By Jay Mwamba

First Division [East] reserve leaders New York Athletic Club ended the fall undefeated and with three extra points in the bag after a wild 11-goal shoot-out with Pancyprian Freedoms on Travers Island last Sunday. They held off the Greek-Cypriots 6-5.

“We won with our defense!” proclaimed NYAC’s Bill Saporito, although his backline could do little but watch hat trick hero John Koutsounadis’ explosive shooting produce a nervy finish to the seesaw match.

A rout seemed on the cards when NYAC shot to a 2-0 lead inside 20 minutes, courtesy of right back Jim Peters and their ageless goal merchant Khouri Mullings. That, however, was just the cue for Pancyprian to get going.

Three goals in the next 15 minutes by Koutsounadis, Luka Tasigianni and Ejon turned the game around.

A half time pep talk paid dividend for NYAC who laid siege to the Pancyprian goal on resumption.  David Blum leveled. David Stubbs completed a superb move to make it 4-3. And Jon Hemmert slotted home the fifth goal before center back Alex Deckert latched onto an exquisite pass after a 70-yard run, beat the offside trap and finished smoothly.

“At 6-3 we figured they were finished, too,” said Saporito.

Wrong.

In a ten-minute spell before the 80th, Koutsounadis hammered home, “an absolute bomb from 25 yards or so,” according to Saporito, and then hit another unstoppable shot to bring the visitors back to within a goal.

“The finish was 10 frantic minutes of chances on either end but we got the win,” summed up Saporito.

NYAC [9-1, 28] go into the winter break seven points clear of second place New York Albanians in the East with Pancyprian a lowly 4-6 [12] in the West.

STAL CLIMB
Polish side Stal Mielec blanked NYPD FC 2-0 at McCarren Park to cut Manhattan Celtic’s lead atop Division Two to three points.

Stal, whose reserves prevailed 5-0 against the cops, end the fall 8-1 [24] against Celtic’s league best 9-0 [27] record.

LION KINGS
Elsewhere in the second tier, Moroccan Astoria Lions and Tesoro Kings battled to a 4-4 tie after the latter’s reserves had triumphed 5-4.

GWARDIA WIN
Tomasz Gorka and Artur Sibiga scored for FC Gwardia who kept the Polish flag flying in Metro Div. One with a 2-1 decision over Gotham Argo.

Anatoliy Taranenko had the lone Gotham effort off an Allan West assist.

Gwardia [7-2-1, 22] moved to within four points of West frontrunners Korabi as winter begins.

FIVE-STAR TARANENKO
Earlier in midweek, Anatoliy Taranenko had done all the scoring in Gotham’s 5-4 defeat of VV Nieuw Amsterdam.

Nicholas Chang, Theodore Sinsheimer, Kevin Gordon and Momo Diop provided assists.

Ben Eichenberger, Darran Cronshaw [two] and Renaldo Vega replied for VVNA.

EIGHT BALL
Central Park Rangers Grays held nothing back at Pier 40 where they thrashed shorthanded Argo Silver 8-0 in an Over-30 Div. III fixture.

Rich Entocott notched a hat trick, Yuval Lion struck twice and Jack Hartman, Danny Azzo and Mike Gleason added one apiece.

“The Grays came ready to play and close the gap on league leaders Troy FC,” said Lion, who helped CPR [7-1-1, 22] close to within two points of Troy. “Unfortunately Argo Silver failed to shine, showing up with just nine determined and hardworking players, but still making the result a formality.”

PREMIER ROMP
In the Over-30 Div. One [East] title race, Manhattan Kickers Premier moved three points clear of sister club Manhattan Kickers in first place after routing NYPD FC 7-0 at Flushing Meadows.

David James Stewart had a hand in Premier’s first three goals scored by Ari Dolegowski [4th, 9th] and Joe Whiteman [17th] before he bagged the fourth himself [22nd]. He    added two more assists in the second half, for Dolegowski and Andy Stern.

The visitors’ seventh goal was from a penalty won by Matt Smith and converted by Bryan Baracaldo.

NYPD had nary a look at goal, allowing Premier’s veteran shot stopper and club manager Mike FitzGerald to record his fifth clean sheet of the campaign.

FALSE START
Level on points with Premier at the start of the day, Manhattan Kickers dropped into second position [6-2-2, 20] following a 3-1 loss to Barnstonworth Rovers at Bushwick Inlet.

Rovers pumped in three unanswered goals through Aldo Morales, Pete Best and Nasan Fitz-Henley after Andy Sumner, assisted by Paul Cowler, had given Kickers a false start.

“First Touch wishes the Cosmopolitan Soccer League family and readers of this column a happy and safe Holiday Season!”