SHORELINE (March 14)—The FC Spare Tire offense finished and the defense held true as the regular season ended with a 3-1 victory over first-place Gunners FC on a mild Sunday afternoon at Shorecrest High School.

Even though he arrived mere minutes before kickoff, keeper Shelby Dobbs came up with a few big one-on-one stops along with a late penalty kick save to help seal the win. Two perfectly executed goals and an own-goal was all the offense Tire would need in an exceptional performance.

Going into the game, Gunners FC held the top spot in the division with 20 points at 6-1-2. The week prior, GFC and Disorderly Conduct tied 1-1 at Shorecrest.

In their last meeting, GFC beat Tire 4-3 under lights at Valley Ridge #3 to begin the winter 2010 campaign. Forward Brandon Smith had a pair and mid Kelly Antoncich tallied in that game.

Prior to Sunday, Gunners FC’s only loss came to Rock 1-0 on Super Bowl Sunday; GFC played that game with nine men.

FC Spare Tire came out of the gate a very positive full-steam ahead as the offense pushed into the GFC half to offer four shots within the first five minutes or so, including a 30-yard crack from mid Matt Loesch and two lefties from forward Steve Lassiter. With its division-leading 27 goals, the Gunners’ offense isn’t debatably the best in the league for nothing, and once it found a gear, Tire’s defense knew it would need to step up.

Tire rotated its six-man substitution force well during the contest, while GFC players had none and some were wishing for anything after playing earlier in the day. Tire’s midfield soon did well to plug up the middle to force Gunner creativity elsewhere. And while Tire goal kicks often led to GFC-won balls at the center circle or not quite, the Tire defense led by sweeper Bracey Rogers and mates Phil Burger, Jim Stern, Leo Berk, Scott Strasser and Don Gill-More was there to turn away balls upfield.

Tire struck on one such instance in minute 26 to open the scoring. A ball was played up to a midfielder Strasser on the left wing where he beat his man and had space to carry to the six-yard box. His angle was tight, so he dumped a left-footed pass to a running Brandon Smith all alone who secured and knocked in a hard, low shot to the far post.

“A great ball, right in the middle,” Smith said. “Scott put it there, and it was just me and the goalie. I had time to take a touch, so I did, and it was a left foot right into the corner.” It was the duo’s second time to connect with a Smith score in such a fashion.

Tire notched its second in minute 40 when mid Tim Farley attempted a second corner kick that curved well to the far post. Mid Scot Rogers was there, but before it would land the keeper took a swipe at it, which next landed in the back of the net. It was Tire’s first OG for itself since GFC put one in during the clubs’ second meeting on Nov. 11 at Valley Ridge.

“Come on, let’s regroup!” came the cry from Gunners players shortly thereafter when the referee signaled an end to the half with Tire up by a deuce.

The Gunners came out with renewed energy after the intermission and even penetrated the Tire box a couple of times to no avail. Tire’s momentum was still in full effect, however, and controversy cast a dark shadow on the team’s work just seven minutes in. A patchwork of good passing led to a ball Mike Gill-More took across the top of the GFC box where he was tripped from behind. He fell, caught the ball in the process, the whistle blew and the referee indicated hand-ball. While the player soon apologized and admitted he got away with one, Gilly was denied a third consecutive good call that should have led to a penalty kick.

A minute later, Tire would take a three-goal lead. At the mid, Farley spotted a streaking right winger in Scot Rogers, who controlled and lofted a perfect ball to what he would call a running clean Doug Hodson colleague at the back post. Hodson was money as he headed it in from the perfect spot for his fourth of the year and 76th all-time. It also was Rogers’ first assist since 2008, 14th all-time, and third the pair have hooked up for a goal.

Four minutes later, Gunners FC pulled the score back when off a deep throw-in, a ball squirted through into the box where a GFC mid was there to put a soft touch to a slow-rolling ball past Dobbs, who was off his line coming for it.

The aggressiveness of the game was turned up a notch after this moment—teams were playing more professionally physical to gain an extra bit of space on nearly every possession. On one, a GFC player pushed Stern to the ground after a lost ball went out of bounds that resulted in a non-call. And on two others that were called, Loesch took cleats to the shin in the box, and a GFC mid took studs to the foot. Something was bound to break.

