DEA Bedford Masters 2

DEA Bedford traveled to Natick with a mission and followed it to the letter, coming home with a 3-1 victory and another trip to the Finals next Sunday in Lancaster, MA. DEA was edged out of the division championship by the Irish Village so they would enter the semi-finals in second position and having to travel to Natick. Natick was the southern division champions and a look at their record showed that they were a goal scoring team, similar to Bedford. So the pregame chatter was all about how DEA had to come out and score quick and often. After a couple of last minute lineup adjustments the game was on. The game started out contrary to DEA game plan at first. Natick seemed to be the one controlling the possession of the ball. It became clear that their "go to guy" was their tall and quick striker, Hassan Smahi. After a few attempts at the DEA net, that were controlled nicely by John Morin in the DEA net for the duration, Rob Easton would start to take Mr. Smahi out of his game. It became clear to Bedford that Natick was strong up the middle but their flanks were vulnerable. This is where things turned around. John Valickus, DEA's center mid, found David Crespo on the right side open. David would receive the pass and head toward the right side of the goal. Just before Crespo was about to cross the ball, the Natick defender knocked him off the ball to the turf. A whistle would blow the foul and it was just inside the area. The result would be a PK. DEA's PK specialist and Captain, Jim McCall would step to the strip and place the ball into the left corner and DEA was up 1-0. This seemed to rattle the Natick team, who were clearly not used to playing behind in the score. Ten minutes later it would be Crespo once again attacking the Natick right side. This time Mitch Green would find Crespo with a great pass. David would take a touch on the ball and crank a low hard shot into the left side netting. Bedford was up 2-0 and it was only 20 minutes into the game. Would it be to early? Would DEA try to sit on this lead? Not yet. DEA kept pounding away with quick counter attacks down the outside of the field. John Valickus would have a couple of good chances, but the ball would just miss wide. The defense of Rob Easton and Dale Dubois in the middle with Mitch and Sean outside would totally shut down the Natick attackers. DEA would go into the half with a comfortable 2-0 lead. Natick would start the second half with more urgency. The Bedford defense and Johnny Morin would not yield. This would start some open discouragement amongst the Natick players as they pleaded for passing. At about midway through the half, DEA started to sit on their lead and only attack when able. Bedford only had two subs and the fatigue was showing a bit. Natick finally got on the board at the 70th minute mark on a nice cross and one timer. Now Natick would seriously pressure for the next ten minutes for the equalizer. They would get there chance too, as a misplayed ball in the back would land at the feet of a Natick striker, only 3 feet from an open net. His tap in would go wide left and the score would remain 2-1. "Chunglo" was ringing out around the DEA side and it seemed like there were goal kicks after goal kicks as DEA could not get the ball out of their end. Finally, with 5 minutes to play, Robbie would find Jim McCall alone. Jim would take the Easton pass and head towards the Natick net. The Natick defenders would all collapse around McCall. Jim would hold the ball until he found John Valicus with a nice pass back. John would draw a defender and pass the ball to Jeff Guild on the left. With all the action in the middle, Jeff had time and ripped a shot that would ring off the upper bar and back into the Net. This would secure the victory for Bedford 3-1. DEA would kill the clock and celebrate a well played victory by all. A very good game with another classy opponent. DEA now takes on the Hopkington Raiders in the finals. Hopkington beat the Irish Village 2-1 in their semifinal match. DEA was hoping to get another shot at the Village people as they were confident that Bedford was a superior team. DEA looks forward to the challenge of another unknown opponent. Game time is yet to be determined. The field is a turf field located in Lancaster, MA. See locations for directions. GO DEA....