SHORELINE (March 7)—FC Spare Tire dropped from second to a tie with Rock for third place with one game remaining in the winter 2010 division 3 season after a 3-2 loss to Vipers FC on a mild early Sunday morning at Twin Ponds.

Vipers FC, on the other hand, assured itself a playoff bid with the win, which is arguably its best of the season, thanks in part to contributions from two players who were going up against FCST for the very first time.

The win was VFC’s first in a month—the last came as a six-goal victory over currently winless FC Untied. Last week, VFC was blanked 2-0 by Rock.

FCST beat Vipers FC 3-1 in their only meeting on May 31, 2009 at Shoreline B. Forward Mike Gill-More had one, as did Isaiah Harris and Kelly Antoncich in that one, 28 games ago.

That game was Vipers FC’s first-ever as a team. That season, VFC went 4-3 for sixth place (Tire finished in second). Since then, VFC has gone 7-6-5, finishing in sixth this past fall in D3B.

This season has been the team’s best so far—going into the match VFC was 4-2-2 in fourth place, with 21 goals for and 14 allowed. VFC, which plans to play in division 2 this spring, has not fallen from the top four all season.

From the start, the Vipers offense showed why it is among the top three in scoring in the division with a run and crack inside the 18 that tested keeper Shelby Dobbs. And within five minutes, it looked certain VFC would take an early lead when the team’s best player took a ball on the left at the 18 and went one-on-one with Dobbs, but his shot trailed a surprising yard wide left of the post.

Tire had a few early chances of its own, including a curling cross left-to-right where a running forward Matt Loesch was there to run in alone and head it just wide of the post. But Loesch would find redemption in a nifty Tire passing play when in minute 11 he slotted a ball expertly left-to-right inside the VFC box where forward Mike Gill-More had space, accepted it, touched, and blasted home the far post goal for the early lead.

“It was a beautiful ball from Matt,” Gill-More said. “A nice one-two. He hit it just perfect, I actually pulled up on it—I didn’t have to just get there and hit it. It was a great ball.”

Vipers players admitted they were not playing their best soccer to this point. While it regrouped, the Tire midfield somehow in the course of play allowed extra space to appear on one of the area’s shortest fields. As the half wore on, VFC took advantage of space, was winning 50-50 balls, and exploited Tire’s missed passes.

After mid Brian Speir forced a Vipers midfielder to shoot softly and wide right, the resulting goal kick by Dobbs was less than stellar. VFC quickly won the ball, and their best forward soon had it at his feet and powered up the left side toward Dobbs. Under a sliding Bracey Rogers and Dobbs off his line, the player tucked in a shot to the back post. With a fist-pump, the score was level.

Dobbs wouldn’t allow in another for the remainder of the half; he owned his box for ball after ball after that, snaring shots on the fly, being there for those low, and even snuffed out another one-on-one chance by going to ground at the perfect time to block and recover a shot a close range.

The Tire offense made decent runs during the rest of the half, but shot opportunities became few and far between. VFC wingers pounded space and played long balls up to stymie the Tire D, but the teams would go to the half tied at ones.

But that scoreline wouldn’t last long at all. Three minutes into the second half, Vipers FC capitalized on space in the mid. A VFC winger spotted a teammate with mid Kelly Antoncich on his hip at the top of the box. With a turn, the player took a blind rip toward the far left post. Dobbs was a step slow in diving for it, and the ball rolled fast into the corner for the VFC lead.

But just as quickly, Tire was able to equalize on a break of its own. The VFC lead only lasted three minutes upon a Mike Gill-More righty cross that was handled in the box by a defender. The ref pointed to the spot, and Gilly stepped to it. His three-step approach was money for the second week in a row—this time, his shot went left but more centrally as the keeper, diving right, got a toe to it, but the ball carried into the net.

Let’s take a moment to reflect on Gill-More’s scoring prowess, shall we? The score was Gilly’s 11th of the season, which has to lead all D3 scorers after nine weeks. It also was his 130th all-time for FC Spare Tire. It was his sixth in the last four games, and his 40th in division 3 action. Except for a five-minute stretch before yanking himself from the Inter Feierabend game due to injury, Gilly has scored in every game he has played in this year. And lastly, for now, the goal provided for his 35th multi-goal game.

