F.C. Tuxpan, the runner-up to Maidstone Market in last fall’s 7-on-7 men’s soccer league’s championship game, has taken the early lead in the summer standings, having bested Tortorella Pools 5-3 in the season opener on June 11, and having defeated Sag Harbor United 4-2 on June 18.
The league’s hourlong games are being played at East Hampton’s Herrick Park on Tuesday evenings, beginning at 6:30. Leslie Czeladko, the league’s overseer, had hoped that the field would be better lit this spring, as promised by East Hampton Village’s administration, which is renovating the park in phases, but since the improvements haven’t been made yet, the games are being played farther away from the parking lot than they used to be, and with regulation-size goals rather than the smaller ones the league had used before. In other words, there should be more goals scored this season than in the past.
As of Monday, the standings showed Tuxpan in front, at 2-0-0, with 6 points, followed by Maidstone Market (1-0-1) with 4 points, Sag Harbor United (1-1) with 3 points, Liga de Gulag (1-1) with 3 points, Tortorella Pools (0-1-1) with 1 point, and the East Hampton Soccer Club (0-0-2) with no points.
Czeladko, who files game reports on the league’s website, eastendsoccer.org, said he was impressed by Liga de Gulag’s Diego Jaramillo, who had a hat trick — and thus took the lead in the Golden Boot competition — in Liga’s 6-3 win over the East Hampton Soccer Club on June 18. The Soccer Club led 3-1 at halftime, but in the second Liga scored five goals, with Jaramillo getting three of them — one by way of a penalty kick.
“He’s a great player to watch,” said Czeladko, who is in his 40th year as the league’s manager.
In another game on the 18th, F.C. Tuxpan defeated Sag Harbor United 4-2, with Cristian Baros, Lizandro Carreto, Faustino Meza, and Luis Munoz scoring goals. Cristian Compuzano, who used to play for Tuxpan, scored S.H.U.’s goals.
In the nightcap, Tortorella Pools and Maidstone, the league’s chief power over the years, played to a 2-2 tie.
“This was a good game, with both sides getting off some great shots, at least three hitting a goalpost or the crossbar,” Czeladko said. “Tortorella drew first blood as Alberto Nieto blasted a ground-hugger into Maidstone’s net from about 30 yards out.”
Tortorella had a chance to make it 2-0 somewhat later in the first half, “but Nieto’s penalty kick caromed off a post.”
Antonio Padilla put Maidstone up 2-1 before the half ended, blasting a 30-yard, head-high direct kick past a wall of defenders into the net.
“It was looking as if Maidstone would pull out the win,” Czeladko said, “but near the end of the second half, Alex Mesa, Maidstone’s goalie, collided with one of his defenders as he rushed out to grab the ball, and Tortorella’s David Rodriguez, who was standing there, was able to fire a shot over the line that clinched the tie. It was Rodriguez’s 100th goal of his 7-on-7 career.”
