It was a wet and dreary sixth week of action for the Howe Sound Men's Soccer League but after a slow start, the sun might finally be shining on the defending champion Ellis Moving Eagles.
The Eagles have now clawed their way back to a .500 record after defeating the Dyer Straits 3-2 on Sunday (Oct. 24) and according to head coach Dan Ellis things seem to finally be coming together for the team.
"A lot of our core players are getting back and the team is getting more and more confident every week," he said.
The Eagles came out flying in the first half, as Chris Knight opened the scoring early on. Ellis was controlling the play for the majority of the first half and continued attacking. Nathan Ward scored a beauty of a goal to put the team up 2-0 and then he scored again minutes later with another skilled shot that fooled the Dyer Straits keeper. The score after the first half was 3-0 for the Eagles and Dyer Straits head coach Dave Harrison said it's been a disturbing trend for his team to have poor starts.
"We do tend to start off pretty slowly and I think it cost us today," he said. "We just weren't passing enough in the first half."
The second half saw the momentum swing in the Dyer Straits direction as they began executing better ball movement and eventually got on the scoreboard early in the second half. Austin Sweeney kicked home a rebound following a corner kick to close the gap to two goals and the Straits continued with the offensive pressure. Istvan Richter chipped the ball over the Eagles keeper to move within one but that would be as close as Dyer Straits would get.
"It was a tale of two halves," Ellis said. "We scored some spectacular goals early and it looked like we had the game in the bag but then they got a goal and we got that sinking feeling."
Ellis noted that both goalies made several key saves and that the muddy conditions played a big factor in the game as players were finding it difficult to maintain their balance.
"It was a good, close game," said Harrison, adding that the officiating was "excellent".
The win puts the Eagles at two wins, two losses and one draw on the season, leaving them in fourth place. Dyer Straits fall to three wins, two losses and one draw and drop from second to third.
In other HSMSL action, Khalsa defeated Zephyr 10-3 in a high scoring affair. Rory Solver scored four goals, Richard Collins had three and Steve Bir, Balgeet Binning and Chris Johnstone added singles for Khalsa in the win. Replying for Zephyr was Ryan Quigley, Amos Adombo and Akber Satnaria.
The late game saw Galileo defeat Lilwat7uhl by a score of 10-0 but full details from the game were not made available.
For more information and the full standings from the HSMSL, check out the scoreboard page in The Chief.
