Shooters Score Early, Often to Spoil Astros Home Opener
With the wind blowing hard at Esther Shiner Stadium, the North York Astros were ready to kick off their season with a win. Unfortunately for them, the Italia Shooters didn’t get the memo. Jason De Thomasis scored twice in the first half, with Fitzroy Christey and Stalin Cardenas providing supplementary goals, to hand the North York Astros a 4-0 loss.
De Thomasis opened the scoring in the fifth minute of the game when he fired a shot into the top left corner of the net from eight yards out. Astros keeper Haidar Al-Shaibain was frozen on the shot. Christey made it 2-0 just nine minutes later after he sent a shot through a maze of people when the ball couldn’t be cleared in front of the Astros goal.
The Astros showed they were no pushovers, putting sustained pressure on the Shooters goal for the first quarter of the game, but came away with only missed opportunities. Devid Delli Carri had a great opportunity to draw the game closer in the 18th minute when he sent a free kick just over the crossbar.
The Shooters didn’t relinquish from their counter-attack, sending Konata Mannings in on three breakaways in the first half. The first and last were stopped by Al-Shaibain with the second one rolling just wide of the goal.
The second half was a combination of the Astros becoming more frustrated and the Shooters clamping down on their defense. The Shooters slowed the pace of the game, forcing the Astros to send in long crosses from the sides, most of which were corralled by Shooters keeper Camilo Benzi. Diego Maradona, playing in his first game with the Astros, found little room to move around in midfield although had a few good chances near the 75th minute, before he was substituted off.
The Astros also got themselves into referee Issac Raymond’s books, but not in a good way. Brian Carbajal, Marco Pacione, and Omar Samuels all received yellow cards in the second half for various fouls.
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