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Strikers host EC United
17 June by LSOn a nice Wednesday night, only a few days after the EC United tournament, the Strikers hosted EC United at Casper Park.
The game was set for a 7:15 kick off, and the Strikers only had 11 players for this game due to vacations and other commitments, but were set to do battle.
Because of numbers, the Strikers set up a little more defensive and EC United had the ball for some long stretches early on. Jackson S was playing goal and made some fine saves, making it look pretty simple.
The Strikers tried to play long to Gaige, but the EC United defense was stout and the only early shots came from distance for the Strikers.
In the 19th minute, Kael broke into the 18 yard box and fired a sharp shot at the United keeper, who made a nice save, but the deflected ball came right to Gaige who made no mistake in firing in the first goal of the game.
Jackson W, Riley, Tatem and Landon did nice work on the defensive end, keeping the ball away from Jackson S in goal.
The whistle blew for halftime with the Strikers up 1-0.
EC came out in the second half with physical play, and were able to again control the ball without making too many great chances. Again the defense did a great job of just clearing the ball and letting Nathan, Caleb, Brody and Gaige try to make soemthing happen on a quick counter attack.
In the 53rd minute the Strikers won a corner kick and Miles stepped up to take it. The ball curled into the six yard box and the EC players struggled with it as Gaige and Kael were looking to play it in. The EC defender moved to clear, but ended up turning the ball into the back of the net for an own goal, giving the Strikers a 2-0 lead with only a few minutes to play.
EC put some pressure on and Jackson S made a fantastic save pushing the ball out of trouble and keeping the score 2-0, with only a minute or so left to play, allowing the Strikers to notch a 2-0 win.