As has been their practices lately, the Barons started the game without one of the players they've been winning with. Keeper Paul Royal. Royal apparently unhappy with some recent team decision, abruptly chose to retire. The Barons lost another player Matt Miles to Delaware several weeks ago.
The game started with the Barons letting one of the Stallions walked all the way to the goal, virtually unmolested. South Jersey keeper Niel Ingles snatched the ball from his foot (ala Paul Royal) with an awesome save in the first minute of the game. Although the Barons managed to keep the field position fairly even, the ever-dangerous Stallion, Jason Cairns kept the Barons defense busy. At the other end the Stallions defender Luccianno Faccialongo handily kept the Barons at bay despite the fine play of Barons' Matt Brooks. At the 18-minute mark, Stallions' Rich Eger took a great pass from Julio Cesar and slammed it home from 15 yards (1-0).
About six minutes later the Stallions were awarded a penalty shot (these heavily favor the shooter) for taking down Steve Marcinkiewicz and Julio Cesar had no problem scoring (2-0). Stallion's defender Luccianno Faccialongo picked up the ball just inside the Barons end, beat one defender then fired a hard shot from the top of the box to make the score 3-0. The Stallions fell into a slow defensive game, which frustrated the Barons, and in their frustration made a few dangerous mistakes. One of them resulted in a shot that was deflected past the Barons keeper towards the inside of the far post. The ball didn't have a lot of speed on it and gently rolled into the net. But it apparently did not fully cross the line when a Baron defender kicked it out. The Stallions were still arguing that that should have been a goal when the Barons got their next shot off.
This would prove particularly interesting as the Barons' Joe Nick scored a goal off a rebound from a Pat Morris header. The shot was barely into the net when the Stallions defense managed to get the ball out of the net. Again the Stallions were arguing the call but this time arguing that the ball didn't go in. The officials prevailed (3-1).
Faccialongo was awarded a direct kick, which he arced over the heads of the defenders and was destined for the upper left-hand corner of the Barons net. Ingles came from nowhere to snatch the ball out of the air. A few minutes later Joe Nick struck again snapping in a Manella cross to bring the Barons within one (3-2). Five minutes later Majik (who did not play in the first half) scored on a similar play heading in the cross from Paul Zgalich. The score was tied 3-3.
But Cairns, who was brilliant all day, finally connected for a goal from a shot that he took after beating several defenders scoring what proved to be the game winner. Cairns scored again in penalty time to seal the Stallion victory. The Barons drop to 9-5 in league play while the Stallions league record improves to 9-3-1.
South Jersey Soccer:
