December 1-3

The final month of 2013 began with Sunday afternoon soccer at the Arena. It was the end of a three-games-in-five-days stretch for me there and with a Saturday night boxing card figured in the building's changeover crew has been keeping double-time as well. On this day the Syracuse Silver Knights made the last of their two regular season appearances, they were the Roar's opening-night opponent two weeks earlier. The Roar fell to 0-4 on the season with a 10-9 loss but the effort was far and away the club's best thus far. It takes time to build chemistry and teamwork, this game was definitely a step in the right direction. The Roar took a 2-0 lead on a score by JerJer Gibson, Syracuse tied it 2-2 before Gibson struck again to make it 4-2. The Kinghts knotted matters once again, at halftime it was 4-4. In the third quarter Corey Maret gave the Roar a 6-4 lead but Syracuse scored the next three to forge a 10-6 advantage. In the closing moments Maret scored from beyond the three-point arc to pull the Roar within a point but a furious rally down the stretch went for naught as the Knights held on for the win. The Roar's next date at the Arena is on Friday the 20th against the defending MISL champion Baltimore Blast. Monday was quiet save for lunch at the mall, on Tuesday the basketball team had a scrimmage at Wilson HS in suburban Reading. The bus left at 4:30 for the 6:00 scrimmage, I rode along just for the hell of it. It always feels strange to travel north on 222 in a vehicle that I'm not driving. At McCaskey the gym has two floors for scrimmages but not so at Wilson, on this night the junior varsity squads played at one of Wilson's middle schools. We dropped them off on the way and picked them up on the way home, with it all we were back in Lancaster by 8:45. Take care, thanks for reading.