Boys Varsity Soccer: Poly-City Edition
Written by: Poly Parent
Edited by Bianca Crainiceanu
Question of the day – Who won the Poly vs. City Soccer game? Who got this year’s bragging rights?
You are probably thinking that a single sentence would do, but this is a full-service announcement and I get paid by the word. Jump to the last sentence if you just want the score.
Since this was my first trip to the Under Armour field, here are a couple observations. It is a beautiful facility and I recommend attending upcoming events there that might interest you. A comment on the playing surface from a Poly athlete – the artificial turf, which looked beautiful, apparently has bamboo in it to keep the playing surface temperature down, but a negative side effect was that it was a bit slippery and resulted in cuts when players would slide, not that this kept players from sliding, and there were some great slides in the game. It may be important to some that the bathroom facilities were well maintained and clean as well.
On to the games – there were two games played with the JV teams opening for the Varsity match. The City JV team beat Poly JV 5-3, but Poly fought hard and had a big comeback. Poly closed the scoring gap to 4 – 3, before City scored a final goal in the last minutes of the game. Poly JV has room to improve, but their heart and will to fight, shone through. Good game and keep working hard Poly JV!
The Varsity game did not disappoint. Despite the distance from both schools, the stands were packed with kids and parents who came out to support the teams, so there was a lot of cheering and noise. I may be pretty biased as I was sitting on the Poly side, but it seemed like Poly had a few more supporters. As I said before, this is not an unbiased report. This was a physical, hard-fought match, which included a lot of yellow cards and, unfortunately, two red cards in the final minute of the match. There is a lot of pride on both sides in this match and the energy, intensity and emotion were on display for all 80 minutes or perhaps 100 minutes due to the frequent stoppages for cramps and other injuries.
The background for this game is that for 8 or so years, City had not lost to Poly, so for this Poly dad, who’s oldest son lost all 4 years to City, this rivalry may be even bigger than it is for the players. Poly opened the scoring about halfway through the first half on a nice cross from the left side to their star forward on the right who finished well. City never gave up and had a number of shots on goal, but Poly’s defense was strong, recovering when needed, and their goalie was outstanding, probably MVP of the match, in my opinion. Still, it seemed like Poly was a little hungrier or perhaps just a little stronger than City, and toward the end of the second half, they scored a second goal on a cross from the right side. It rolled across a crowded goal mouth and an alert Poly forward ran in and scored. In the final minutes, emotions boiled over for both teams due to the red cards given. The red cards were not for dangerous plays, but were the result of players from each team getting a second yellow card for unsportsmanlike conduct. I’m a bit horse today, but I’m good now until next year, unless the two teams play each other in the postseason, then it all starts over.
Final score – Poly 2 – City 0.
