Harrisburg City Islanders News Release - www.cityislanders.com
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
HARRISBURG, PA -- The Harrisburg City Islanders defeated the Western Mass Pioneers in penalty kicks after 120 scoreless minutes on Tuesday night at Skyline Sports Complex, advancing to the Third Round of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup. The City Islanders will play the New England Revolution of Major League Soccer in New Britain, CT, on Tuesday, June 30th.
Neither team was able to score through 90 minutes of regulation play and 30 minutes of overtime, and eventually penalty kicks were needed to decide the winner. In the 10th minute a dangerous Pioneers shot hit off the crossbar to keep both sides even. Despite aggressive play from both sides, City Islander Nicki Patterson was the only player to receive a cautionary yellow card in the first half.
The physical pace of the game continued in the second half, and Western Mass’ Mark Nerkowski was shown a yellow in the 50th for a tackle on Steve Fisher.
In the second half, the City Islanders earned their best chances of the evening from combination play in their offensive third; however they were unable to capitalize. The first of these opportunities came in the 52nd minute when Mo Oduor ripped a shot from the 6th and put it wide. Two minutes later, Oduor laid the ball off to Fisher who put the shot over.
In the last 15 minutes of regulation three players were shown cards. Bloes was shown a card in the 76th for a tackle on former City Islander Almir Barbosa around midfield. David Tyrie and Federico Molinari were both shown cards in the last five minutes of play.
After going scoreless in regulation time, the game advanced to two 15-minute overtime periods where both teams were once again unable to capitalize.
After a scoreless overtime, the matched entered penalty kicks. In the initial round of five kicks Chad Severs, Paterson and Kai Kasiguran made their shots for Harrisburg while Nate Baker and Tim Velten’s shots were both saved by Western mass keeper James Thorpe. For the Pioneers Molinari, Adrian DuBois and Jeff Deren scored with Yan Klukowski and Barbosa missing their shots.
With the score tied at 3-3, the game advanced to “sudden death” penalty kicks. Up first was Harrisburg, who sent second-half substitute Brandon Swartezndruber to take the make-or-break shot. Swartzendruber put his shot in the back of the net to make it 4-3. Pioneers defender David Tyrie then stepped to the spot for the decisive kick. Harrison dove to his left to save the effort and seal Harrisburg’s advancement.
The City Islander’s next match is Saturday, June 20th at home against the Real Maryland Monarchs. Kick off is at 7:05. In the next round of the Open Cup the Islanders will take on Major League Soccer’s New England Revolution in two weeks, at New England’s Willowbrook Park.
