By Frank Rizzo
CALLICOON — September 15, 2000 – The title of this film was “How To Dominate, and Still Lose,” and the nightmare scenes for Delaware Valley came in a five minute span of the reprise, when visiting Tri-Valley scored twice to beat the Eagles 2-0.
The Orange County League (OCL) non-division soccer game was played Wednesday in Callicoon.
By halftime the hosts had a 10-2 advantage in shots on net, but nothing to show for it.
“Our keeper (Megan Sheeley)and sweeper (Jamie Kenney) kept us in the game,” said T-V coach Mary Feusner. “DV had a lot of chances but thank goodness did not put the ball in.”
For Eagle coach Mike Mahoney, the main culprit was inexperience — at both ends of the field.
“We’re having difficulty finding someone to step up and put the ball in the net,” he noted. “One thing that shone through is the fact that we’re very young.”
But for much of the first half, and for good portions of the second, the young Eagles showed the kind of offensive spark and polish associated with teams that have played together much longer.
On defense, they had the Bears bottled up in the T-V half of the field for long stretches.
Tara Zanetti had the best chance for T-V in the first half, firing a low dangerous shot which DV keeper Danielle Peters, extending herself, deflected out of bounds.
Zanetti and striker Lisa Lowe took advantage of Eagle defensive breakdowns in the second half to put the Bears on the board. Zanetti assisted on both of Lowe’s tallies. The first came at the 10:44 mark, the second 5:20 later.
“Basic fundamental mistakes cost us the match,” Mahoney said. “[And] to Mary’s credit she made some adjustments in the second half.”
“We did a better job in the second half of pushing the ball up,” Feusner agreed.
Sheeley had 16 saves in the Bear net, while Peters finished with eight.
The win ups T-V’s record to 3–1 while the Eagles fell to 3–2.