Edward P. Dittmer (Hershey, PA)
The Wildcats came out needing to show their fans that reports of their demise were, in fact, premature. The key to victory, as always, was to play patient football while allowing the speed of Simmonds and Mitchell to set up goals. On Saturday, they finally stuck to the script and goals from Greg Simmonds and Ze Roberto gave the crowd of 1,521 a 2-0 victory over the Richmond Kickers.
Through much of the first half, Hershey controlled the play but created few serious chances. Good play in the middle from Ze Roberto and Simmonds would set up defender Mike Henning, who forced McGinley into a diving save in the 21st.
Richmond displayed little of the aggressiveness from their first match in Hershey with DiRosario and Knight creating only half-chances early on. In the end, neither team could open the scoring and they went into the locker rooms at 0-0.
In the second half, both teams were more determined to come away from the match with more than a point and made substitutions early and often. But it was not until the 76th minute that someone would manage to score. Greg Simmonds ran onto a pass from midfielder Mike Feniger, sliced through the Richmond defense, and slotted the ball past McGinley for a 1-0 lead.
Richmond missed a golden opportunity to equalize immediately after the kick-off. Hershey goalkeeper Rich Sletvold bravely took the ball off of DiRosario's foot in the area but was unable to control it. With an open goal, Richmond could not get anyone else in the area before Hershey cleared.
Heading into stoppage time, Hershey refused to play "bunker ball and protect their lead. Cesidio Colasante, Ze Roberto and Mike Feniger would try to maintain possessions and kept the pressure on the Richmond defense. The pressure paid off as Ze Roberto scored of a pass from Colasante in stoppage time to give Hershey their much-needed insurance goal and secure 4 points.
