BXVI came out with all guns blazing against Floreat Frogs on 1 April 2009. Floreat have dominated the competition for many seasons and clearly expected to win easily again.
BXVI started with Chico, Dave, Melis and Cat on the field and Monty in goals. Within 5 minutes, Chico had struck 3 times and Dave once to give BXVI a 4-0 advantage. Floreat were clearly shocked at the sheer skill displayed in attack by Dave and Chico and the defensive prowess of Cat and Melis. Every time Floreat made an early break for goals, Melis or Cat (or both) were on hand to block them and force mistakes. The few times Floreat got a shot away, Monty was equal to the task. In fact, he pulled off an almost miraculous save where the shot was too hard for him to get a hand on it, but he somehow managed to trap it between his heels! Superb reflexes.
The early goals took their toll on the Frogs – they were clearly shaken and played with the desperation that leads to mistakes and recriminations. Any time there was slight contact with a BXVI player, they appealed for a free kick (even the times where they went out of their way to cause the contact) and swore constantly. We’ve played against Floreat before and they have never acted like that, leading us to believe that it was because they are not used to being totally outclassed.
Mike substituted for Dave, but looked all at sea for a minute or so until he found his feet and was unlucky not to score from a finely crafted Monty throw. Kluppy came on for Chico and the pressure on Floreat eased slightly with Mike tiring quickly. Dave substituted for Mike and at half time, the score was 7-2 in favour of BXVI. Of note was one of the Floreat guys left the field with 30 seconds left on the clock – which pretty much summed up Floreat’s defeatist mentality at the time.
Towards the end of the first half, Chris Laundy arrived (after getting lost on the way and ending up in Dalkeith!). Mike and Chris started the second half and within a minute, Floreat had scored after cutting out a pass from Chris to Mike. You could see Floreat’s heads lift as they realized that the game was still within their grasp. However, Mike put a very firm stop to that. From kickoff, Mike rocketed a bullet through the Frog’s wall, the ball taking a slight deflection and going in off the bottom corner and Floreat’s collective shoulders hunched again.
With Chico on the field with Chris, there was a goal no-one could forget: Chico shot powerfully, the goalkeeper parried the ball, Chris followed up with a shot from the right hand side that was blocked, a shot from straight in front of goals that hit a Frogs player and a shot from the left hand side that was again parried by the keeper. The ball then fell to the side of Chico, who did a sweet side scissors kick and the ball went in off the post leaving the Frogs pulling their hair out in frustration.
Chico received the full points from the referee for fairest and best, which was well deserved. No matter how rough the Frogs were towards him, he kept his cool and hit them where it hurt them most – on the scoreboard. Now many coaches preach that concept, but you could see by Floreat’s attitude that the scoreboard was where it hurt them most.
Halfway through the second half, Monty in goals substituted for Mike because Monty’s hamstring was getting sore. Chris went on to score three beautiful goals, Chico ended up with 9, Mike 1 and Dave 1, with the final score at 14-4. BXVI had beaten Floreat Frogs 7-2 in each half.