O'Fallon Flames Archives

8.13.05 : Flames off to a shaky start

The O'Fallon Flames played their first official matches Saturday, August 13, in the 2005 Midwest Major at Big Daddy's in Soulard. Things could have gone better. In a qualifying group with the Central West End Wilcats and the Fenton Wanderers, Flames manager Jeff Drake was cautiously optomistic about their chances of advancing. "We knew our first match with the Central West End was going to be a struggle." said Drake before the match. And he was right. The Wildcats took the opening center-off, and manager John Sarra marched his team right down the field and netted the first goal of the match within the first 30 seconds. "Oh @%#*" Drake said. When it was all over, the Flames had taken it on the chin 4-0. "We worked very hard but got nothing accomplished." said Drake. "Our keeper made some big saves for us and kept the score respectable." "We've got to put this result behind us, build off of it, and get prepared for our next match with Fenton."

The Flames second and final match of the qualifying round pitted themselves against the Fenton Wanderers, a club the Flames have quickly become all too familiar with in recent weeks. And to make matters even more interesting, the match was being played on the massive and cavernous Shaw Park pitch, quite possibly the largest Subbuteo pitch in the country. After the Wanderers scored the matches opening goal midway through the first half, Drake motivated his squad and quickly responded with the tying goal. 1-1 at the half. After an early second half goal from the Wanderers, the Flames again found themselves behind 2-1. Once again Drake dug deep and with under a minute remaining in the match, found enough within themselves to tie the match at 2. A clearly frustrated Fenton manager Mitch Morice had a few choice words for his side after the match. "We didn't play our best out there but got the job done when we needed to." Drake said after the match.

After the qualifying round (and lunch, had "The Cadillac") the Flames found themselves with the 7th seed in the knockout round and also found themselves facing the Fenton Wanderers once again. "If we can keep up our hard work rate and find a little luck, we could find ourselves with a possitive result." said Drake before the match. Unfortunately the Flames luck was about to run out. The Flames could not get anything going offensively and found themselves out of the tournament after a 4-0 blanking. "I guess I shouldn't be too disappointed with our guys today. We played our first official matches and I think our guys were a little too anxious out there at times. We played very shaky today." said Drake. "However, I think this will help prepare us for the upcoming SLSL season."