Victoria Aldrich carries through the middle. The Fireballs continued their season with two games this past weekend - their regular season opener against the Commack Spirit and then the first round of the State Cup against the Valley Stream Thunder. Playing the week before Spring break in Garden City is always a tough one, but this weekend was made more difficult when a couple of key injuries/sickness to Fireball players struck. Forced to play a girl down on Saturday, and not being able to sub at all, the girls stepped up and played a tremendous game to come out with a 1-1 tie. A couple of times during the game, GC only had 9 on the field when players went down, but they perservered. After going down 1-0 on a questionable penalty shot, the Fireballs mounted a strong attack to get even on a well placed shot by Daniella Sampram past a very active Commack keeper. The remainder of the game was a back and forth battle, with neither team willing to give an inch. The game ended tied at 1.

On Sunday the girls came back for their match against the Thunder, this time having the benefit of 11 players (which also meant another game of no subs). The girls started off slow, even going down by a goal. But once they got on the board with about 10 minutes left in the first half on a free kick by Christine Malhame, the Fireballs never looked back. Dominating the second half of play they finally came up with the game winner on a penalty kick by Courtney Chmil (who was in on a breakaway when taken down from behind). With several other great scoring chances that just missed the target, the Fireballs kept up the pressure. All things considered, playing with no subs on back to back days and missing several key players out with sickness or injury, the Fireballs that were on the field had a great weekend. They showed true grit, determination and a very high level of soccer skill. The girls will all enjoy this weekend off to rest (unless they have some extreme Easter egg hunting - you just don't know with these girls) and come back for another weekend of back to back games on the 14th and 15th, with second round games in both the Waldbaum's (vs. Center Moriches) and the State Cup (against NY Hota). Good Luck girls! And Happy Easter to everyone!

Katie Reilly clears the ball.

Courtney Chmil looks to turn the corner. Monique Roberge creating space to make the pass Daniella Sampram positions for the shot