DEA Bedford Masters 2

John and Jeff Guild, AKA Red Heat, combined to score the only goal of the match as Bedford shut out Groton 1-0 last night in Groton. John Morin earned the shut out in the net and played tremendously along with the DEA defense, who saved two goals off the goal line. A great game to watch as the competition level was very high and both teams played well and clean. This was a makeup game from the first game of the season and both teams were tied on points. The winner would decide who goes to the playoffs in the number 2 seed. Groton seemed to edge DEA out for possession time in the early part of the game getting a few good looks at the goal. John Morin commanded things from the net and the DEA defense of Mitch, Dale, Mark Major, JD and Sean really stepped it up for this match. On the other end Bedford had its chances also, but the Groton keeper was on his game as well. Mark Major would save a goal in the first half as he would head one off the goal line to keep the game scoreless into the halftime. DEA started to control the game in the second half as they seemed to be a little more fit than Groton. John Valickus, once again controlled the center of the field and teamed up with Jim McCall and the Guild boys for some nice passing. About midway through the half DEA got things going. After trying to cram the ball down the middle of the field, Bedford went outside. Dale would take the goal kick and put it to the right side to Jeff Guild. Jeff would turn and beat the midfielder, who was a bit late to get into position. Jeff would draw a defender in as he raced across midfield. This opened up Brother John for a nice through pass that sent him in past the Groton defense. John raced towards the goal and pushed the ball to his deadly left foot. John would rip a 20 yarder into the left side upper 90 and DEA had scored the all important first tally. Groton felt the urgency now and really started to pressure Bedford. They would change their formation to add another forward. All Groton needed was a tie to advance to the playoffs in front of Bedford. Ozzie and Steve Shea of Groton combined on a couple of good drives but Johnnie Morin would have none of this. With time dwindling down and DEA "Chunglo'ing" the ball all over the place it was looking good for Bedford. Then in the final minute of play, Groton would get the ball into the DEA area. A shot would force Morin to save the ball to his right. The ball would deflect over to Groton's, Steve Shea all alone on the right. Steve would shoot and all thought it was a sure goal, all but Mitch Green who was standing on the goal line and headed the ball out. DEA banged the ball around for the final minute and won their way into the playoffs. A great game between two very classy teams. DEA will now go up against the Southern division champions, Natick Masters. The game will be in Natick this Sunday at 10 AM. This should be a battle as both teams are know for scoring many goals. DEA's defense needs to show up to play. GREAT WIN DEA !!!!!!!

DEA got back on its winning ways on Father's Day with a 4-1 victory over Ipswich. It was an early morning for DEA as they would have to travel to Ipswich for the 8:30 kick off. The referee was not cutting Bedford a break either, as he blew his whistle to start the game at 8:32 AM. Bedford would come out and control this game from the start, despite the small pitch. DEA controlled the midfield throughout the day and would be the key to the win. Ipswich was not going down without a fight however. They played a very hard but clean match. There would be no score in the first 15 minutes of play although DEA had many chances. Bedford would get a corner kick and Captain Jim McCall would line it up. He would hit a perfect ball into the box and Dale would head it passed the keeper to put DEA on the board first. Minutes later, another DEA corner kick would be awarded. This time McCall would tap it over to Jeff Guild ten yards away. Guild would serve it into the box. This time an Ipswich defender would win the head but it would not clear the area. Mark Major would race to the ball and crank a nice low shot that beat the keeper to the left. DEA was up 2-0 now and things were looking good as the half time whistle would blow. Ipswich was determined to stay in this game and came out with more fire in the second half. With two defenders scoring for Bedford in the first half, DEA started to push up more and more. Ipswich would recognize this and counter attack sending a long ball down the right. JD would race over and make a textbook slide tackle to strip the ball from the striker. To everyone's surprise, including the striker, the referee blew the whistle and called a foul on JD. The foul happened to be in the area, so the result would be a PK. After much complaining and other miscellaneous comments DEA would line up and watch Ipswich sink the PK to make it 2-1. It was still a game. The complaining would continue following the PK and JD would get a Yellow for thanking the referee for the call. DEA would calm things down and get back to work. At about the 60th minute, Jim McCall would receive a pass from Rob Easton. McCall would take the ball to the touch line to the left side of the goal. Jimmy would cross the ball in and it would deflect off of Jeff Guild to the right side of the net. George just happened to be perched there all alone and would tap it into the vacated right side of the goal. This was a huge goal that really deflated Ipswich. Minutes later, John Valickus would sprint up to attempt a head ball just inside the Ipswich area. The keeper attempted to clear the ball but hit everything except the ball and John was down. The referee awarded DEA a PK and Johnny V. would collect himself to take it. Valickus would score on a neatly placed PK to the right and Bedford had a comfortable lead. DEA would sit back and kill the clock from here for the final of 4-1. A much better result this week. DEA now must take on Groton on Wednesday night in Groton to see who goes to the playoffs in the second seed. Game time is 6:30 at Cow Pond Brook Field. See 'Locations' for directions to the field. DEA needs to show up for this game as Groton edged them out 2-1 last Friday night in Bedford. DEA must win this game to advance to the playoffs next Sunday.

