2019 Premier Postgame Week 2

Week 2 BDSL Premier Postgame

Willies(1-0-0) 0 - Sharpshooters (1-0-0) 1

In a battle of two of the winning teams of week 1, Sharpshooters were able to come out strong in the second half and hand Willies their first loss of the season.

"First half was a little scrappy and ugly. Both teams were fairly short handed. Second half we settled in and controlled possession" a representative from Amherst told us.

"Derek Bartlo had an excellent game at holding midfield. Kyle Hofschneider was also very dangerous 1v1 and earned a PK. Z. Schwartz had a very good game filling in at RB and scored the winner."

When asked who stood out for Willies, the Sharpshooters Twitter account manager said:

"I thought their CB pair of G. Harris and J. Retzer were solid and J. Bonetto up top was dangerous."

Do you think Willies are good enough to stay up in Premier?

"Yeah I actually think they may be a playoff team. They were missing their Mercyhurst guys and were solid even without them." 

No representative from Willies was available for a comment...they didn't return our tweet.


Clarence (1-0-0) 5 - BSC International (0-0-1) 1

Two of the most surprising teams in week one were Clarence and BSC International.  Clarence took out 2018 playoff team, Wolves, while BSC International were able to keep 2018 playoff team, BUSS, to a lone tally, via PK.

"We controlled most of the play yesterday. I’d say possession was 70-30 us. They did receive 2 pks chances but I thought both were 50/50 calls. We scored some beautiful goals on set pieces and crosses into the box." the Clarence twitter rep told us.

BSC International were unable to score on either of the two pk's they drew, with the first going over and the second saved by emergency reserve keeper Eaton.

Starting keeper LP1 was sent off for taking down BSC International striker Mohamed Hussein in the box, forcing Ryan Eaton to man the goal for the rest of the game.

When asked about BSC International's defense, our Clarence representative said:

"Big and physical but couldn’t handle our pace and quick off the ball movement. We used the width against them all game."

Who was your best player?

"Ryan Eaton, Chris Berardi and JJ Hughes"

Did anybody stand out for BSC International?

"Ameya deshpande was there top player"

No representative from BSC International was available to respond to us.


 BUSS (0-0-1) 0 - BSC Raiders (0-0-0) 2

This match featured two of the perennial powerhouses of the BDSL Premier division.  Both teams had a shortened roster due to FC Buffalo's trip to Germany.   

A representative from BUSS said:

"We came in with 13 guys but lost Kyle Clifford within 2 minutes of kickoff with an ankle injury. Hammer has been fighting a groin injury for a while and went out at halftime. Luckily Andre showed up before half and filled in well for him in the second half. We lost Al and Nate as they both came down with the flu/sicknesses in the days leading up to the game.  Mo Channer and Musse were both injured as well so we didn't really have many options." 

"I would say that BSC probably had more of the possession but weren't able to generate many solid chances.  Their defense was strong though and held us to only a couple chances ourselves.  Bobby scored a goal in the final 10 minutes but it was called back by the ref because he blew the whistle for a foul right before it went in.  They scored both of their goals on PK's."

"BSC played as they normally do, complaining and constantly berating the referee. I don’t know how they can deal with those guys.  Mermigas was especially vulgar.""

Where do you guys go from here, only earning 1 point in two games so far?

"I'm not sure honestly.  We seem to be missing something right now.  I think the Hunters are the glue that keep us moving up top.  It has been tough without them.  But we get both guys back this week, along with Wes, who is back from studying abroad.  Hopefully we can put some balls in the net this weekend."

Who played well for you?

"I'll always answer this question with the same guy, Polo.  He was really strong Sunday.  Andre filled in well at CB, and I thought Neil played great filling in at CM."

And how about for BSC?

"Rudy was a menace as always, Evan had a pretty solid game as well.  He toasted one of our defenders to earn a Pk.

BSC Raiders do not have a team twitter page so we assume they will never be able to give us their opinions.
 Wolves (0-1-0) 3 - Southtowns FPFC (0-1-0) 0

Both teams came in to this game with a 1 in the loss column from the previous week.

Our representative from Wolves responded first:

"Game started off a bit slow. Still adjusting to all the new guys, but we ended up getting there closer to the end of the first half. Second half we came out with a little more intensity"

"Dugan cashed in off a corner from Richards. Second was a long ball picked out by Terp to C. Griffiths, who played Vuc down the left wing and he lofted one to the back side netting. Vuc then had it on the left side of the box and saw Dugan’s run to the top of the six and he rolled it in. We saw it out from there."

Who was your best player?

"I’ll give a shout out to everyone. We’re still figuring out how to play with each other, but it’s definitely looking up."

Did anybody stand out for SFPFC?

"Oh I meant to say josh Barker stood for southtowns."

