O'Fallon Flames Archives

2.24.07 : Flames Continue To Roll

Thter impressive clean sheets on the road at South City (4-0) and at home against Terre du Lac (5-0) and Barntonia (3-0), the O'Fallon Flames played their final division match of the season on the road against The Soulard Magpies and manager Christian Tragesser. Due to pitch issues, the match was played at R.T. Weiler's in St. Charles. Things did not start well for the Flames as they found themselves down 2-0 after 11 minutes. But after drawing within 1 at the half, O'Fallon persevered and were able to dramatically level the match at 2 with only 30 seconds remaining in regulation. Then midway through the extra time O'Fallon found a hole in the Soulard defense and secured the victory for a hard fought 3-2 overtime win.

Saturday the Flames hosted what was sure to be an exciting triple-header against Webster Groves, Swansea, and South County.

First up was the red-hot Webster Groves Griffins. Manager Matt Morice was fresh off his stunning upset of 'Old Firm' club Florissant United. O'Fallon nearly took advantage of an open net with a drawn out keeper in the 5th minute, but an illegal flick nullified the goal. But the Flames kept their focus and officially struck first minutes later. Just before the halftime whistle blew O'Fallon scored again and took a 2-0 lead to the break. Two more second half goals put the match out of reach and the Flames found themselves with a surprising 4-0 victory over the Griffins.

Next up was Matt Brown and the Swansea Swans. Always a difficult opponent for the Flames, the Swans tight defense gave O'Fallon all they could handle and the match went scoreless to overtime. But the match quickly picked up pace and with just over 2 minutes remaining the Flames rung a shot of the post that the Swansea keeper just got a piece of. And after a quick corner kick the Flames frustratingly found the woodwork again. Things almost took a disastrous turn with 20 seconds remaining when a Swans' forward found himself alone on the left wing and hit the far post! But near disaster nearly turned in to jubilation as the rebound off the post went straight up the center of the pitch to a wide open O'Fallon midfielder. After a quick run directly at the Swansea shooting line with only seconds remaining, a last desperation shot AGAIN struck the post and the match ended scoreless.

After a dramatic finish with Swansea, the Flames had to pick themselves up off the deck and play the finally of the triple-header against Casey Blick and the South County Cosmos. O'Fallon quickly found their scoring touch again with early goals in the 4th and 6th minutes. The Cosmos keeper kept their side in the match coming up with a number of huge saves late in the first half and into the second half. Two more tallies in the last 5 minutes of the match and the Flames ended the day with a 4-0 win.

"We played extremely well today." Flames manager Jeff Drake said at the end of the day. "I couldn't be more pleased with our sides' performance. If you can go three matches in succession without surrendering a goal you have to be happy with the results you end up with."

With only three matches remaining in the 2006-2007 season, the O'Fallon Flames find themselves with a record of 11-0-2 and still at the top of the SLSL standings table.

Earlier this month the Flames took home the first South County Supercopa with wins over Crystal City (4-1), South County (4-0), and Fenton (4-1).