by Steve Bradley
Thursday afternoon, September 11, at DeLurey Field the Hoosick Falls Panthers boys soccer team met the Mechanicville Red Raiders. Although the game was played on Thursday, the Panthers were not the winners until Friday.
Justin Gaines had a goal and an assist. Cole Webster had two goals. That added up to three goals in the time of the regulation game. Mechanicville also scored three goals in regulation, and the game moved into overtime.
In the overtime, both teams had chances but neither could score. With 1:45 left to go, freshman David Everard broke free on the right side of the net and booted in a goal, breaking the tie. The officials, at this point, declared that the overtime period would be played in its entirety.
With 1:45 on the clock, the teams restarted and almost immediately the Red Raiders took the ball down the field and scored. This deadlocked the score once again, now at 4 – 4. Before either team could mount an attack the game ended in an apparent tie.
The Panthers appealed the fact that the game was allowed to continue after the first goal of the overtime as the rules say that overtime is sudden death. When one team scores in overtime, the game is immediately over and the team that scored the goal is the winner.
In the end, the game was played on Thursday and the Panthers won it on Friday. How two officials did not know the rule of a common soccer occurrence is baffling.
On Monday, the team travelled to Hoosic Valley to play the Indians. The Panthers were unable to score on the Indians, who scored twice in the second half. Noah Chani had two saves for the Panthers in the 2 – 0 loss.
Next week, the boys will travel to Greenwich on Tuesday, September 23 for a 4:15 pm start. The Friday, September 19, game versus Stillwater has been rescheduled to October 18.