O'Fallon Flames Archives

9.11.05 : Flames Run the Gauntlet to Open the Season

The O'Fallon Flames opened up the 2005-2006 St. Louis Subbuteo League season by going on the road and playing the Shaw Rangers and Florissant United, two of the top clubs in the SLSL on Sunday.

Their first match was a hard fought match with Mike Keller and his Shaw Rangers. Shaw opened the match by marching right down the massive Shaw Park pitch and firing a shot just wide. Flames coach Jeff Drake took a huge sigh of relief and regrouped. "That was a big wake up call for our side." said Drake. Minutes later the Flames ripped a shot of their own that went just wide. After some back and forth play the Rangers broke through the Flames defense and fired a low shot beating the Flames keeper near post and netted the games' first goal. "I thought we were going to be in for a long afternoon." Drake noted. Minutes later the Flames broke in down the right wing and ripped a shot just inside the far post and tied the score. Brimming with confidence, the Flames took the 1-1 score to halftime. The second half was all Shaw. After numerous corner kicks it was just a matter of time before the Rangers broke through, fired a shot over the Flames keeper and took the lead. The Flames continued their strong defense and solid goalkeeping but could not build a strong enough attack and the match finished with the Flames on the short end of a 2-1 score. "I was very pleased with our performance today." said Drake. "I knew the Rangers would be a tough test for us. I realistically wanted to just play well and possibly score a goal. We accomplished both!" an excited Drake said.

The Flames then packed up their gear and traveled up I-170 to Florissant for another difficult match against Tim Boone and the United. The Flames played more tough defense and solid goalkeeping in the first half against Florissant but found themselves trailing 1-0 at halftime. It was more of the same in the second half as the Flames could not get any sustained attack due to the stingy defense by the United. "Florissant played great defense this afternoon and we struggled to get anything going offensively." Drake said. A goal by Florissant early in the second half put the Flames down 2-0. "The way the United played defense today, I knew we were in big trouble." added Drake. The Flames only mustered two shots during the entire match and they match finished with a 2-0 loss.

"We played two tough matches today and ended up with two losses." Drake said. "But I was extremely pleased with the way our club performed today. We had fun out there and we'll build on these matches and hopefully improve."