FSC played host to West Lawn SC on Sunday April 7th, in what was their third meet-up in a year. On what seemed to be a day where the rain would never end, both sides did well to not let it affect them and they came in with every intention to get a result. FSC took home the three points, after two goals in the second half gave them the 3-1 victory.
It was an evenly contested first half, a very back and forth affair where a rebounded shot by West Lawn landed right in Erick Flores path was what opened the scoring. A bit unlucky for FSC, although you could not take anything away from West Lawn’s attempts and the positioning by Flores to be at the right place at the right time; West Lawn SC led 1-0 after 15 minutes. FSC responded well with two quick attempts on goal, brilliant defending by West Lawn SC however, kept them in the lead. With FSC pushing on and becoming more and more threatening, a foul was called inside the box. A penalty scored by Brayden Dotson, put things level right before the half.
FSC came out in the second half as they ended the first, creating a handful of opportunities. West Lawn continued to defend very well to keep things level. Edgar Garcia had something to say about that however, as he was everywhere all game long. West Lawn seemed like the unlucky side this time around when Garcia was able to hit the back of the net on a shot that was going wide but he intelligently, with the smallest of touches, guided it towards goal. Jonathan Hernandez was then fouled inside the box five minutes later where a second penalty was awarded. Cool, calm, and collected, Hernandez made it 3-1 for FSC. West Lawn tried their best to get back into the game with a couple late chances, unfortunately for them, it was too late. Final whistle blew and after 80 minutes, FSC came away with the result.
We chatted with Edgar Garcia after the match on what he felt made the difference in a game that was so tightly contested, “I feel like we started pressing harder, we started moving the ball a lot more and we wanted this win…at half-time the coach said we needed to believe in ourselves and step up our game and that’s what we did,” said the FSC standout. When asked what they have to do to ensure this continues, Edgar emphasized “we have to work harder at practice, we need to believe in each other and believe in ourselves. If we keep doing this and working as a team, playing more aggressively and being hungry for that goal, we will get the results.” Edgar was a leader on the pitch and was the player that dictated the pace of the game, his team fed off of this and together were able to differentiate themselves.
FSC Coach, Adam Hewitt was not entirely happy with how his side started the game, they fell 1-0 early but he reacted well, making an eight-player substitution that led to a more threatening attack. This led to a penalty in their favor that helped put things level at the half. “We talked about our standards, and we were nowhere near it in the first half, the boys knew that. They needed a little bit of pushing and to be woken up a little bit,” said Coach Adam when asked what was discussed at halftime to turn things around. “Their response was great, a couple of tweaks to what we were doing and the pleasing thing for me was the lads were able to go out in the second half and make those changes. It’s not always easy to flip that switch at half time but we were able to do that.” said the FSC coach. Hewitt was happy at his team’s reaction, and he concluded, recapping the game and looking forward to what’s next. “They have some good individuals, they work hard no matter what the scoreline is, they are always going to cause problems here and there, but we knew today, based on what we have been doing in training that we felt confident if we stuck on what we needed to do we could get three points. It doesn’t matter who we are playing, we need to do what we do well to get the results,” Hewitt said.
FSC won a tough game to get their season started and will not have to travel far for their next opponent in Carol Stream Panthers. They play April 20th where they will look to keep the momentum going. West Lawn SC will be eager to turn things around as they visit FC United next on April 12th.