Sackets Harbor 1, Belleville-Henderson 0
This one was a shocker. Entering the game, Sackets was 8-2; Belleville 0-9. Everyone was crushing Belleville, including Sackets the first time they played (11-0 to be exact). Thought this was going to be a laugher, just an easy game to go to while up north before Oriskany/Sandy Creek. I was wrong.
Got there midway through the 1st half. Thought it was probably 3-0 or 4-0 (didn't know because there's no scoreboard). It was actually scoreless. Sackets certainly looked like the better team, and they had it in their attacking half almost exclusively, but not much was going on. The one goal was put through with about 14 minutes remaining in the 1st half. Ryan Allen played a cross to Shea Lynch, who put it past keeper Eli Merced with a pretty play. However, that was that. Sackets' overall numbers were staggering compared to Belleville-Henderson. In the 2nd half, they outshot their opponents 13-0, had 3 corner kicks, and the Sackets GK only touched the ball 3 times, none of them being saves. They forced Merced to make 7 2nd half saves, and he grabbed the ball in non-save opportunities 4 more times. Belleville-Henderson did get away with a call that I thought was iffy - Merced dove for the ball, looked as if he was about to secure it, but bobbled it just a bit. While the ball was right next to him, but not under control, a Sackets player jarred it toward the goal. The official near the play blew it dead, saying the GK had full control. Did he? Not at that moment - but it was still a great effort, nonetheless. It could've been 4 or 5-0, but Merced sprawled out to make a few diving stops in the 2nd half, including a pair of would-be own goals. He was credited with 10 saves for the game, and I was there for 8 of them.
#NumbersDontLie - Sackets dominated the stats in the 2nd half. Already mentioned the numbers above.
MVT MVP - Gotta give it to Eli Merced. His team may have lost 1-0, but he did a hell of a job in goal making sure it stayed at 1 and didn't balloon to much more. Belleville-Henderson didn't look like a winless team out there on Friday afternoon, and that's a whole lot to do with the goalkeeping of Merced.
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