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12^th CLASS TESTIMONIAL SOCCER GAME

The annual Testimonial game was played on Friday April 28^th on our grass pitch. In the past, we’ve played Rockbrook Park or the Institute in the annual fixture but, this year, with so many players wishing to be involved, it was decided to play an internal game, with two teams comprising of 12^th class students playing each other.

The two squads were decided by lots, names being drawn from a hat – no hint of squad fixing! 22 players took to the field of play, with some others unable to play. The game kicked off and the red team dominated the early exchanges. Midway through the first half, team captain, Ferdia Geary, received the ball in midfield. He skipped past on challenge and advanced towards the goal, unleashing  an unstoppable shot from just outside the box.

This sparked the yellow team into action and it wasn’t long before the David Noone was breaking down the left wing before cutting inside to unleash an equally unstoppable shot to the roof of Max Traem’s net. Shortly afterwards, Tim Kelly-Lester was thwarted by a remarkable save from the diving Max, having raced across the full width of his goal to fingertip the ball around the post.

The teams turned around for the second half with both quietly confident that they could win. The yellow team continued where they left off and after good play down the righthand side, the ball was squared to Conor Donohoe. His shot was parried into the path of the Mathew Barker who made no mistake as Harris Arimin tried valiantly to make a worldy double save.

The game was end to end at this stage and Ben Norman went on a surging run from the right wing which saw him cut inside and unleash a powerful left footed shot to the bottom corner to bring the scores level again. The game threatened to produce a winner right up to the last minute but without any further scoring, the two teams faced up to the penalty shoot out.

First up for the red team saw Dillon Fox convert his spot kick before Nick Carswell equalled the feat for the yellow team. The penalties continued, with a mix of scores and misses but the red team emerged victorious, 3-2 in the shoot out.