By By Ted Waddell
MILTON —November 08, 2005 The Falcons of The Family Foundation School rallied in the second half to defeat the John A. Coleman Catholic School Statesmen 3-2 in Thursday night’s Section IX Class D boys’ soccer final at the Hudson Valley Sports Dome.
A huge individual effort by Eugene Thompson pulled The Family School’s (11-7-1) proverbial bacon out of the fire late in the second half.
With about 15 minutes remaining the hard-fought game, Thompson scored to tie the score at 2-2. About 10 minutes later, he dribbled past a trio of Coleman (4-14) defenders to slide a soft shot past charging goalie Alec Sullivan for the game-winning goal.
“It felt good… you get lucky sometimes,” the 18-year-old senior said of his winning goal.
His reaction to winning the sectional title?
“It’s just the start, we have a lot more [games] to go,” Thompson replied.
At 10:42 in the first half, The Family School’s Steve Rizzi put the first goal into the scorebook. That turned out to be the only goal of the first 40 minutes of play and the Falcons enjoyed a slim 1-0 lead at halftime.
In a wild second half, Coleman’s John Shults tied it up on a penalty kick with exactly 20 minutes left in the match. Shults’ successful PK was followed five minutes later by a goal by Pete Cichetti that put the Statesmen up 2-1.
Falcons’ goalie Mile Zolter and Statesmen keeper Alec Sullivan each made five saves in the match.
Both squads had five cornerkicks, but The Family School held a 22-9 advantage in shots on goal.
“It was an outstanding game, and we knew that The Family School was a tough opponent,” Coleman Coach Brian Kelly said.
“This is the best my team has ever played, my whole team hustled and I’m so proud of them,” he added. “No one picked us to go this far… for us to be here today, it shows that Coleman High School is no joke in soccer.”
Family School Coach Bill Musgrove was nervous when his team was down 2-1.
“Then our best scorer all season scored two goals for us at the end of the game,” he said.
Note: With its win over Coleman, The Family School advanced to the state tournament. The Falcons were scheduled to play the Section XI Class D champion last night at the Hudson Valley Sports Dome.
Please see coverage of that match in Friday’s issue.