Hello, Phoenix players, family members, friends and interested parties. Since some of you were unable to attend our first state cup game for this year, I thought that I would attempt to share some of the highlights with not only the people directly associated with the Phoenix, I will attempt to share this with a few people that are watching the Phoenix players from afar. 

The quest for the Cup is underway in fine fashion. Saturday, September the 15, was the start of our quest for the Virginia State Cup. The day was beautiful and other than one of the worst traffic jams I have ever seen in the Williamsburg area, things could not have been better if we submitted an order to the man upstairs (on line of course). 

Speaking of that traffic jam, the new Phoenix players now know why Todd wants everyone at the field at least an hour before the game. 

Well that was the end of the bad news for that day. The Phoenix rose from the adversity of the traffic with a vengeance with a Chris Megaloudis finish from a Bryan Hinkle pass, scoring in the second minute of the game. The Bay River Siege stood nearly breathless little knowing what was to come when the only *seizing* that they would do for the next 88 minutes was wind of the passing and shooting demonstration that they were subjected to by the Phoenix. 

Attack after attack, the Phoenix out passed and out shot the Bay River team stringing as many as 15 passes without as much as a touch from the near traffic cone Siege. The goals continued, again by Chris in the 13th minute and by Mike Huffman in the 15th minute of the first half with balls played through by Jeff Carroll. The Phoenix defense totally neutralized the Bay River attackers. Time after time, Number 15 from Bay River would run into Ian Kaila until Number 15 took Ian down from behind. Rounding out the scoring frenzy for the first half were mid-fielders Justin Peabody in the 30th and Jeff Carroll in the 32nd minutes. 

While providing ice to a few nasty injuries to Ryan Johnson and Ian Kaila (from the frustrated Bay River players) I could hardly keep track of the goals and defensive efforts of the Phoenix. After a well-deserved halftime break, the action continued with Arash Nasseri slipping one in the net from Fernando Ramos in just the 3rd minute after the refs started the second half. Chris rounded out his hat-trick in the 9th minute with a well-placed ball from Case Ringell. The Phoenix defense (made up of John Harrington in the goal with Roy Kelly, Amir Lowery, Kyle Newcomer, Rob Kirchner, and Bryan Hinkle) put on a passing and attacking demonstration for the excited onlookers. The depth of abilities of the midfield and the defense left the heads of the Siege spinning trying to determine who would score the next goal or start the next combination of passes.

Completing the scoring were goals by Ryan Johnson from a Fernando pass in the 29th minute and a second goal for Mike Huffman in the 43rd minute of the game. Despite the good intentions of this reporter to provide quality pictures with this article, I am remiss that I was just caught-up watching the fine soccer produced by the Phoenix. Virtually everyone on the team had a shot. Well, caulking that one up in the books, Todd whisked off to re-join his American University soccer team in New York and the rest of us had quick snack before heading home to prepare for the Richmond Capitals in Round II of the quest for the Cup and our regular season game against Alexandria. I think a nice day was had by all even poor Ian who had to ice his leg the entire way home.  Even our Cheerleader/Professor Jason McCoy had a great time despite that he had encouraging the team to victory while enjoying his lunch and getting ready for the regular season game on Sunday.