The pitch sported a new sign this year warning people to stay off unless they have a permit (which BSC does). Between the recent rain & the freshly cut grass, the field was in some of the best shape BSC has seen (which is still poor…). Management hopes the sign is effective in keeping people off & that we’re able to maintain a decent playing surface through the summer/fall.

As the game was on Mother’s Day, Niagara was only able to start with a squad of 10, but quickly thereafter were joined by another 2. The few minutes they were without a full squad seemed to make no difference.

The majority of the initial play took place in Niagara’s half, with BSC getting a couple potential opportunities, but no solid ones. Play continued this way until ~15 minutes in, when BSC attacker Marc Campillo was pushed down on the side of the 6 yard box & rewarded with a PK. Fellow attacker Ryan Knap took the kick & beat the Niagara keeper, breaking an ongoing PK curse.

The first half ended with nothing else noteworthy & BSC in a 1-0 lead. The first 20 minutes of the second half were also uneventful, but the last 25 included a fair amount of excitement.

Mid-fielder Joao Moreira was sidelined by a studs-up tackle from a Niagara player, resulting in a swollen shin for him & a caution for the Niagara player. Niagara nabbed their first goal shortly after on a near break & almost put in another a whiles after that – their left attacker was able to split the BSC defensive near the half, allowing him to make a break towards goal. BSC defenders & the BSC keeper caught him at the side of the penalty mark, but were deaked & left the attacker a wide open net from 6 yards out. Fortunately the soccer gods smiled upon BSC & the wind combined with the infamous Delaware Park field at just the right time to cause the ball to hop as the Niagara player attempted to strike it, sending it into the air & lofting over the net. The Niagara player was dumbfounded.

While this disaster was avoided, BSC wasn’t in the clear yet. Another Niagara attacker broke in on goal & was met by a BSC defender inside the 18, where the BSC keeper pulled him to the ground. Although arguements were made, the PK was the right call.

As the Niagara player lined up to take the kick, he had difficulty keeping the ball on the penalty line marker, due to the uneven surface of Delaware Park. He ended up placing the ball just slightly off the line – perhaps an inch at the most. In was then when BSC’s most experienced player Ken Gibson commented to the player and official the ball wasn’t on the line. It was enough to cause the kicker to physically stop, look at the ball, throw him off mentally – and then have him kick it right to BSC keeper Frank Callocchia for the save.

Another bullet dodged for BSC, the game entered the last few minutes of regulation. BSC was awarded a seemingly hamrless free kick 20 yards inside the Niagara half. Defender Rich Tylec gently nudged the ball over to fellow defender Mark Valites, who dribbled another 30 yards before passing the ball off to Ryan Wolfrom. Wolfrom headed down the right hand side of the 18 & crossed the ball back across the face of the goal. Defender Marc Petryk picked it up there & placed it neatly in the top left of the net.

The game lasted for a seemingly endless & uneventfull two additional minutes before the final whistle blew, resulting in a 2-1 BSC win, their first of the season.

BSC International has a Google Calendar populated with our game times & locations visible in the top left of the BSC International website: http://www.bscinternational.org.

The BSC International Google Calendar can also be accessed directly via the following URLs:

• RSS/XML

• ICAL

• HTML

(Several of the team has indicated the first of these works great for Blackberrys.)

If you’re into one stop shopping & only visit the BSC International site, we’ve listed the games here for you as well:

Note: fans are responsible for their own bleachers.

BSC manager Mark Valites awoke game day morning in his estate in the rolling hills of North Boston, NY to temperatures in the 30s and to find his West gardens covered with a layer of snow – the first seen in the area for two weeks or so, according to the ground caretakers. Phone calls from the weaker hearted BSC players (whose names are too numerous to list) started shortly thereafter, as their hangovers wore off the the strawberry daiquiris consumed the night prior. Valites spoke with Spallers manager Ankur on the way to the field, who also was a little worried about the number of players who’d choose to violate their contracts and fail to attend.

Fortunately, no snow was found upon arrival at Front Park, but the weather was far from sunny. The park sits at the foot of the Peace Bridge, boasting a view of the area where the Niagara River meets Lake Erie. A bone chilling wind whipped off the water, no doubt cooled further by the icebergs (yes, there were seriously icebergs) floating down the river.

Even with the weather, a total of nearly 30 guys showed up for the scrimmage, some more appropriately dressed than others. BSC cheerleader-in-disguise Paul Welker can be seen here performing his signature curtsy before heading home to perform some sewing and interior design:

The two clubs broke up into smaller mixed team games on the dryer side & end of the field before joining together for a bigger scrimmage of BSC vs the Spallers. With such a large number of field players, BSC broke into the always-feared 5-5-4 formation. The Spallers countered with a 4-6-4. No score was kept, but everyone got muddy. Some without hats or gloves even failed to survive the ride home.

BSC’s Brazillian super star Joao Moreira (seen below) failed to attract the typical hordes of female fans on such a cold day, but put on a good show nonetheless.

BSC thanks the Spallers for the invitation & looks forward to future friendlies or maybe even some match play in the upcoming years – in August, with 80 degree weather, and cold beer.

Best of luck to the Spallers this season!

Three of BSC International’s finest took to the Niagara Falls Curling Club on Friday night for a few tosses of the good ol’ rock.

Good times were had by all as Mark, Paul and myself enjoyed numerous people falling on their ass, and also several well placed rocks by one Paul Welker.

My red gloves look a little suspect

Look for your official BSC International Curling sign up sheet in your mailbox soon.

