Central Park Rangers 2 - 2 NY Pancryprians (Pancyprians 4 - 2 on PKs)

Sunday afternoon saw CPR Whites finish their season in stylish fashion, outplaying the newly crowned CSL 1st Division Champion NY Pancyprian for large parts of the afternoon.   In the first half CPR did a great job of neutralizing Pancyprians attack - with their strikers getting no clean looks at goal.  Ben Lucki had little to do in the first half outside of handling a few routine crosses and calmly handling a clearance or two off of backpasses from his resolute defenders. Offensively CPR was able to find space down the right wing with Danny D'Angelo and Caesar Lopez causing their left back problems throughout the first half. Danny D'Angelo had a very good look from the right side of the 18 yard box in the first half that narrowly missed the far post and Eli Vovsha had a half chance with a very difficult header that their keeper was able to gather.  Meanwhile, Conor O'Donaghue, Eli Vovsha, Danny D'Angelo and Chris Brunet provided Pancyprians all they could handle in midfield, continually dispossessing the opposing midfielders and starting smart attacks through their quick passing and non-stop movement.  Across the back, it was a similar story with Elie, Ethan, Pat and Josh winning first balls and manhandling the opposing forwards while up front, Kwesi and Caesar provide muscle, speed and determination.

However, credit to Pancyprians as they were solid enough throughout the first half to hold us scoreless. CPR made 1 change at half time, bringing on
Kevin Lue for Caesar Lopez and Kevin took up where Caesar left off; causing Pancyprians problems with his size and quickness. We also continued to do a great job of maintaining possession and keeping Pancyprians on the back foot. Our hard work finally paid off with Danny D'Angelo again causing problems down the right and after a strong run into the box he laid the ball off for Kwesi Mills-Odoi who struck the ball far post, scoring off the the inside of the post. It was a deserved goal as Kwesi ran his socks off for 90 minutes both getting forward as well as tracking back to provide his teammates cover.

We continued to pressure Pancyprians and as they started pushing up looking for the equalizer, they began leaving gaps in the back which we capitalized on when Pat Ouckama released Kevin Lue down the right channel. Kevin carried the ball 35 yards into the box before clinically beating the keeper near post.

Unfortunately that's when things started to go against us. First, Eli was forced out of the game after an ugly tackle by one of the Pancyprian midfielders.  It was the first of several momentum changing events; because off the re-start, Pancyprians drove the ball down the left wing before crossing into the center. With the ball having eluded Ben Lucki, Ethan and Pat jumped to clear the ball from the goal line and instead collided with each other, leaving both crumpled on the pitch and the ball sitting 3 yards out for a Pancyprian player to tap in. The game was then halted for 5 minutes as Ethan had smashed his knee against the goal post in the collision causing a gash on his knee which required a trip to the hospital. Having used our subs minutes earlier - with Mark Supplee replacing the injured Eli and David Briefel (making a much awaited return) replacing Chris Brunet - we were forced to play the final 20 minutes with 10 men. Although we defended admirably, we finally gave up the equalizer.  However, we refused to hang our heads and off some nice distribution from Dave Briefel, continued to press forward.  We saw out the final minutes chasing and pressing whenever we could and were able to maintain the scoreline.

As this was a State Cup game, we went immediately to penalty kicks where we couldn't muster enough luck to overcome some very refined finishing by Pancyprians.  Although we finished as State Cup Runner's Up we have nothing to hang our heads over as we outplayed our opponents and we played the way we set out to play.  Due to our great showing CPR has been invited by the NY State Board to represent the 1st Division in a Champions League style tournament which will be held in the fall.

Congratulations to this years medal winners:  Ben Lucki, Pat Ouckama, Elie Zenner, Ethan Mulligan, Josh Kwilecki, Conor O'Donaghue, Eli Vovsha, Danny D'Angelo, Chris Brunet, Mark Supplee, David Briefel, Kevin Lue, Caesar Lopez and Kwesi Mills-Odoi, Jay Jones, Andy West, Tony DeLorenzo and Yannick Reyering.

Goals: Kwesi Mills-Odoi, Kevin Lue