Storm Fails to Hold Lead in 2-2 tie, loss 2 valuable points

Santa Clarita, California - Saturday night's match up was a game where both teams were
looking to advance with in the standings; both teams had an identical records of 5-1-2 & both
were looking to own 1st place, the Storm were specifically looking to gain a two point
advantage over F.C Hasental.  Almost the entire game looked like that was what was bound
to happen, until the last 5 minutes of the game when that all changed; as the two teams
ended the game in a 2-2 tie.

It was the Storm that came on strong in the first 45 minutes of play, controlling the pace of
the game and the ball. The Flash were taken by surprise as the Storm held the bigger
percentage of the ball most of the half. In the 14th minute forward Tyler Coombes collected
the ball on a counter attack & out maneuvered the midfield and defense to find himself on
a one on one with Flash 'keeper; Nick Harpel who made an attempt at poncing on it off his
line but got the foot of Coombes and the ball was well on it's way in the net. Coombes
collected his 5th goal of the season matching teammate Andres Bueno, giving Coombes a
team leading 12 points with his two assist. It was only nine minutes later (23:00) when
midfielder Ricky Cruz got the ball outside the 18 yard box, turned with the ball and shot a
curve that wrapped around Harpel and right to the upper V to give the Storm a comfortable
2 goal lead .

Coombes Goal as the ball travels to the net "Sweet"

 That comfortable lead lasted throughout a good portion of the game until the Flash came out
on a mission to get back in the game with 15 shots (most in the second half), they were really
putting the pressure on. However the Storm midfielders and defense held them off for quite
sometime. The Storm defenders created a number of counter attacks getting the ball to their
forwards who had a number of opportunities right in front of the Flash net. However Harpel
came up big when he needed to, turning away those attacks.  Alex Harlley came off the
bench in  the 59th minute & received a pass from the midfield and worked his way within 4
yards only to place it right into the lap of Harpel. Harlley yet again broke away  on his own
in the 74th minute as he took a hard shot that was just tipped over the cross bar.Tyler Coombes had two direct shots with no luck of his own. The Flash turned it up &
came on strong to get back in & in the 87th minute of play they received a corner kick and
Flash's forward Justin Pizou's head found the ball and the back of the net past 'keeper Miguel Lopez.  With only three minutes on the clock the Flash started to really pick up the
attack but the Storm defenders held their ground until the end of regulation time. The

official then tacked on 3 minutes of stoppage time, & in less then a minute the Storm fouled a Flash player in the Storm's defensive third & on the restart the ball caught the head of Flash player; (defender) Michael Sommerfield who headed it in to capture the tie and maintain there position with the Storm at 17 points a piece. After the game Coach Arana was asked to give his thoughts on his team's performance for his first game as head coach:"We as a team , are looking to continue the winning tradition that we have created, We have a great foundation of players to build from".

Storm will travel to Thousand Oaks to face F.C Hasental who are tied with both the Storm and the Flash with 17points. This will be a Sunday 5:30pm match at Cal Lutheran University.
The Storm will return home on June 15th in a 6pm match with the San Diego Boca at Canyon High School.

Game summaryStormShots - 9
Goals - 2 (Coombes[1], Cruz[1])
Fouls - 8
Saves - 5San Diego FlashShots - 15
Goals 2 - (Justin Pizou[1], Michael Sommerfield[1])
Saves  - 6