By Randy Kim
KINGSTON, N.Y. — It was a tale of two halves for Kingston Stockade FC on Saturday, but unfortunately for the home side, the final result still led to zero points.
Despite spending much of the second half in the visitors' half of the pitch, Stockade fell to New York Athletic Club, 2-1, in front of 881 fans at Dietz Stadium on a lovely June evening.
A defensive mishap by the hosts led to the first goal of the match in just the 29th minute, as NYAC's Tom Yorston slotted home a breakaway goal that gave the visitors a 1-0 lead.
Yorston then converted again just after halftime in the 47th minute, as he expertly collected a cross before one-timing a volley home to give NYAC a 2-0 lead.
Stockade then became the aggressor, however, and forced the action for most of the rest of the match.
Alex Tejera headed home a goal in the 57th minute for Kingston, off of an assist from substitute Mikey Lanzetta.
Stockade was relentless from that point forward, but unfortunately was unable to convert any of their chances, despite numerous skilled attempts by the likes of Tejera, Bruce Jeter, and more.
Kingston midfielder Matt Koziol saw the loss as a difficult one to swallow.
"The ball didn't bounce our way," said Koziol. "We hit a couple of posts, and they hit us on a quick counter-attack to score their second. We battled hard, we battled well. It's a tough one to take, because we played pretty well, so it's a tough loss."
Koziol saw the absence of some key players, including captain Jamal Lis-Simmons — out due to a questionable red card issued the previous Wednesday against TSF — as a tough hurdle to overcome for the hosts.
"We were missing a couple of key guys, a couple of starters that would have helped us and kind of solidified us, but we're deep this year, so even then we should have done a lot better today than we did," said Koziol.
Stockade's next match is at home against Seacoast Mariners on Saturday, June 9 at 6PM at Dietz Stadium.