went out of bounds.

Kring gained possession of the ball again and sent a nice pass to

Williams, who placed the ball perfectly in the top-right corner of

the goal and inch Lincoln closer, 2-1.

With a tie in sight, Lincoln pushed hard. Harrison Rolfes had shot

sail wide right. Williams pushed up the middle. The Leopards even had

a five-on-three counterattack. But with each wave of attack, the

Carden Hall defense stood its ground.

The pressure by Lincoln led to a counterattack by the Eagles where

Maddox flipped a pass to Capaldi, who flipped the ball into the net

for the 3-1 final.

“We knew this was going to be a tough game,” Coach Morse said.