The Liars put the first goal in, but the next was scored by defender Mark Valites from ~25 out on a nice pass from Paul Welker. The score remained 1-1 until under a minute left in the first half, when the liars put a second goal in.

The liars got a third goal early in the 2nd half, brining the score to 3-1, but BSC answered again, this time with a goal from another defender, Jeff Au. Jeff broke down the right wing & hit a rocket of a shot from just inside the corner of the 18 to the far side of the net, surprising everyone.

The last 15 minutes of the game saw BSC push hard to attempt to tie the score, giving all they had left in their tanks after all having played the entirety of the game. A close attempt came from Nick Wydro, who hit a cross bar on one of his shots, but the pushing ended up biting BSC in the end, as the liars had several breaks on net & scored two more before the game was over.

The final score could have easily been higher for the Liars, but BSC keeper Frank Callocchia made several nice saves on some hard hit shots & got extremely unlucky on the bounce from one break-away he initially stopped.

The highlight of the game may have been a commenft from one of the Liars attackers on a break-away of his – as defender Marc Petryk blocked his shot, the attacker yelled out his surprise, wondering “where the hell did he come from? That’s defender’s fast as lightning!” (Lightning being the family-friendly version of the word he used)

• Marc Petryk (another right footed goal)
• Ryan Knapp
• Evan Wydro

Submarine’s only goal came from a stupid BSC mistake – their defender stepped over the ball as he was heading towards their goal line & deaked the defender, but didn’t get enough on the pass to he goalie & the Submarine attacker picked it off for an easy goal. The BSC defender remains nameless.

BSC started off the scoring with a pretty play started by Mark Valites, who chipped a pass from the right hand corner of the 6 yard box across the face of the goal to Knapp, who cleanly headed it in.

After a frustrating game the week before, Nick Wydro came out of the net for the second half & worked hard to earn another goal this game, out running & then beating defenders inside the 18 before burying it in the back of the net.

Marc Petryk put another one in this week – astute fans may have even noted the finish with his right foot.

Pat Callocchia’s beard continues to mature, and may be his secret to scoring goals – he too scored another one this week.

Hector Garrido put in a solid game on defense, beating many defenders & making some sharp passes. There’s no doubt he’s due for a goal any game now.

The complete list of goals is as follows:

• Ryan Knapp (4)
• Evan Wydro (2)
• Pat Callocchia
• Marc Petryk
• Nick Wydro
• Mike Farrell

BSC plays Submarine next Tuesday, 2/3 t 10 PM. As always with Submarine, a physical matched between two evenly matched teams can be expected.

The game started off slow in the first half, but BSC returned to full throttle in the second.

Goals this game were scored by:

• Marc Petryk

• Mark Valites

• Mike Farrell (1 goal & 1 pk)

• Nick Wydro (after many, many misses)

• Ryan Knapp

• Evan Wydro

Of note:

• No goals were scored by Paul Welker (Again)

BSC plays the Fighting Mongoose for the first time this coming week, Tuesday (1/27) at 7 PM in the Epic Center. Liz, we’ve miss you & hope you can make it this week.

The biggest may have been the news that Marc “Spanish” Campillo discloated his shoulder earlier in the week during an unsanctioned match with another club. (Rumour has it it was a co-ed game.) A spokesperson for the team has indicated they will most likely pursue imposing fines for this breach of contract (beers at the bar). One member of management even went so far as to say “we expect this type of behavior out of Welker, but are truly disappointed to see it from Campillo”. Campillo is expected to be out for approximately 6 weeks, but was in good spirits and was able to flirt with the nurses while at the hospital. Spanish’s abscense is worsened by the loss this session of Ryan Wolfrom, who is rumoured to be spending nights feasting at Papa Jake’s & then bar hopping throughout the Elmwood Village area looking for single ladies.

In good news, one of the team’s past year full time acquisitions, Evan Wydro (who had been questionable for this session), surprised all members of the team with his attendance and committment to the third session. BSC was also joined this game by another recent (re)acquistion, Mike Farrell. Farrell is not yet committed full time for the session, but hopes to make himself available for the remaining games after undergoing some tough negotiating with his professors later this week.

The winter break allowed for the growth of a fierce beard by defender Pat Callocchia & even after several years with the team, none for defender Marc Petryk. Oddly enough, attackers fear Petryk, but continue to beat Callocchia.

As for the game, unfortunately for BSC, it wasn’t the best of starts. BSC ended up down 3-0 all the way into the 2nd half, with some sloppy play and few shots on goal.

First half highlights included a break-away for BSC’s indoor-goal-keeper-turned-field-player-of-terror Nick Wydro. Wydro took off on a sprint from near the mid field mark, outpacing an Akron defender & pacing  a ball past the keeper, only to have it rebound off the far post back to the keeper.

Credit goes to BSC’s full time outdoor goalie, Frank Callocchia, who returned this session to goal in preparation for the upcoming summer session & to hopefully play the one position he can’t be (easily) offsides from. Frank played a solid entire game, but deserves special recognition for one particular obstructed diving save, where he robbed the Akron attacker of a sure goal. If we had a highlight film (or fans to watch it), this save would have been on there.

BSC played a much improved second half, tying the score up 3-3 with two goals from attacker Mike Farrell & one from Ryan Knapp. BSC couldn’t hold onto the tie though & ended up losing 4-3 on an Akron chip of the defenders which led to a break that allowed them to chip the BSC keeper.

BSC plays again next Tuesday vs. KTC, hoping to improve the record to 1-1.