Our Southtowns FPFC rep seemed to have a different view:

"We played much better then the score line reflected. We had more possession on the ball and created more quality opportunities. Colin Archibald and seba both had good chances in front of net but couldn’t convert. Ralph grizanti has a couple clutch saves and josh barker played really good at cb but unfortunately the wolves scored all the goals of crosses."

Did anybody stand out for Wolves?

"Number 99 (Dugan) on their team stood out, we had no match for his height so he controlled a lot of their game moving forward with crosses being sent in to him and with him playing the ball on to other forwards using his head."

Do you think Wolves will be able to compete for top of the league?

"I don’t think they will perform against the top teams. Their play is too simplistic and they’re defensive positioning is poor. Any team in the league can beat them on their day."

What do you say to those who have predicted you guys to be bottom of the league?  Can you prove them wrong?

"I’m sure we will prove them wrong. Our first week we kept the sharpshooter to two goals and other than a penalty and a miss hit cross we shut them down on the ball. We are a strong team who don’t get the credit we deserve. This weeks result is not indicative of how the rest of the season will go. That’s a promise."

Celtic United(0-0-0) 1 - Lackawanna FCY (1-0-0) 3

Lackawanna FCY had a strong week 1, easily taking town Pendleton United, while Celtic United was forced to reschedule their game against 2018 league and Tehel Cup champions BSC Raiders.

Faress from Lackawanna FCY spoke with us:

"Yemen controlled most of the first half and had better chances especially in the first half. The game started to get chippy near the end. Sammy the keeper stood on his head saving 2 pks during the game."

"We were missing alot of key players especially on Defense."

"I can tell you one thing. Zac Shaibi and Abdullahi Hussein amazing tandem. Zac and very shifty and cuts on a dime. You will hear alot about him this season."

What happened to earn both teams a sending off?

"Red card at the final minutes of the game to our keeper Sammy for retaliation for what he felt was an elbow to his head on a corner kick.  I think Sam Greco got the other red."

How were your opponents?

"Celtic will definitely win games, i would not count them out. I just feel the team is deep this season and playing as a team right out of the gate.  Celtic United had many shots at the net, most eaten by the keeper and a few just inches wide."

Did anybody stand out from Celtic United?

 "Alex Reid and the keeper. Alex Reid is a force, without him, not many shots on net. And thier keeper i think Nick, made crazy saves especially point blank and one i thought should have went in."

We were unable to reach anybody from Celtic United for a comment.


Queenston (0-1-0) 1 - Pendleton United (0-1-0) 1

With both teams taking a loss in week 1 of the BDSL season, week 2 was pivotal for each team to get things rolling.

We spoke with a Queenston rep first:

"...so both teams were missing a handful of impactful players, but we ended up having 15 guys play to their 11. So we were upset with the result, all things considered. I commend them for going a full 90 without a sub. They stayed very organized. We missed some halfway decent chances but they actually limited our good looks to be honest.  

We think they did an admirable job to get a point but obviously we were disappointed not to get a game winner. I don’t think we necessarily deserved it, but I think we probably should have gotten it one way or another, if that makes sense"

Who was your best player?

"Our best player was Ross Suitor who also registered our lone tally; phenomenal strike, one of the best I’ve ever seen in person. He hit it from probably 35 yards out. A frozen rope into the top left corner of the net"

Did anybody stand out for your opponent?

"Their best player on the field was Matt Pickard, who normally plays defense but slid into a DCM role yesterday. He snuffed out a lot of our buildup which made our threats on goal less frequent or altered what we preferred to do. Mike Juszczak also stood out as a keeper. He’s a keeper by trade, as he was headed to UB for that position until they folded the program. For BDSL he usually plays center back but again for personnel reasons they slid him to keeper, which I think actually hurt us.  It hurt us because he had complete command of the box. No indecision when coming out for a ball and he barked orders to keep his team’s shape right, which I think also helped them thwart our offensive chances, which were coming often late in the second half as they expectedly started running out of gas."

Do you think Pendleton United has what it takes to stay in the Premiership?

"Umm I’m not sure. If they get more numbers they can probably steal a point here or there and they should at least get one win against Southtowns. Southtowns might be the worst premier roster I’ve actually ever seen. Yesterday’s game felt more like a relegation battle then a playoff battle. So I’d say Pendleton will be in the mix for relegation and if we continue to play the way we have thus far (not terrible, but no where near good), then we will be as well."

Our representative from Pendleton United kept his responses short and to the point:

"For having 11 men, the heart out of our mighty lions took care of business and came out and dominated the 1st half. We ended up getting 1 point which was a good result.

Best player was Kevin Loftus, he is a stellar CB."

And how about for your opponents?

"Only standout from their team is Ross Suitor, they look in trouble this season"

Thats a wrap on our coverage of Week 2 of the 2019 BDSL Summer season.  Good luck to all the teams next week.