Thunder 10s Lose A Heart Breaker by 1 (21-20)

Thunder Offensive Line #74 Gray, #70 Holloway, #62 Hildreth, #43 Ferzola, #35 Williams, #57 McGuinness, #21 Larkin

September 9, 2007 - Inwood Park

It was a hot muggy day at Inwood Park the site of the Thunder 10 year old team's season opener against the Inwood Buccaneers. There was a sell out crowd for this much anticipated match up between these two teams, the Thunder looked to give the Bucs a game to avenge a tough loss last year that enabled the Bucs to make the playoffs. The game day captains, #23 Carson Bauer, #27 Tim Butler and #68 Colin DeAngelo chose tails for the coin toss and heads it was. The Thunder were kicking off, #46 Thomas Mascola kicked off for the Thunder led by kick off captain, #19 Drew Vorkas.

The defense led by #23 Carson Bauer and #54 Alex Wood came out on fire making some critical tackles and getting the team pumped up. Inwood kept coming and was able to put it in the end zone and converted the extra point. The Thunder found themselves down early in the first quarter. On the ensuing kick off #80 Conor Muldoon received the ball on his 25 yard line and got some great blocks from #35 Joe Williams, #14 George Petropoulos, and #70 Justin Holloway for a 70 yard return to the Bucs 5 yard line. #34 Matt Thomas running behind #43 Alex Ferzola got the ball to the one inch line (home field advantage we thought we were in the end zone). Conor Muldoon ran a sweep behind a huge block from #74 Nick "The Tank" Gray to bring the Thunder within 1, the extra point was stopped and the game was 7-6 Bucs.

Evan Nagel and George Petropoulos converge on the Inwood ball carrier

The Thunder defense came out ready to stop the Bucs, and that is exactly what they did. #50 Thomas Lane and #85 Connor Nolan converged on the Inwood QB and brought him down for a 7 yard loss. #23 Carson Bauer playing linebacker blitzed to stop Inwood's best running back for a no gainer. Then #24 Darius Iraj playing safety broke up a pass attempt by Inwood to put them in a 4th down situation. The Bucs went to their best running back and #27 Tim Butler came up and made the stop giving the ball back to the Thunder.

The Thunder put together an impressive 17 play drive amassing 61 yards to go ahead on a run by #77 Brian Goepfert behind a critical block made by #57 Devon McGuinness and #21 Chris Larkin allowing the Thunder go ahead in the second quarter 12-7 Thunder. The crowd was deafening as fans and players were screaming their heads off. The extra point was converted by #68 Colin DeAngelo running behind #62 Lucas "Mountain" , a.k.a the "Viking" Hildreth.

Thunder O Line Clearring the Way

The Bucs came back and put a drive together that allowed them to covert a touchdown before half time, and at the half it was 14-13 Bucs.

The second half was even more exciting, the Thunder setup an impressive 80 yard return by #68 Colin DeAngelo with two key blocks made by Evan Nagel and Brian Goepfert. The Thunder converted the extra point and were ahead 20-14.

The Thunder defense was impressive in the second half #73 Matias Yianatos continued to penetrate the Inwood line to break up play after play. Drew Vorkas came in on a fourth down situation and made a critical stop.

#28 Evan Nagel cutting it up for a 8 yard gain

The ball changed hands 2 times in the fourth quarter but on the Bucs last possession they were able to convert a touch down to go ahead 21-20. During the Bucs last possession with time running out #62 Lucas Hildreth makes the play of the day by stripping the ball from the Inwood running back to give it back to the Thunder with 1:30 to go in the game. Trailing by 1 the Thunder ran the hurray up offense to try and get into field goal range, they looked to #21 Chris Larkin but he was well covered, then tried to run a sweep to get out of bounds and stop the clock and were un able to do so and time ran out on their comeback. It was a great game and effort by the Thunder, Pride and Teamwork were the team's themes for the day and boy were we proud of this great team! The Thunder play their next game at Stewart Field in Garden City on Saturday, September 15th at 12:30pm against the Farmingdale Hawks, come out and cheer them on. Go Thunder!

Ferzola, Holloway, DeAngelo, Goepfert clear the way for Muldoon Hildreth, Gray, and Ferzola make huge blocks for the Thunder Offiense #35 Joe Williams in pursuit of the play #77 Brian Goepfert with a 21 yard first down reception 6 #23 Carson Bauer, #28 Evan Nagel and #62 Lucas Hildreth shut down the Inwood Offense #68 Colin DeAngelo Breaking away for a Thunder first down