While they started the season off with low expectations, the TABC varsity soccer team quickly became a threat to every other team in the league. Winning game after game, the boys in yellow shocked their opponents by pulling through in their first five games of the season. With two of those games being well fought battles and the other three being blowouts, TABC advanced to 5-0 as the team approached what started to look like its biggest game yet.
Wednesday, April 4, was the date of the annual Frisch-TABC home game. Coming into the game knowing it wouldn’t be an easy one, the Frisch boys kept their heads high. TABC captain Refi Minsky found the top right corner of the net all the way from the far left side to put TABC up 1-0 quickly in the first quarter. Towards the end of the quarter Frisch knew they had to do something, and scored three goals in the last few minutes of the quarter. The teams went into the locker room with TABC down 3-1.
The Frisch Cougars netted two more goals right out of the locker room to make the score 5-1. With TABC’s first loss of the season looming, a clutch red card was given to the Cougars’ captain. This meant TABC had a one man advantage for the next five minutes. This was their chance. Dov Baron and Refi Minsky, the dynamic offensive pair, along with Ezra Friedman and Aviel Avidan, two of the most technical players in the league, and Avi “The Wall” Bodoff were ready to make the most of this advantage. They came out on fire. Scoring five goals in five minutes, TABC was looking at one of the greatest comebacks in history. Although the TABC advantage came to an end, the scoring for them did not. With another goal in the second quarter, TABC ended the half with an incredible six goal run. The score was now 7-5 in favor of TABC. Heading into the locker room, the Storm were more pumped than ever, and ready to seal the game away.
The third quarter started and still the scoring did not stop for TABC. With three more goals in the third quarter, TABC started playing their best game yet. They were now riding on nine unanswered goals and took the 10-5 lead into the fourth quarter. The Storm knew that they needed just two more goals to seal the win, pull off one of the greatest comebacks in history and get the mercy over Frisch. With a more than excited bench getting the players on the court hyped up, the boys in yellow put in two more goals to seal the game and earn the mercy.
With outstanding goaltending in the second half to keep the Storm going, starting keeper Yisroel Tannenbaum proved himself with a second half shutout. Dov Baron, with one of his most successful appearances yet, finished the game with four goals. Captain Aviel Avidan, while playing rock solid defense as well as offense, finished the game with one goal. Captain Avi Bodoff, doing what he does best (getting the ball out of the zone as well as blocking tons of shots), netted one and finished the game with a goal. Ezra Friedman, who did his thing (faking out probably every player on the court and keeping the Frisch offense away from the Storm goalie, in addition to setting up multiple plays), had an outstanding game. Captain Refi Minsky, who finished the game with five goals and four assists, celebrated his fourth goal with a backflip that wowed the crowd. With appearances from Efraim Tiger, Ami Gerszberg, Josh Leimen and Gavi Book, who also helped seal the victory, the win belonged to the whole team. TABC Storm advanced to 6-0 and clinched a playoff spot. The Storm look forward to staying undefeated and bringing home a championship trophy at the end of the season.
