*NY Shamrocks match reports for weekend of 4/21-4/22

The Shamrocks women’s A team suffered a painful loss against league leaders CPR White, despite dominating possession. CPR opened the scoring against the run of play but Mikaela Howell quickly responded with a superb solo effort to level the score. The Rocks conceded two subsequent goals in the first half but regrouped and came out determined in the second half.  Teresa Ferraro scored the rocks second goal to make the score 3-2. However, once again, CPR scored against the run of play to extend their lead. The Rocks were superb in the last 20 minutes and had multiple goal scoring opportunities. Mikaela Howell found the back of the net again but the rocks ran out of time to get an equalizer and the game ended 4-3. Hopefully, the team can settle the score when the shamrocks will face CPR White later in the season in the state cup semifinals.

The Shamrocks women’s B secured an easy 8-0 victory at St. Michaels against a short-sided Astoria FC team. Colleen Cavanaugh lead the way with three goals, followed by Paige Osborne and Lee Stagg with two goals each. Shannon Hopkins ended the scoring with the final goal. “We hope the goal scoring will continue in our final league match up on 4/29,” remarked a happy coach Perez.

The Shamrocks first team were denied an important league win on Saturday night when CPR Whites struck late against the run of play to escape with a 1-1 draw. Tracis Blair’s exquisite first half strike had the Rocks deservedly in front after a dominant display but CPR never gave up and took a share of the spoils with ten minutes to go. “The players are disappointed and rightly so,” said assistant coach John Riordan. “The first half display in particular was impressive but we couldn’t quite find that second goal.”

It proved a highly busy weekend of football engagements for the ever-industrious Riordan, who led the Shamrocks reserves by moonlighting as player-coach in the absence of Dan Meola. With a number of key players on off-duty, busy making jokes about the ‘CPR Kit’ behind the bar at Meola’s wedding, the reserves battled with only 10 men against CPR Whites. Despite the scant numbers, and with Meola obsessively checking his whatsapp feed during a best man speech from his brother, Nick, that reduced Neil Mannion to floods of tears, the ever-resilient Rocks fought hard and were unlucky to come out of the tussle on the wrong end of a 4-3 result. More used to tying defenders in knots with his dynamic forward runs than tying wedding knots, Meola remarked: “Natalie is distraught. She had a points shave on the reserves with our local bookie, Pussy Five Fingers. After a few glasses of wine, she perked up and said, ‘hopefully my parley on the 1960s gets me out of this hole.’”

Unfortunately for Natalie and lovers of the 1960s everywhere, things continue to go from bad to worse for the Shamrocks metro team. With Meola pulling up in his car just before kick off as the theme song from High Noon blared in his speakers, and with Neil Mannion’s emotional state somewhat stabilized by a lick of porter, the1960s fought toe-to-toe with the auld enemy, Lansdowne. The story of a season of missed opportunities was played out again in this noon-time derby, as the failure of the dominant 1960s to grab opportunities for a lead soon saw them on the back of a 4-0 deficit. Tony Meola’s marvelous Henny Youngman routine on the sideline did just enough to confuse the opposition and allow the Rocks to snatch a late consolation. However, time is running out for Andy Connolly’s men, should they want to avoid the drop.

On a largely frustrating weekend overall for the club (the exception being the stellar display of the women’s B team), the Legends were very unlucky to lose 4-3 in a scintillating battle against top of the table Cozmoz FC. Despite their obvious difficulties with spelling (they must have a hard time finding fixtures on the CoZmopolitan Soccer League website?), the Cozmoz are highly articulate in attack and the Rocks did well to push them all the way in yet another 8 am showdown. The Legends got off to a comical start with a glaring miss from Brian Woolohan that might have made it onto the bloopers video for auditions to try-out for the Blind World Cup. With all nerves settled from the laughter aroused by Wilton’s slapstick routine (the boy’s a genius), the Rocks played manfully throughout a tie that was cruelly settled in the Cozmoz favor by the last kick of the game. The Shamrock goals were scored by Ryan Thompson, Paddy Geraghty, and John Riordan. In a frenzied state of undress, a highly excited Eoin Sweeney yelled, “Holy Jehosophat, that was a cracker. What was it: 3 each, or did we lose or what? I was too busy running round in the nip, old shtock. Where’s me jumper?” A more calm assessment was offered by Emmett Harvey, who, after breaking a week of silence, fasting, and meditation, mused: “it may seem like an unfair result. But, if I’ve learned anything this week, it’s that the Cozmoz just works in those kinds of strange ways.”