(Paramus)NJ- As Day Broke the Continental lads were ready to avenge a 9-0 defeat when a then nine man squad played RD Benders on October 26th; However one minor detail was missed, half of the expected roster was not there.
Instead of suffering an embarrassing forfeit, Morristown played eight on eleven men. Mastermind strategist Dan Clayton shifted the lineup the best possible way by playing a 4-2-1 formation. Clayton utilized the speed of Russ Bauer by moving him from sweeper to midfield. The move seemed to payoff when after twenty minutes of conceding a goal a quick shift of direction of the ball by Clayton and Rob Linepinuel left Bauer with a through ball 18 yards out with the keeper to beat; However, the pitch betrayed the continentals on the play where the ball took an uneven hop and was misfired out of bounds.
"The defense kept us alive in the first half" Clayton said "If it wasn't for key saves by Ryan(Vinton) and the defense, it would have been a terrible day"
The beginning of the second half had much promise for the 76' when Clayton utilized his version of the "triangle offense" where Linepinuel,Clayton, and Bauer played simple passes up the field and led to some shots on net by the trio and a shot off the crossbar by Marco Carvallaro.
Things got chippy when a hard foul by Brian Daire led a player on RD benders to take a swing at Daire. Cooler heads prevailed.
Fatigue and sloppy conditions led to several goals late in the second half. The final score was 10-nil.
A very detested Clayton had some bold comments during the post game interview.
"I'm very proud of the way the boys played today. They played outnumbered the whole game but I'm proud of the tenacity the D played and they way Ryan (Vinton) played in the cage today. I'm glad we had some things going on offense. We need to put our chances away, you never know in the span of a game if there will be another chance, you might only get one."
When asked what happened to the other expected teammates Clayton responded:
"I honestly don't know, the people know who they are and they let down their team today. Everyone has cell phones or a way to communicate, I have nothing further to say about that"
He went on to say about the blog that has been hanging a cloud around contiential camp in recent days:
" Whoever said that comment has nothing to say now , because if they meant what they said they would have showed up to help the team and I would have bowed out and sat along with Rob (Linepinuel). I can only say it's sad when people ask for the benching of two injured players when they are the two most dedicated players, and the person making comments doesn't show up to help the team. It's now an afterthought because it's unwanted negativity and I have NO tolerance for it."
Notes:
-Rob Linepinuel suffered a lower leg injury an will be re-evaluated later in the week.
-Ryan Vinton had his best game of the season with 21 saves ( 2nd most saves in team history)
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