It was not a good weekend for the DEA Masters Squad as they dropped a game to Groton on Friday night and another to the Irish Village on Sunday morning. Things were looking real good for DEA prior to Friday. They had two home games and a chance to clinch the division championship. All this came crashing down however, as the usually high powered offensive team could only muster up one goal in the two games combined. It looks like we'll be looking to the Fall to move up. In the first game, DEA was asleep and found themselves down by a goal early on to a surprisingly tough Groton squad. DEA took the single goal deficit into the halftime and came out confident that they could win the battle. However, the guns were not there and with another counter attack, Groton popped the lead to two goals. Now the panic started to creep in but still Bedford had a donut on their side. Finally with only ten minutes to play, Jeff Guild would take the ball down the right side and send a nice cross over to Jim McCall. Jimmy would one time the ball into the net and there was a glimmer of hope for DEA. Everyone was up and DEA had their chances to level. However, the ball went over the bar and past the post, everywhere but net. In the final drive, George was heading for the corner and was about to cross the ball in, when the ref decided that the game was done and blew the whistle. George correctly complained to the ref that the play should have been allowed to continue out. However, their should have been two less adjectives used and a red card was issued. George got Sunday off and now owes a 30 pack. A very disappointing finish that seemed to carry over into Sundays match with the Irish Village. Sundays matchup was for all the beans. Who ever won the match would win the division. DEA once again gave up a shitty goal early on a corner kick. The ball would somehow find its way into the net on the short side. That was all the scoring that would be needed and the Irish would clinch the championship. The game was very physical and there were some good chances on both sides. John Morin made a tremendous save in the second half to keep DEA in the game. But, the goal scoring was just not there.... Nuff said. Lets move on to Ipswich on Sunday in Ipswich and a make up with Groton on Wednesday in Groton.. Chins up and lets get back to it.

The Hurricanes showed up to play with numbers against DEA Bedford on Sunday. Shockingly, the Hurricanes have not been able to win a game since moving up to this division with DEA. They played a very hard game, but DEA was just too much in the end and walked away with a 5-3 win. The game would start back and forth for both teams getting used to the wet pitch. Once again Bedford would go with the Crespo/Morin combination in the net for this game, as it seems to be working well. DEA would draw first blood as John Valickus, who had another excellent game, would find the Cookie Monster, Jim Pellerin on the left side open. Jim would storm by the defender and beat the keeper to put Bedford on the board. The Hurricanes were insistant on staying in this match, however and would come right back at DEA. A defensive mismatch on Bedford would lead to a Hurricane goal and we were knotted at 1. Bill Jean would put DEA back on top with a beautiful left footed chip of the Hurricane keeper as he attempted to cut down the angle. This brought cheers from the crowd, the O-30 DEA team enjoying their 3rd half. Jim McCall would add one to his assist column for this one. The sideline would roar on the next goal, as JD would streak up the sideline and head home a shot that rang of the crossbar. Unfortunately, he was ruled offsides and the point was errased. Nice run by JD anyhow.. Next, Jeff Guild would take the ball down the right side and just as he turned to shoot he would be tripped inside the box. This would result in a PK for DEA. Bedford would bring in the PK specialist, Captain Jim McCall to take the PK. Jim would sink it for a perfect 4 for 4 on the season and give DEA a 3-1 cushion. The Hurricanes would come right back with a goal as DEA would fail to clear a ball that awkwardly bounce onto the goal line. Dale tried to get the ball off of the big Hurricane striker but he mannaged to chest it into the net. This would bring the Hurricanes back within one point at the half. The second half would see the Hurricanes push for the equalizer. Another defensive miscue for DEA would allow the Hurricanes to cross the ball to an unmarked midfielder. He would one time it past John Morin to tie the score at 3's. I believe that is the only goal John has let in. The score sat at 3 apiece for a long while until Rob Easton would see Jeff Guild open on the right. Robbie would send a beautiful through ball to Jeff who timed his run to beat the offsides trap. Jeff would beat the keeper to put DEA up for good. Jim McCall would finish the scoring for DEA with about 10 minutes left. This time George Wegricht would find Jim open. Jim would beat one defender and wait until the keeper shifted his weight to the left. McCall would neatly deposit the ball to the right to seal the deal. A great game on both sides. DEA has a rare Friday night make up game this week at 7 PM against the Groton squad. This is one of two makeup games with this club due to the weather. Sunday DEA takes on the Irish Village at 8:30 in what will most likely be the Divisional Championship game. Get tickets early for this match.. Note the time change also...

