It was Senior night at the Bear Den, Friday, April 14th. Although the team found themselves in a uncharacteristic position of being down 2-0 with five minutes left in the first half, the Bears clawed their way back into the game with a goal by Jarvin Ramirez with just 3 minutes left in the half. "That was a big goal for us" Coach Wallace stated, "as it gave us some needed momentum coming out in the 2nd half."
The Bears seemed to wake up from their hibernation in the first half and didn't waste any time as John Crawley scored the equalizer less than a minute into the second half. Two minutes later, Crawley scored for the second time on the night when Josh Winnett sent a beautiful pass over the top to Crawley for the assist (his 6th assist on the year), giving the Bears a 3-2 lead.
Less than two minutes later, Jarvin Ramirez showed off his tiger like moves and gave the Bears a 4-2 lead. (his 3rd goal in last two games) The Warriors however would not give up and scored 2 quick goals to bring the game back to even at 4-4 with 30 minutes to play in the game.
With 18 minutes left in the game, Captain Ethan Rose hit the corner kick into the box where John Crawley headed it into the back of the net for his 3rd goal in the half to give the Bears the lead for good. Jabar Obeid showed his spirited soul when he knifed his way through 4 Warrior defenders to round out the Bears scoring on the night to giving the Bears a 6-4 win region win.
On Crawley's second hat trick in as many games, a visibly excited Crawley said "Between my anticipation of what I will get in my Easter basket and having 6 goals in two games I won't be able to sleep tonight!". Coach Wallace said "it was the most exciting win of the season" and turned the post game interview over to his Seniors. Diego Zarate was excited that the team got the win. Carson Densmore felt the team showed perseverance. Josh Winnett commented that "while it wasn't our best performance, we gutted it out coming back from 2-0. It was a good win" Chris Townsend said, "The first half was a little dicey however the second half got better with possession of the ball", and Lucas LoPiccolo was just excited not to get a concussion. Wallace concluded with "we move on and we continued the win streak to 6".
The Bears extended their team record win steak to 6 games in a row with the 6-4 win over North Atlanta. John Crawley's consecutive hat tricks is also a new team record. The Bears also had another team first by coming from behind, down by 2 goals, to win. This is the first time they have ever accomplished this in the 5 years of the Bears team history.
The Bears play their final region and home game of the season Wednesday night, April 19th at 8:00pm when the #2 state ranked and #12 nationally ranked Chattahoochee Cougars visit the Bear Den. Come out and support the Bears in what will surely be a great soccer game!
Go Bears!
