Kisling's Tavern
HANGOVER UNITED
Soccer Club
Baltimore, Maryland USA - Est. 1995

HANGOVER UNITED - MATCH REPORT 2003 WEEK 6

HANGOVER UTD STAY TOPS, TAKE HAZELWOOD INN 6-1
By David Jones for soccernet.com
12 OCTOBER 2003

CHASE, MD – Hangover United kept their undefeated season alive Sunday at Eastern Regional Park in Chase, MD against Hazelwood Inn. It was another beautiful Sunday morning for a match for the near capacity crowd in the stands. Hangover did quite well early, controlling the possession and pace of play. Hangover kept the up the pressure and after a couple near misses an outside shot from John Jenkins hit the keeper hard enough to come out of his hands and Anthony Menegatti was there to put the ball into the net to give Hangover the early lead. In the 18th minute, some good ball movement led to Danny Gerbasi laying off the ball to John Jenkins who finished low and hard past the keeper for the 2-0 lead. Jenkins again stirred up trouble and assisted to Jon Pitonzo for his second goal of the year giving Hangover a comfortable 3-0 lead. Hangover then got a little complacent. Only few minutes later some casual play in the back from Brian Yankle who tried to bend the ball across the middle to the far side only the bend part didn’t work very well and wound up being a brilliant pass to the Hazelwood striker who was all alone on the 18 and put it by Hangover keeper Butch Santucci , who did get a piece of the shot but was not enough. “I was trying to… well, but… alright - that was just an awful ball” said Yankle after the match. All of a sudden Hazelwood are right back in the match. The half ended 3-1 to Hangover. “For being a man up we sure didn’t look like it that half” said Hangover head coach Bert Miller on his debut.  

In the second half, Hangover came out looking just as unsure with poor quality passes that lead to easy giveaways and more possession for Hazelwood. Hangover then started to move the ball well and created good opportunities but could not seem to be able to get the ball on goal. With each missed shot the confidence of Hazelwood would grow. The calls of “BOOOO” and “hey number 26… YOU SUCK!! Just kiddin Ray” showed the growing frustration with the Hangover supporters (who turned out to be the injured Ben Hinceman and Chris King). But in the 51st minute a Hangover corner kick was placed beautifully by Jon Pitonzo right into the box where Art Mullen rose like a leaping frog from a lilly to nod down the ball textbook style, low to the far post. With that goal the sense of hope left Hazelwood and space opened up. John Jenkins got another goal from an assist from Anthony Menegatti in the 77th minute. Menegatti in the 80th minute found himself in on the doorstep of the goal along the baseline and actually attempted a stepover 360 spin and dribble the ball past the keeper into the net, but the keeper did make the last second stop. “That was just silly” said Hangover Captain Art Mullen, “my jaw was on the grass when I saw that” he added. The in the 84th minute with Hangover being allowed the possession Jenkins put an absolutely lovely cross to the back post in which a closing Dan Gerbasi volleyed out of the air into the net for the final goal. The match was called just after that ending 6-1 to Hangover.

At the post match press conference at player/manager Bert Miller said, “We played a very disjointed game and was not our best effort. We certainly kept that game way more entertaining than it had to be.” Player/manager Chris King then added, “Hats off to Hazelwood. They didn’t roll over and they played very hard, harder than us at some points. That match was far from over at 3-1… we felt they could make it close and so did they. It was a great effort on their part.”

After 6 weeks, John Jenkins is still the MMSL point leader for both Div I & II with 26 points (10 goals, 6 assists). Hangover next take on Peninsula United on Tuesday October 14th at 6:45 PM at Utz Field in Patterson Park (Week #3 make up match).

MAN OF THE MATCH: John Jenkins (2 goals), Anthony Menegatti (Hon Mention)
GOAL OF THE MATCH: Danny Gerbasi (perfect cross from Jenkins)
FOUL OF THE MATCH: Chris Sicliano (evil eyed hack with vengeance, then compassion)

NEXT MATCH: WEEK #3 MAKE UP - TUES OCTOBER 14th -v- Peninsula United @ Utz Field in Patterson Park ko 6:45 PM
NEXT MATCH: SUN OCTOBER 19th -v- Overlea FC @ Parkside ko 10:00 AM (NOTE ko CHANGE)