Announcement
The Elmira Free Academy boys cruised by a very impressive, but very young Elmira Notre Dame team on Saturday afternoon on the Devils' home field turf.
Notre Dame proved to be a well-coached, well-organized, but youthful side that most definately held thier own for most of the match. EFA seemed to come out a little bit over-confident and perhaps a bit fatigued after playing 100 minutes in cold, wet, sloppy conditions in Horseheads the night before. It would take EFA over 39 minutes to tally thier first goal and it came off the foot of junior midfielder Kail Burfield. Burfield followed up freshman Alex Varkatzas' shot that ND goalkeeper Sean Smentanka couldn't parry away to saftey. Burfield found himself in the right position at the right time to hammer home the rebound and record his first goal of the 2009 season.
The second half seemed to stay consistant with the first half of sloppy play for EFA. However, again, EFA would find a way to take advantage of a couple scoring opportunities later in half. Senior midfielder Charlie Anderson intercepted a pass from a Notre Dame defender and played Burfield into the corner. Kail controlled the ball and sent in a left-footed cross that Senior forward Denzel Harris finished from inside the six-yard box for his 5th goal of the season. The goal provided EFA with a 2-0 lead. Minutes later, Senior midfielder Ross Holden took a wide pass from Anderson and chipped the goalkeeper from 30-yards out to notch his 6th goal of the season and cap the scoring for EFA.
Junior goalkeeper Luke Ford recorded his 6th shutout of the season in the winning effort.
Overall, Notre Dame most definately had the better run of play at times, but EFA's tenacity seemed to wear the young Crusaders down over the course of the match. Coach Adams has a very talented team on his hands and we're sure to see them continually improve over the next couple years.
EFA Scoring: Burfield (1-1), Harris (1-0), Holden (1-0), Anderson (0-1)
Shots/Corners: EFA (13-6), END (4-4)
Saves: EFA (Ford - 4), END (Smentanka - 10)
Records: EFA (7-6-2), END (6-7-1)
