By SPENCER BATES
ST. BONAVENTURE — One kick of the ball can change so much.
In its 4-2 loss to the now-league-leading Borussia Bees, Olean 1854 FC came to know that all too well.
Unbeaten in its last two games, Olean began the affair against one of the only teams that has yet to suffer a loss this season, on the front foot.
With numerous chances in the first 10 minutes, Olean FC found themselves having success on the flanks, beating the Bees’ defense with incisive passing. Unfortunately, lacking on the tail end of those attacks was the final touch, one that would see the back of the Borussia net ripple. This is an issue team captain Ryan Arvin is aware of, however it is one that he is confident will resolve itself over time.
“I’m not concerned about (the struggles to finish), because the chances are there,” Arvin said. “We’re scoring goals, we’re not struggling to create chances, it’s just a few minor details.
“Guys are starting to figure out each other’s tendencies, … we’re figuring out what each other are good at, and we’re utilizing that to our advantage.”
But after continuing to mount attack after attack, Olean did manage to find the breakthrough it was in search of. After Borussia’s goalkeeper did well to keep out an initial point-blank shot on his goal, the rebound fell right to the feet of Caleb Holmes, who slotted home.
And while Olean’s offense consistently caused problems for Borussia’s defense, when the latter did manage to get its offense going, it was turned away at crucial moments by a well-organized Olean defense.
“The first half, I thought, was excellent,” Arvin said of his team’s stout defense. “I thought we communicated really well, guys were in the right spots, our line was excellent. If you keep the play in front of you, at this level, for the most part, you can deal with it. … (Borussia) were good at playing deep line crosses that were on point, their touches were on point. But I thought we were, in the first half, organized.”
However, much to the dismay of Olean, a number of unlucky bounces in its own penalty area gave the Bees the only opportunity they needed to bring the scores level, doing so minutes before the intermission.
The second half was a similar story to the first in that Olean got the scoring underway, much in part thanks to a blunder by Borussia’s goalkeeper, only for the Bees to conjure up a response, albeit in much quicker fashion than they did in the first half.
The difference between the halves, and the biggest reason for the score having run away from Olean was that its defense faltered in connecting on crucial clearances that would have averted danger in important moments of the game.
“I said at halftime, the game is going to be won and lost on either somebody not going to cover defensively, they’re going to whiff a ball, or they’re going to gamble and that’s what happened,” Arvin said. “I’d say at least three of the goals were bad clearances by us. … I don’t want to call them mistakes, because that’s harsh, but those miscues, that’s the difference. Not clearing the ball because you shanked it because it’s wet, that’s the difference at the higher levels, between winning and losing. That’s all it takes.”
Thanks to those small mistakes, Borussia scored twice in the final 10 minutes, putting the game on ice and jumping to the top of the BDSL’s Premier League.
Olean 1854 FC’s Eric Spring (14) is stopped by a sliding challenge from a Borussia Bees defender. (Tim Bush)
As for Cattaraugus County FC, it remains in search of their first BDSL win of the season after falling 2-1 to Celtic United despite having coming up with the grand majority of solid chances.
Out of the gates, Celtic controlled the fixture, stringing together passes and dicing through the Catt. County defense for a number of solid opportunities. One of which, coming from a driven pass across the face of the host’s goal, was capitalized upon.
However, conceding the game’s first goal did not seem to discourage Catt. County, which, for the next nearly 30 minutes of game time created a number of its own chances. Unfortunately for them, none were able to be finished off and what only made matters more difficult was Celtic United scoring a brace just five minutes before halftime.
But while Catt. County may have been down, they were not out of it. In the second half, they were able to exploit the heavy legs of Celtic, who had no substitutes to work with, and managed to cut its deficit in half via a goal from Ward Kennedy. From there, the pressure was on the visitors as Catt. County continued to stage offensive surges for the remainder of the fixture.
But, with a consistent finishing touch still eluding them, the game-tying goal they were in search of never manifested, as they fell 2-1.
Celtic United’s goalkeeper is beaten by a header from Cattaraugus County FC’s Ward Kennedy (13.) (Tim Bush)
Olean 1854 FC and Cattaraugus County FC both hit the road for their next games. Olean is set to travel to face the Amherst Sharpshooters on June 15 at 4 p.m. at the Nichols School. Catt. County, on the other hand, will square off against the Borussia Bees on June 15 at 6 p.m. at Buffalo State’s Coyer Field.
