Report: Lynwood 1, Royals 7

Royals net seven against Lynwood in pre-season friendly
May 15, 2007

Ottawa Royals continued its pre-season program with a comfortable 7-1 victory over MC1 team Lynwood at Valleystream Park, Tuesday.

On a treacherous pitch and under the constant threat of thunderstorms, the Royals came to terms best with the conditions and controlled the majority of the match.

Coach Michael Adams gave debuts to goalkeeper Frank Dicaria and right midfielder Jonathan Brooks and will have been happy with both performances.

Ottawa opened the scoring on 12 minutes as a result of a well-worked set piece. Frank Zegers met Alan Farant’s inswinging corner and hit a rasping volley into the corner of the net.

Four minutes later, the Royals had doubled the score. Jeff Dennis fed the marauding Ryan Devereaux with a fine through ball and the Nova Scotian dispatched the ball comfortably past the advancing keeper.

On 24 minutes, the Royals were three up. Alan Farant’s corners had been a consistent problem to the home side and the pace of his delivery beat the keeper at his near post.

The Royals took their foot off the gas at this time and resorted to individual play rather than working as a unit. Shoddy work in midfield allowed Lynwood with a couple of chances and Dicaria was relieved to see the ball come off the crossbar on two occasions.

The Royals still maintained the lion’s share of possession, but too often became bogged down in the middle or chose wrong options when attacking down the flanks. Defensively, Shales and MacMillan were strong in the centre of the four-man back line, while Zegers and Viscosi provided decent outlets.

At half time, Adams switched the team around, bringing on Wallace for Dicaria, Roberto Gutierrez for Shales, Boyle for Brooks, Labrom for Rochon, Jorge Gutierrez for Kowlessar and Ntwari for Dennis.

The changes seemed to have the desired effect and at the beginning of the half, the Royals tore into the Lynwood defence. The main surprise was that another goal did not arrive until the 62nd minute, and when it did arrive, it came from the unlikeliest of sources. Richard Boyle.

Jorge Gutierrez exploded through the middle of the park and fed an excellent pass out to Thierry Ntwari. Ntwari beat his defender before whipping in a superb centre from right, which Boyle converted with some aplomb.

On 76 minutes, Devereaux scored his second goal of the evening, picking up a loose ball and hammering it past the Lynwood keeper.

Ottawa began to turn the screw a little more and on 79 minutes, MacMillan hit the sixth goal of the evening for the visitors, after Devereaux and Ntwari had combined well on the right.

On 83 minutes, Ntwari finally got the goal his excellent performance deserved, outsprinting the defence from the half way line and toe-poking the ball under the advancing goalkeeper.

The Royals then completely switched off and when Roberto Gutierrez lost possession on the half-way line, it allowed the home side to score a consolation goal and ruined the Ottawa Royals shut-out.


Statistics

Man of the Match: Devereaux – 3 points; Ntwari – 2 points; Brooks – 1 point.

Ottawa Royals
Dicaria (Wallace, 46); Zegers, Shales (R. Gutierrez, 46), MacMillan, Viscosi (Brooks, 74); Brooks (Boyle, 46), Rochon (Labrom, 46; Shales, 75), Kowlessar (J. Gutierrez, 46), Farant; Devereaux (Dennis, 79), Dennis (Ntwari, 46)

Goals: Zegers, 12 (Farant assist); Devereaux, 16 (Dennis assist); Farant, 24 (unassisted); Boyle, 62 (Ntwari Assist); Devereaux 76 (unassisted); MacMillan 79 (Devereaux, Ntwari assist); Ntwari 83 (unassisted)

Pre-season Tally:
Goals: Devereaux, Rochon, 4; MacMillan, Dennis 2; Boyle, D’Angelo, Farant, Kowlessar, Ntwari, Viscosi, Zegers 1
Assists: Devereaux, Mapendere, Ntwari, 3; Deganutti, 2; D’Angelo, Dennis, Farant, Koutras, 1