By Ted Waddell
GRAHAMSVILLE — October 6, 2000 – In Tuesday afternoon’s Orange County Interscholastic Athletic Association (OCIAA) Division IV game between the home team Bears of Tri-Valley and the Family School Falcons, the visitors soared to a 7-1 win despite a late start on the road to the scorebook.
The game was scoreless until the 35:18 mark, when the Falcons committed a no-no in the penalty box, paving the way for Tri-Valley’s Jeremiah Solomon to draw first blood with a penalty kick to give the Bears a 1-0 lead.
And that was it for the Bears, as the Falcons scored seven consecutive goals.
The booters battled back and forth across the playing field for about 20 minutes before the next ball slashed into the net.
Evan Yakata dribbled through the TV defense to score unassisted at 15:26, followed at 8:15 by a solo shot by Wells Thompson to give the Family School a 2-1 halftime lead.
At 38:32 in the second half, Ryley Eckersley scored off an assist by Yakata. Mike Schuerman scored at 34:50, followed by a Brian Davidson goal off a cross at 31:31. Thompson scored his second goal of the game on an assist from Davidson at 26:13. Eckersley scored again at 15:00 off a corner cross to end the afternoon’s scoring.
“We came out hard in the first half and played exceptionally well,” said TV coach Chuck Barnard. “We played real tough defense in the first half, and came out to do the same in the second half, but they scored three quick goals. After they scored those three quick ones, my guys got a little down, but they came back and played hard again.”
According to Barnard, the Bears are a young team this season with “a lot of kids who have never played soccer before.”
The TV roster includes three seniors, six juniors, eight sophomores and a couple of freshmen.
“We started off real slow,” said Falcons coach Bill Musgrove. “We didn’t seem to be in the game mentally, and we made a real bad mistake on defense that gave them a 1-0 lead on a penalty kick.
“We made some adjustments at halftime,” he added. “We just started moving the ball in the second half and started getting a lot of shots on goal and they started to go in.”