U-12 Strikers Lose to North London

The U-12 Chatham Strikers were on the road on Tuesday night taking on the North London Wildcats and hoping to move back into 1st place with a win. North London however, held off the Strikers winning 3-2.

North London obviously had other ideas as they came out fast and furious and completely caught the Strikers napping. Before Chatham could even blink, they were down 3 – 0 in the opening 17 minutes of the half. Chatham could do nothing to slow down the Wildcats attack, so some drastic lineup changes were made in hopes of giving the Strikers a little spark.

Sure enough Chatham mounted their comeback bid as they sent everyone forward sensing this would be their only hope at getting back into the game. It paid off momentarily as Kristen Calabrese was sent in on goal and let a high hard shot go that struck the crossbar and bounced almost straight down, but luckily for Chatham it landed a couple of inches behind the goal line to pull Chatham to within 2 goals. Chatham’s goal gave them even more confidence as minutes later they were again deep in the North London end when Jana Kucera loaded up and pulled the trigger on a booming 25 yard strike that pulled Chatham to within 1 goal. Sensing North London was on their heels, Chatham continued to pressure their defence and create turnovers. Only a crossbar and a couple of near misses prevented Chatham from tying the game at the half.

Down a goal and needing a win to keep alive any chance at winning the division, Chatham would have to crank up their offence again. They gave it all they had and managed to put a scare into North London on numerous occasions, but as has been the case too often this year, they just couldn’t get that friendly bounce and were left wondering what could have been. The 3 – 2 defeat was Chatham’s 4 loss of the season, all of them on the road. Chatham still managed to finish 2nd this season, which is a one spot improvement from last season. The Strikers have one home game remaining next Tuesday as they look to keep their undefeated home record in tact.