Maidstone Market Wins Men's Soccer Final, 2-1

The Maidstone Market repeated as the champion of the Wednesday evening 7-on-7 men’s soccer league at East Hampton’s Herrick Park on July 12 by coming back to defeat Bateman Painting 2-1.

Bateman, which had been the runner-up to the Market in the fall as well, by a score of 2-0, had fewer players (Rafa Santos, who had been red-carded the week before, was particularly missed) but gave Maidstone — the perennial champion before East Hampton F.C.-Bill Miller entered the league some years ago — all it could handle in the first half. 

Bateman kicked off and immediately went on the attack, and though it was parried, John Lizano, a very strong player whom the Market’s defenders had a hard time containing, drew attention to himself, repeatedly streaking, as he did, down the left sideline. 

Cristian Rios, Bateman’s goalie, was also prominent, especially in the first half, when he made several beautiful, flat-out saves.

The Painters got on the scoreboard first, thanks to a 10-yarder by Juan Zuluaga, who beat Ivan Mesa, the Market’s goalie, to the far post. 

The icebreaker was scored just about halfway through the first 30-minute period. Xavi Piedramartel almost tied it four minutes later when his hard shot caressed Bateman’s crossbar as it sailed by. 

Mesa came close to creating a problem for himself when, in the 25th minute, he came far out of the cage (Mesa often is a forward when he’s not goaltending) and had the ball taken from him. The subsequent shot, aimed at a momentarily empty net, went wide. 

Just before the halftime break, Bateman was presented with a free penalty kick after Julian Barahona took Lizano down about 20 yards out, but that shot too went wide. 

Besides the offensive spark provided by Lizano, and Rios’s agile goalkeeping, Bateman had its defenders, Gonzalo Presedo, Carlos Bolvito, and Romulo Tubatan (who periodically bolstered attacks), to thank for the fact that the Market was held scoreless in the first frame. Maidstone, because of a yellow-carding, was a man up in the first half’s waning moments, and also in the opening moments of the second.

The defending champs began to come on in the second period, however. A rocketed shot by Barahona was somehow saved by a diving Rios in the 40th minute.

In the 45th, with Maidstone again a man up, thanks to Presedo’s yellow-carding after taking Ernesto Valverde, one of the Market’s forwards, down, Barahona unleashed another hard shot that Rios stopped. From that point on, Maidstone was pretty much continually on the attack, tiring Bateman’s besieged defenders.

Zuluaga and Bolvito blocked shots in those anxious moments, but eventually, in the 50th minute, Maidstone tied it 1-1 on a diving header by Barahona of a chipped pass from Jefferson Ramirez, who had been to the left of the goal. Rios could do nothing on that one. Barely a minute had passed when Maidstone scored again, the ball going from Barahona to Valverde to Ramirez, who banged home what proved to be the game-winner.

Tubatan, with a defender on him, drove in on Mesa in the final minute. Mesa came out, and Tubatan let it go, though the ball wound up pressed between Mesa’s legs.

Rios came up with one more big save in the final seconds, on a free kick taken by Piedramartel. 

“I think we were a little tired,” Tubatan said as the Maidstone players were celebrating. 

“We had it right there — it could have gone either way,” Lizano added. “We had so many opportunities. They were just making time at the end, you know, because they were ahead.”

The Market barely made it to the final, its semifinal game with Bill Miller on July 5 having gone down to a penalty kick shootout that finally ended in the ninth round when John Romero Jr. put a shot by Carlos Lucero, who had subbed for Bill Miller’s regular goalie, Quique Araya, that night. Before Romero stepped to the line, Mesa stopped a waist-high shot aimed his way by Bill Miller’s Gehider Garcia.

Bateman, whose opponent was F.C.-Tuxpan, had an easier time of it in the playoffs’ semifinal round, defeating Tuxpan 5-2, with goals by Lizano (two),  Santos, Tubatan, and Zuluaga. 

Wilber Flores, who was to wind up as the league’s “goleador,” its high-scorer, had one goal, and Orlando Bautista had one for the losing team.