The Suwannee Soccer Boys hit the road again for their fourth contest in seven days on Monday night Dec. 8. Keystone Heights has a nice soccer venue and a large crowd awaited the Bulldogs.A good crowd of Suwannee fans attended to support the traveling Bulldogs. The Bulldogs came away with a 1-1 tie on a game filled with missed chances. Opportunity after opportunity just never materialized into goals.



Suwannee did break into the scoring column early, as Michael Bowen aggressively played a goalie kick. As the Keystone goalie attempted to punt out the ball, Bowen charged the low kick and deflected it into the net to the surprise of the goalie.



The rest of the half saw Suwannee have several drives down field, but most shots were weak attempts, easily handled by the goalie or off the mark. Both teams were substituting frequently but neither seemed to find a combination that could produce successful shots.



The second half saw more missed opportunities with the offense unable to score. For the first 20 minutes most of the action was on Keystone’s half of the field as Suwannee unsuccessfully tried to find the goal.



Keystone Heights’ goal came on one of their offensive pushes with 18 minutes left in the game. A Keystone shot careened off a Suwannee player and the official ruled a hand ball foul. Unfortunately for the Bulldogs, this was in the keepers box, so a penalty kick was awarded.

The Keystone player fired the ball into the right hand corner of the Suwannee net to tie the game.



Suwannee seemed energized by the tying score of Keystone and picked up the pace. The offense surged forward on several occasions, but never were able to produce a goal. Two different breakaways were futile efforts as the game neared end. The last surge saw some great goal keeping as the Keystone keeper knocked down a hard attempt and then collected himself to reach back and reject the rebound kick with his left hand.



Coach Johnson stated after the game that the Bulldogs just couldn’t cash in on the many opportunities against Keystone. Coach Johnson remarked that three travel matches, plus a home stand, all within a week, might have tired the team. Once again the defense held the Keystone players to only a few threatening offensive drives.



The Bulldogs travel again to familiar foe Santa Fe on Thursday night, and entertain district team Wakulla for a JV and varsity game on Friday night, December 12. Look for the stories in the Suwannee Democrat. The Bulldog soccer team will be back in the Dog House against Columbia Friday, Dec. 19. This should be an exciting match. The Dogs hit the field at 7 p.m. Come out and watch some exciting soccer action in the Dog House. Go Dogs!