Kingston Stockade FC wins home opener
Kingston recovers from U.S. Cup loss with victory to open league play
KINGSTON, N.Y. » Kingston Stockade FC bounced back from Wednesday’s 6-3 overtime loss to the Long Island Rough Riders in the opening round of the U.S. Open Cup by blanking the Rhode Island Reds 3-0 Saturday at Dietz Stadium in its National Premier Soccer League season opener.
“It’s a great result, and an excellent performance by our player to recover from Wednesday, both mentally and physically,” Stockade coach David Lindholm said. “And to come out and start the game like we did, three goals in 17 minutes, was really important.
“Then after that, we were calm and managed the game, and I’m really happy and really proud of the way they performed.”
Kingston got to business right out of the gate with Matt Koziol depositing Juan Gatti’s corner in the net in the fourth minute to give the Stockade a 1-0 lead on a damp raw evening in front of about 370 fans.
Koziol soon found the net again in the 10th minute on penalty kick that gave Kingston a 2-0 edge. Mike Corbi scored the final goal of the evening in the 17th minute.
Stockade continued to dominate possession through the remainder of the first half, but couldn’t convert any of the five corners forced from the 30th to the 40th minute into a goal.
After a relatively equally contested opening 30 minutes of the second half, the Reds began to come to life, and managed to control the ball for much of the remainder of the match. But they couldn’t translate that momentum into a goal, with a shot going over the crossbar in the 78th minute and another going far off to right in the 81st.
Rhode Island then failed to capitalize on another corner in the 83rd minute and a free kick in the 88th.
Kingston played Saturday’s match without Pedro Espindola, who went down with a hamstring injury in the 22nd minute of Wednesday’s loss, but Lindholm said Espindola’s teammates stepped up to the challenge.
“He’s a huge part of our team, and how we play, but, again, what you saw tonight, is that guys step up in his absence,” Lindholm said. “Mike Corbi had a great game, and I think a bunch of guys really stepped up in his absence and showed we’re not just a team of one player.
“We’ve got a good starting eleven, a good 18 and even guys beyond that.”
Lindholm called Saturday’s win interesting.
“When you score three goals like that, pretty quickly like that, you almost throw a lot of the tactics out the window,” he said. “You just need to be calm, smart and composed and we did that, so that is what I saw as a
real positive for us.
“We managed the game after taking an early lead.”
He added he wasn’t concerned about how much time Rhode Island possessed the ball at the end of the match.
“We did a good job of letting them possess the ball a little farther from our goal, but then playing good defense when they got a little closer,” Lindholm said.
Lindholm also said he
learned a lot about his new players, and he was particularly excited about Steve Da Fonte and how he performed at right back.
“He came into a position that we haven’t seen him play in throughout preseason and he just was steady, calm and smart.”
Koziol said he was excited Stockade got off to such a fast start, but he wasn’t as satisfied with end of the match, adding there were too many mistakes and they allowed to many corners late.
And when it comes to holding early leads, Koziol
added that everyone needs to stay strong mentally and keep command throughout the entire 90 minutes.
Looking to the match against Greater Lowell NPSL FC on Saturday at 6 p.m. in Tyngsboro, Mass, Koziol said they’ll be preparing to face a team they didn’t play last year.
“We played them the first year,” Koziol said. “We have to be ready for anything.”
Lindholm admitted much of his focus was on the U.S. Open Cup and he hasn’t had much time to look into Greater Lowell.
“We’ll just train, we’ll get guys back,” Lindholm said, “so, Tuesday, we’ll see who we got in practice and sort of go from there.”
Stockade founder Dennis Crowley was excited to see Kingston win the opener in its third season after his team was eliminated from U.S. Open Cup contention Wednesday on the heels of back-to-back preseason losses to Newtown Pride FC and Marist.
“We didn’t want to drop our opener,” Crowley said. “Winning our home opener is a big win and feels good.”