Bruins, Indians play to scoreless tie
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By Joe Conroy
Published: May 7, 2008
The Forest Park boys needed a win Tuesday night at Gar-Field in soccer to draw within striking distance in the Cardinal District standings.
They didn’t get it. Instead the Bruins and Indians played to a 0-0 tie through two overtime periods in Woodbridge in a physical defensive struggle.
“Yeah, you could say that,” Forest Park coach Ken Krieger said when asked about the physicality. “It was just ugly.”
Both teams had chances to score throughout the game only to be repulsed by their opponent’s defense or goalkeeper.
Gar-Field (7-0-2, 5-0-1) missed a nearly sure goal in the 46th minute when a bounding ball in the Forest Park (5-2-3, 4-1-2) box just clanged off the lower half of the right upright and and was deflected out of bounds.
“I knew what I was going to get from a team coached by (Krieger),” Indians coach Mark Markiewicz said. “It was a tough overtime game... and I thought we both played well.”
The teams played evenly throughout all 90 minutes but Krieger felt Gar-Field did a better job on its first touches than his own team did.
“They made us look like we’re maybe a little bit slower than they were,” Krieger said. “They were working off our first touch every time. We’d play the ball — boom — there they were. Our first touches weren’t the best and their first touch they’d get it right down and off they go.”
Gar-Field seemingly got a break in the second half when Forest Park junior goalkeeper Patrick Nuckols left the game for nearly a minute when he tweaked his ankle on an Indians free kick. Nuckols leaped to make the catch on the lofted ball and landed awkwardly, rolling on the ground for the moments after the play.
Nuckols was replaced by junior Sean Murnane after heading to the sideline with a slight limp. But Murnane was never tested during Nuckols’ absence, who returned to finished the game.
“I think he’ll be fine. He just kind of turned it,” Krieger said. “I think someone undercut him a little bit, but it was the run of play. It was nothing malicious.”
For Gar-Field, ending the game without a loss was the key said Markiewicz.
“That was big. Seeing how things fell in (Forest Park’s) Woodbridge game, it was important to come out with a point,” he said. “We wanted to win it though because we know what we have ahead of us and that’s Woodbridge and (Forest Park) again.
“It’s going to be exciting leading into the tournament.”
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