The U-11 Demons traveled to the far end of their divisional galaxy to play the Farmingdale Cosmos last Saturday and put on a terrific display of passing as well as creating and utilizing open space en route to a convincing 2-0 victory.

On a warm, windy afternoon, the Demons took the pitch looking to add distance between themselves and the winless Cosmos. For the past two seasons, the Demons have been road warriors. Aside from looking at the schedule, it is difficult to tell these days who the visiting and home teams are. The Demons are displaying wonderful confidence at home and on the road. More importantly, they are consistently scoring the first goal of the game and that will boost any team's confidence.

The trio of Kevin Mullin, Matthew Rogers and Jack "Big Goal" Gillan began up front for the Demons supported by Greg Vouzianas and Peter Escribano in midfield. The boys were first to the ball on many occasions which was important as Farmingdale was attacking with the wind at their back. Jack Tigh, Mark DeSantis and Dale Stasco were superb on defense in front of Ray Leto who earned his first clean sheet of the regular season.

Farmingdale did a nice job of staying with the Demons in the first half. They charged hard at Tigh, Stasco and Mark DeSantis. DeSantis, despite getting injured on two challenges showed tremendous resilience and was fantastic at winning balls and skillfully returning them up field to the strikers. Farmingdale was also aided by their coach who took every opportunity to substitute players on Demon throw-ins, which, while well within the rules, clearly disrupted the Demons momentum. Nevertheless, the Demons kept charging and had several scoring chances inside Farmingdale's eighteen, but could convert nothing in the early going despite nice playmaking by Danny Simmons, Matt Rogers, Kevin Mullin and Peter Escribano. The first half ended scoreless.

With the wind picking up a bit, the Demons came out in the second half more determined to tally first. The challenges for 50/50's were more intense and Kevin Mullin was shown the yellow card by the referee for entering into one challenge a bit harder than necessary. Mike Randazzo, Jack Gillan and Matthew Rogers took control inside the Cosmos half of the field winning numerous throw-ins. Several minutes into the stanza the Cosmos would make two key mistakes. As the Demons were on the attack, a Farmingdale fullback was whistled for a handball while defending against a long pass to Rogers. The infraction occurred approximately 30 yards to the left of the Cosmos goalkeeper setting up a direct kick for the Demons. Gregory Vouzianas was elected to take the kick. The foul was mistake number one. The second mistake came in underestimating the power of Vouzianas' right leg. As we have witnessed before, Vouzianas displays deadly accuracy in such sequences. As is his custom, he set the ball to his desired liking, took several steps away and upon the referees whistle to re-start, Vouzianas launched the ball into the upper left corner of the net well beyond the reach of the goalkeeper giving the Demons a 1-0 lead.

Farmingdale were determined to knot the score and to their credit their fullbacks were able to move the ball out of the midfield wide to their strikers. Ray Leto was called upon several times to make diving stops on quality shots. In addition, Carney Mahon was breaking up Cosmos passes and moving the ball to Danny Simmons and Jack Gillan for quick counter attacks. The Demons sealed the victory on a goal by Matthew Rogers which came during a corner kick sequence. After Dale Stasco's kick was not properly controlled by the Cosmos keeper, Greg Vouzianas' attempted shot deflected off a Cosmos defender to Rogers who buried it for his 12th goal of the season.

With two games remaining in the season, the Demons continue to play very good soccer. The team has wonderful chemistry and is clicking beautifully.

The Demons are home this weekend at St. Paul's to take on the Oceanside Tidal Wave. Surf's up at 10am. Let's Go Demons!