Home Openers Are Emphatic Wins for Both Squads

The Fulton Hornets opened their home schedule with solid wins against Boonville on Tuesday night.  In the JV game the Hornets prevailed 3-1 while the varsity cruised to a 7-0 victory.

In the varsity match, the Hornets apparently conjured up the ghosts of the Magnificent Magyars, the legendary national team of Hungary that dominated world soccer in the 1950s.  Led by the unparalleled Ferenc Puskás, the Hungarian squad pioneered a free-flowing passing game later made famous by the "total football" of the 1970s Dutch team.  The Hungarians, with their intricate passing, utterly embarrassed the soccer powerhouses of the day, beating England, for example, 7-1 and West Germany 8-3.  Such was their dominance, that the 1954 World Cup in Switzerland was considered a coronation.  Surprisingly, though, they lost to W. Germany 2-3 in what the Germans called the "Miracle of Bern." Puskás and his teammates would flee Hungary during the 1956 revolution -- a blow from which the Hungarian side would never recover.  Puskás would move on to play for Real Madrid and become one of their greatest stars.  He died in 2006, but his name will forever be remembered in football.  Not only is the Puskás move named after him, but his name also graces the award given by FIFA for the "most beautiful goal" of the year.  For more on Puskás and the 1954 World Cup, view this:

But I digress. :-)  (Believe me, I have more, much more.)

Back to the Boonville game.  Fulton took possession of the match from the opening whistle and it was really only a matter of time before Fulton scored.  Crisp passing (made possible by the fantastic field - thanks, Tim Echelmeier) and intelligent runs carved open the young Boonville squad.  The Hornets took the lead in the 8th minute when Jake Pierce made an overlapping run on the left side.  He cut into the box and drove along the endline before slotting a ball for the easy finish by junior midfielder Ben Kucera, who tucked it inside the far post.

Fulton squandered a number of subsequent chances before taking a 2-0 lead in the 23rd minute.  Off a restart from about 35 yards out, Morgan Milligan sent in a perfect teasing ball that drew out the Boonville keeper.  Unfortunately for him, Pierce was able to rise high in the air and head the ball into the near post netting.

In the second half the Hornets poured it on.  7 minutes in, Fulton scored again to make it 3-0.  Jakob Hull split the defense to find an onrushing Trevor Neal whose shot was barely parried by the keeper, but it fell to a lurking Zach Thomas on the backdoor who made no mistake about the finish.

Moments later (49th minute), the Hornets struck again.  Pierce used his chest to deftly settle a chipped cross from Darren Jones.  While the keeper was able to save Pierce's one-time effort, again it fell to a crashing Fulton player.  This time it was Neal who took advantage and hammered home a shot to the near post to make it 4-0.

The comfortable lead allowed Fulton to give some playing time to some younger players, who acquitted themselves well.  Freshmen Cody Baumgartner looked quite comfortable in the midfield, while his classmate, Kevin Wallace was able to head home a corner from Chad Davis in the 58th minute to give Fulton a 5-0 lead.

Pierce got his brace on a well-placed freekick that he earned at the edge of the box when he cleverly turned on an entry pass from Howie Lee.  The quick turn left the defender with no choice but to trip him.  On the ensuing freekick, Pierce curled a precise ball around the wall and just inside the post.  The keeper made a brave effort diving towards the post, but couldn't get a hand on the ball.

Fulton's final goal came on a nice passing sequence between Hull and Thomas up the right side of the Boonville defense that culminated in a curving shot from the edge of the box by Neal.  Neal's shot, which gave him two for the night, tucked just inside the left post.

While the offense gets the attention, the back line of Milligan, Davis, Jones, and Nick Heimericks stymied any attempts by Boonville to score against senior keeper Sam Mayne, who recorded his second clean sheet of the season.  All in all, it was a very good performance by all the boys to inaugurate the refurbished Fulton field.

Junior Varsity

In the junior varsity match, it was another dominating win.  The Hornets again jumped out to an early lead.  After a couple of quick scoring chances off of good runs on the left side by freshmen Craig Lattey and Kevin Wallace, Fulton's first goal came from the right.  In the 3rd minute, freshman forward Austin Wilson send in a good cross that fellow freshman Ricky Dawson latched on to to knock it past the keeper from close range.

Three minutes later, the Hornets struck again, this time on a corner from the left.  Cody Baumgartner's corner could have been pounced on by several Hornets, but it was Wilson who poked it home to double the Hornets' lead.

Meanwhile, the Fulton defense -- lead by sophomore keeper Daniel Lair -- did well to keep the Boonville Pirates at bay.

In the second half, each team scored.  In the 40th minute (jv matches are 70 minutes long), Wilson got on the end of a Matt Henry cross to secure his second goal of the night to make it 3-0.  Boonville was able to use one of their pacy players to threaten the Fulton goal.  In the 54th minute, Jared Strough came up with a big save on a breakaway, but was left marooned by his defense again in the 60th minute.  Boonville scored to make it 3-1, but that was all the scoring in the jv game.

Fulton returns to action on Thursday evening as they travel to Marshall for a key away test.  The junior varsity plays at 5:00, with varsity to follow.