And in minute 75, that something did when a GFC forward and Bracey Rogers tangled like a pretzel on a break just inside the Tire box. Rogers was wrapped and couldn’t have balance to reply, but the foul on the goal-scoring opportunity was called on him, he was shown yellow and exited the field with understandable frustration.

He couldn’t bear to watch as the GFC penalty kick-taker stepped to the spot where an uncharacteristically relaxed Dobbs was bouncing around on his line. The shot-taker leaned into a drive that carried to his left—exactly where Dobbs guessed. Dobbs didn’t need to go down as he glove-blocked away the shot for Don Gill-More to clear away.

The save was Dobbs’ first since denying a shot by a Seattle Greek Americans player on October 5, 2008 in a 4-2 win at Edmonds District Stadium. And while he missed his only 2009 chance vs. FC Thien An, Dobbs is now six for 16 in PK save opportunities.

“It was a lucky save,” Dobbs conceded. “I gotta give credit to Mike Gill-More who said ‘just don’t stand there’. And, the guy looked. He looked early.”

Dobbs was stellar in going down to chest-save a sure goal on a one-on-one opportunity in the second half, and while teammates would praise his game afterward, it was a weak punched clearance in the box with barely any air under it that made them want to issue a Kangaroo Court fine. But his exceptional saves, including one chipped ball he leaped to paw at the top of the box in the first half would cancel any monetary discretions on this afternoon.

As it had at the beginning, Tire had a flurry of good chances to pad the lead in the final minutes of the game, but shots were deflected away or saved by the GFC keeper to prevent further damage.

“I think our D was pretty decent,” Bracey Rogers said. “We stepped up and they had some good passing going on, but we were able to be there when we needed to be. Our D played a man-D that kind of really helped. It was close at times, and Shelby had me scared a number of times, but he pulled through in the end and kind of saved it for us.”

“We almost collapsed,” admitted Scot Rogers. “Almost did our usual collapse but I don’t think they really put their full effort into it ’cause it doesn’t count a whole lot. But we were able to finish a lot better today than usual.”

“It was a good game,” Stern said. “Felt good. Unfortunately, I had a really, really good view of their goal. He put it in, but he had an extra step on me. He was fast. But I’m happy with the win.”

“It was a good win,” Strasser said. “They didn’t have all their players here, which, I wasn’t as excited as if they had their ‘A’ team here, but we’ll see them in the playoffs. Overall, we finished, had great passes, so congratulations to the team for making the playoffs.”

“Y-E-S,” beamed Hodson. “It was a good game. I thought we started off really good, had them on their heels, and set a good tone for the game. We got up a few goals, but then let up a little bit, but we had some good goals. Really glad to beat these guys.”

“We started out really strong,” Burger echoed. “Able to hold on to the early lead and pressed hard at the end there. Our defense held them pretty good. We’ll take a 3-1 win.”

“We had nice, solid D, especially in the second half,” Loesch said. “We came out and held them strong. I was impressed; hopefully we take this into the playoffs. Hopefully we get this-sized field, as well. Kudos to Shelby today—awesome saves. He was on fire. The one-on-one was phenomenal.”

“He’s sliding well finally,” complimented Mike Gill-More. “Good to see! Shelby had some good stops, and the defense played great. Good stuff from the defense today.”

“We played really well,” Berk said. “I was impressed with how we came out and played hard right from the whistle. We hustled to the ball and I think we caught them off-guard with that, because they didn’t look good for the first 15 minutes.

“And Shelby had a couple of great saves. He leaves something to be desired with his punches, but the ones he came out and slid to get the ball—he couldn’t have played them better. And the penalty kick … it was really satisfying to watch that miss. That was the game-topper for me,” Berk remarked.

The loss has no bearing on the Gunners’ final standings spot—its outstanding season paved the way to a one-seed. GFC will face Inter Feierabend, who knocked Rock out of playoff contention Sunday for its first win in two months with a 3-0 blanking, in the game prior to Tire’s on Saturday at Magnuson 6.

FC Spare Tire is now 1-1-2 all-time vs. Gunners FC.

GAMENOTES: 

• FCST is now 1-1-2 at Shorecrest High School, as well.
• Hodson’s score was his 20th all-time division 3 goal.
• Tire has not won in only five games of the 62 in which Hodson has scored.
• After failing to reach the fall playoffs, Gunners FC sought more players in an ad on soccermatchmaker.com: http://www.soccermatchmaker.com/team_profile.aspx?id=1242