CES soccer champions again

  • Published
  • By Gary Rogers
  • 100th Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs
RAF MILDENHALL, England --  The 100th Civil Engineer Squadron retained their intramural indoor soccer championship by defeating the 100th Maintenance Squadron 9-2 Aug. 9, 2012, at the RAF Mildenhall North Side Fitness Center.

The game started slowly with CES dictating the pace and, after six minutes, Darren Odey opened the scoring for CES when he side footed the ball home from close range. A minute later Darren scored his and CES's second when he wrong footed two players to neatly tuck the ball away.

Maintenance Squadron's striker David Cooper was working tirelessly up front trying to get his team back in the game but found CES keeper Barry "The Cat" King in fine form. David Cooper, who played for Norwich City in the Championship League two years ago before a knee injury cut short his professional career, is now playing semi-professional with Mildenhall Town.

Seventeen minutes in, Martin Parker found himself in some space in front of goal to slot the ball home to give CES a 3-0 lead. A minute later Darren Odey scored his hat-trick when he got on the end of a nice pass from Parker.

The score at half time was 100th CES 4 - 100th MXS 0.

Second half started pretty much like the first when MXS and David Cooper were continually getting frustrated trying to find a way past The Cat, who looked unbeatable. Then, after seven minutes, CES's Neil Houghton threaded through an inch perfect pass for Andy Keogh who made no mistake to make it 5-0. Neil, coming out of retirement after five years, was certainly adding some experience to the CES defense.

Vincente Andrade, who was a hat-trick hero from an earlier game, got himself on the score sheet to make it six for CES with a powerful shot that flew in the top corner. A great strike on 15 minutes from Martin Parker added a seventh.

David Cooper got his just rewards on 17 minutes when his long range shot found the bottom corner and The Cat was finally beaten. Three minutes later MXS scored again when Keith Holland stabbed the ball home after it rebounded off the wall.

It was not long before Andrade made it eight and, with a minute to go, Darren Odey score his forth and CES's ninth goal to make the final score 100th CES 9 - 100th MXS 2.

The victorious CES coach, Andy Keogh, spoke afterwards, saying "It was our experience and with the 'old heads' of Neil Houghton and Martin Parker in the side it helped us to win the game."

Keith Holland, MXS coach, was left totally frustrated, and David Cooper was in no doubt that the best team won.

So how much longer can this aging CES team keep winning? After all they have only lost one championship in ten years.