September 17, 2000
Bumrushers vs. Mustangs

Game #3 came against the Mustangs. 519 hours after playing our last game and beating the Rage we were ready to play again. Today’s game was on a nice 84 degree windy Sunday afternoon. To start the game we were missing 2 players with one coming late and the other no-showing. We had to bust out the old blue uni’s for this one. Thinking someone would pass to a player in the yellow uni’s was put to rest early. Only once can I remember one of our guys passing it to our opponents.

We started the game off with early pressure. 8 minutes into the game Mark W. won a loose ball in mid-field and laid it off to Pat. Still making his run Pat sent a long ball for David. David saw the running Mark, past the ball off, Mark battled to win a loose ball which somehow wasn’t touched by a Mustang player, and shot the ball that snuck by the keeper for our first goal. Bumrushers 1-0.

4 minutes later we struck again. Off of a corner kick from Robert, Dennis got a half header/half facer in which the ball went across the face of the goal. Following up on the shot he beat a dead Mustang defense to regain control of it before it went out of touch, passed the Pat at the 18, which Pat promptly one timed a blast that the keeper tipped and found the back of the net. Bumrushers 2-0

Ball control was the name of the game for the Bumrushers. During down times of not scoring was dominance from us. Midway during the first half Robert picked up his first yellow of the year by making it known that a throw in should’ve been ours that was knocked out by a Mustang. Even though it was not worthy of a card, he was absolutely right. Constant pressure led to many close calls on goal for the Bumrushers. David took a easy shot about 7 yards out which hit the post, and contradictory to physics, hit the inside post and bounced out to the goalie.

We ended the scoring in the first half in the 30th minute when Dennis took a throw in on the left side of the field and dribbled it into the middle of the pitch. He stopped, located Brian to his left, laid it off, and Brian sent a ball to David who went for a one timer, missed, and made up for it by finding the ball and shot it left of the keeper for a goal. Bumrushers 3-0

After half time it took us all of 15 minutes to score again. Chris hustled in a crowd of near 12 players and deflected a ball while sliding his second time in 10 seconds that came to rest with Mark W. who spotted Sam across the way, send a soft pass over the heads of everyone to Sam, who trapped, dribbled and beat the goalie. Bumrushers 4-0.

Sometime after this Baxter made his save of the game. While the Mustangs were trying to push, Art took a loose ball and tried to kick it out of bounds. Only problem was he miss-hit it and the ball was screaming for the goal. Baxter acted quick, laid out and put a paw out there to save the own goal keeping the shutout in tact for the time being. 2 other plays happened around this time that you really don’t see. One was a scare when Sam stepped on the ball and had the ugliest looking fall thing that coulda broke his ankle. Luckily he was fine. The other wasn’t so bad. On a ball that was centered, Art kneed the ball out of bounds. I’m not trying to make fun of it but it was just weird to see, hadn’t seen it in a while. With Art’s power it still flew like 20 yards.

With 10 minutes left in the game we got the last goal in. Robert took a ball up the left side and centered a ball to the 18. Dennis flicked a header to Micah who was covered well but out leaped his Mustang defender and headed the ball into the back of the net for his first goal with the Bumrushers. Bumrushers 5-0

This was a great game played by us. We subbed better than our last game, passed the ball well, shut down our opponents, and controlled the flow of the game. After watching the game, we had possession roughly 55 of the 90 minutes. We were making sharp easy passes and very good decisions with the ball. Every single player on our team hustled like crazy. When a Mustang would get the ball, we were on them giving them no chance for daylight. We basically looked great. Constant pressure on the goal led us to 35 shots, 5 going in, 13 on goal, and 10 within inches of the posts. Awesome defense squandered any chance the Mustangs had repeatedly and only gave up 5 shots, 1 from Art and the other that was knocked down by Baxter with ease with 1 hand. The rest were balls that rolled to the goalie. Great mid-field work let us control the game. Forwards kept constant pressure on the goal. This was a great game played by us. There is no way to concentrate on 1 guy one our team. Today was a good example. 5 goals by 5 different guys, 5 assists by 4 different guys. In all, 7 different guys got a point out of 10 possible. That's called balance. Baxter in the end, had the final say with his second shut-out in as many games vs. the Mustangs


Dennis Thompson