Back to the contest at hand. It looked like it might remain 2-2 with about 40 minutes of soccer to go, even when in minute 54 a VFC player took Loesch down from behind on a run deep in the Vipers box. It was his second yellow of the game, earning him a red and ejection from the game.

Yet up by a man, Tire still had trouble finding open looks to convert. Two corner kicks, three indirect free kicks later, Tire would come up empty. Hopes were high when a ball came to mid Dean Lencioni alone at the top of the box, but his extra settling touch took a nanosecond too long and his look was blocked away.

The Tire defense had regained its form for the second half and did well to intercept, steal, turn balls away and re-direct shots. But with about nine minutes to play, VFC went up for good. Their best player, back to goal, accepted a ball at the top of the box. With a quick, questionable Bracey Rogers jersey grab and push off for extra space, the player turned and lasered a rip right over Dobbs and inches below the crossbar for the score.

Tire pressured more in the waning moments, earning those indirect frees that were turned away. The Vipers keeper gifted Tire twice on poor goal kicks to FCST players with space, but neither resulted. Things got chippy when defender Don Gill-More jockeyed for position at the 10-yard mark. And brother Mike almost had a second consecutive hat trick when mid Tim Farley’s corner found him—his header trailed ever so slightly off to the left.

VFC attempted a break as the final play of the game, but Don Gill-More was there to stop a dribbler in his tracks; the guy went down hard, let out a yell, the referee whistled the game’s end, and as its last action Gill-More saw yellow, his first since the HK United game on Oct. 18, 2009, and his eighth all-time.

“We had pockets of time where they just dominated us in possession,” mid Kelly Antoncich said. “But we played alright. This is a good team. We pretty much played them head-to-head, so not bad.”

“Defensively, we weren’t marking men,” sweeper Bracey Rogers said. “Lots of times if they are marking, once a guy takes off running, they don’t follow. And it killed us. There’s no reason why they should be passing the ball six, seven times at the 18.”

“I just haven’t felt like I’ve had a good game since that HK game,” harshed Dobbs [Editor’s note: Dobbs uncharacteristically gave up two some might consider 'howlers' in the final five minutes for a tie on Oct. 18, 2009 under lights at Marymoor and left the field without comment and faster than lightning at game’s end]. I don’t know—since then, I don’t feel like I’ve played that well.”

“I don’t know,” echoed forward Isaiah Harris. “They played well, they had good possession. Even when they were down a player it felt like they had a full team. The short field helps them in that advantage. We played well, but they played better. Those shots were crazy.”

“A good game,” Don Gill-More assessed. “That one guy, man, good shots. Wow. I was all over him and he just shot it, turned it, ripped it. He was blanketed, but it was a great shot.”

“It was a good game,” thought stopper Phil Burger. “We were pretty evenly matched. Nothing you can do about their last goal—it was an awesome shot. We almost got the tying score at the end there, but we played well, passed pretty good. They just came out on top.”

“They just wanted it more than us,” surmised Lencioni. “When they went a man down, they pressed like crazy. It felt like the ball was in front of our own goal for, you know, 15, 20 minutes. We missed out on the opportunities we ordinarily would score on.”

“Tough game against these guys,” defender Scott Strasser said. “They’re good, young, quick, good passers, good ball control, and their forwards were just keeping us on our toes—really learned our lesson in the first half about making sure A) we get our butts up on defense, which we weren’t doing and B) marking closer man-to-man. Overall, like Dean said, they wanted it more than us. It’s a tough loss, but you know what? I think that’ll prepare us for the Gunners next week.”

“It was a good team to play against,” complimented Loesch. “They were good. They pushed us around, and we kinda let up a little bit in the second half and stopped playing out game. Kudos to them—they kept it up, pushed us hard, and there’s nothing anyone could have done about that last shot. Too bad we came out on the bottom, but hey, there’s always next week.”

FC Spare Tire is now 1-1 vs. Vipers FC. All-time, VFC has 65 goals scored, 61 allowed and has never scored fewer than 20 in a season.

GAMENOTES: 

• Tire is now 47-36 all-time in one-goal games.
• The loss was Tire’s sixth-ever by a 2-3 score; the last came vs. Seattle Blue Demons on Feb. 4, 2007 at Shoreline A.
• One more Gilly stat: he has been the lone goal scorer in 23 of the 77 games in which he has scored for Tire.
• Former FCST defender Mike Melbourne (2002-03) took in the last moments of the game, his most recent action as a spectator in God knows how long.