Jeff Guild scored a hat trick and John Valickus posted three assists to lead Bedford to an 8-0 schooling of Pepperell on Sunday. This writer had to review the game tape to tally up the stats on this game. DEA showed up with a team that was on fire and within the first 10 minutes they were up 3-0. At the start of this game Bedford looked lackadaisical as they strolled on the field without knowing who would jump in net for DEA. Dave Crespo grabbed the gear and jumped between the pipes and it was game on. David would actually have to make a few good saves in his half to keep the shut out in tact. John Morin would get the scoring started early on a fluke goal. John Valickus took a shot from about 20 yards that the keeper had his sights on. The ball would carom off a defender then off Johnnie and into the net. DEA was up 1-0. Jeff Guild would get the first of his trick next. JD would feed Jeff a nice through pass and Guild would bury the shot for Bedford. DEA would put on a passing show for the next twenty minutes and held 80% of the possession. John Valickus was the director of this possession game as he had an excellent game at center mid. He would get his second assist next as he would take a ball from Dale and give Jeff Guild and outlet pass. Jeff would beat a defender and hit side netting with a great shot. Pepperell felt things getting out of control and tried to mount a few offensive drives of their own. The DEA defense of Rob Easton, Dale, JD, Sean Kelly, and Steve Sarro shut down each attempt. JD would also just miss with an impressive diving header on a DEA restart. The half would end at 3-0 for Bedford. DEA was extremely confident going into the second half. John Morin would hop into the net and take command as Johnnie knows how. Captain Jim McCall would arrive and go to work with fresh legs. McCall would get hauled down as he headed at looked to be a sure goal. A PK was awarded and McCall remained perfect on his PK shooting. Shortly after, Jeff Guild would pair up with Crespo, who was happy to be out of the net, to complete his hat trick. Pepperell would move some players around and manage to get some very good shots off from midfield. John Morin was forced to make a great save on a ball that was earmarked for the upper right corner. Johnnie timed his leap perfectly to get a hand on the ball and tip it just over the bar. Bedford would work the ball back and around the right side this time and Steve Sarro would find McCall in the center. McCall would cross the ball into the mixer. George Wegricht would collect the cross and deposit into the Pepperell net for DEA's 6th goal. Rob Easton would depart for his son's baseball game and JD, who was ready to start the third half would come back in. His eyes would light up when he got the nod to go to striker. JD will probably never come back, as he would immediately take a Valickus pass and hammer it past the Pepperell keeper. The bleeding would continue to the end for Pepperell as JD would strike yet again. This time it would come from the other side with the help of Jeff Guild. Jeff would feed one into JD. JD would see the keeper off his line and hammer one into the side netting to end the scoring at 8-0. A truly impressive game for DEA. This weekend they take on the Hurricane squad who are struggling this year. DEA got the best of the Hurricanes in their first match and they are at home this weekend. GREAT WIN DEA.