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2009 - Metro Sting FC win the MDCVSA State Cup!!! After running through the competition on Saturday to win our group, we focused on the other side of the draw on Sunday. Up first, Bosnia FC in the 9 AM match.Once the game settled down we started to apply the pressure and went into halftime up 2-0. A quick start to the 2nd half put us up 3-0 and we were content to try and make it stick, resting players for the championship. Bosnia nicked us for a goal late in the game and continued to keep the pressure on, but we held firm and Roderick Tucker picked the goalie's pocket and walked the ball into the goal to end the game (due to the goalie's temper tantrum with the refs). On to the championship... Partizan FC, winners over the Lions/X-Rams All-Star team in the Semi's, joined Metro in the finals. The game started well for Metro who attacked constantly early in the game and kept the Partizan lads on their heels. Unfortunately, we were only able to net one goal and knew our position was dicey. After a suspect call (the ball was 10 yards past the players and on the way to the goalie when the players tangled) Partizan was awarded a kick just outside the box and somehow squeezed it through the wall for the equalizer. Funny how Partizan manager, John Roach, was not shouting at the referee when all of this happened... Halftime: 1-1. The 2nd half was tight the whole way through. Both teams had chances, but both held firm and towards the end of the half the 90 degree heat started to take a toll. Metro had an excellent opportunity at 80 minutes with an indirect kick from 20 yards, slightly to the left side of the goal, but the ball hit side net on the outside as the Sting bench celebrated wildly. What appeared to be a potential game-ender was just another goal kick... End of Regulation: 1-1. On to two 10 minute overtimes (no Golden Goal)... Out of the gates Partizan applied the pressure and kept the Sting defense busy, but zero goals allowed! We finished the first 10 minutes still tied at 1-1. As the second period went on, the Sting started to regroup and with two minutes left and both teams near exhaustion, we got good numbers on the counter-attack, sprung Matt Ayotte free to the right side of the goal, and he calmly slotted the ball home to the far-side netting. Sting up 2-1!!! The defense made it stick, repelling all attacks for the last two minutes. Metro Sting over Partizan FC 2-1 (OT) - Champions of DC and Virginia! 2009 MDCVSA State Cup Results -
8/23, 9 AM - Semi-Finals - Metro Sting FC 4,Bosnia FC 1 Random Notes:
On a more serious note... Thanks to all the members of the premier team for refusing to quit. Every season, win or lose, there always seem to be rumors predicting Metro Premier's demise. You guys have taken Metro Sting to a level that I never would have dreamed of in 1983. Or 1993. Or even 2003! On behalf of all current and former Sting players I say - Well Done Lads!!! 2009 - Metro Sting United wins Summer Division 2 title. Despite a bit of whining from the "Old Farts", who all looked
to be under 30, our summer league combo-team wrapped up the perfect season (13-0-0), defeating the Farts in the Div 2
Championship. It was a hard-fought contest, but the Sting took a 3-2 halftime lead, got an insurance goal in the 2nd, and
locked it down to end the night 4-2. Yes, we had some premier players on the roster - the older half of our premier team.
But in our defense, we had two 40+ players and at least 2 - 3 in the 35 - 40 range. And all saw significant playing time. So, we have no apologies, but we do have pint glasses!
2009 - Metro Sting Ballers win Spring Division 3 title. The Ballers went undefeated in Spring 2009 (7-0-1) and won 3rd Division, despite struggling with numbers and lining up a fulltime keeper! Next up - D2!
2008 - Premier Team wins Fall Regular Seaon Championship. Rumors of our demise were greatly exaggerated! In mid
August no one was really sure if we'd have a team in premier division... The CVSA board was skeptical, at best, when we
registered... We lost four players to Lions 80 and X-Rams... JR Fox and Derek Groome get all the credit for pulling
together the finest team in the league in Fall 08! We lost the 1st game to X-Rams (1-3), but played pretty well. In week 2
we started rolling and won every game (except one stumble against Lions FC) by at least two goals and recorded four
shutouts along the way. Our 2nd Premier Division Championship (Spring 2007) was an awesome way to celebrate our 25th anniversary - well done, Lads! Now on to the CVSA Cup!
2007 - Masters Team Wins Fall Regular Season Championship. After somehow letting the spring season slip away to
Nasty Squid, the Sting Brain-Trust scrapped plans for a 40+ team (we only had half a team) and decided to go another
direction. There were several big-time recruits looking to join the Masters team, so we pulled older players from Masters,
combined them with our 40+ guys and formed MSFC Old School. This allowed us to stack the deck and form a 30+
Dream Team!!! The season fittingly started us with Nasty Squid. There was plenty of smack-talk leading up to the game and
the Sting Boys were ready to settle the score for our lone loss in the spring. Once the dust settled, it was Sting 8, Nasty
Squids 0! Apparently, the beating took all of the fight out of the Nasty Squids... they've forfeited 6 games this fall and look
to be done. The Masters Boys have continued on in that fashion all season and have locked up the league championship with 3 games left. Here is a record that will be hard to top:
2007 - Old School Goes Undefeated and Wins Division 4. We weren't ready for 40+ so we rolled the dice and jumped
back into open play. The old guys (with a few young guys) faced a new group of youngsters every week and made quite a
few believers by the end of the season. Every week went like this - young guys from other team check us out during
warm-ups and decide to run us. We hold on until they run out of steam, then start to play the game at our pace. It worked well for us and we finished in 1st place with a 7-0-3 record. On to Div. 3!
2007 - Premier Team Wins Spring Regular Season Championship. Our young guys put on the best display of soccer
in Metro Sting history this spring, going 7-0-0 in Premier Division and not even needing to play our last game of the season
(which we forfeited - we had a five point cushion over 2nd place Lions 80 going in). The schedule worked out very
strangely this season - we started with the bottom teams and moved up though the ranks, playing a tougher team each
week.By mid-season we were on cruise control. Lions FC? OK. Los Illuminados? No problem. Fan Rats? No Donkey
around to ruin it for us! On May 13th we faced X-Rams in a key test. A win and we had it locked up. We were able to
knock in two and had several other great chances, holding a 2:0 lead until the 85th minute when X-Rams finally got on the
board. It was a real nail-biter for the last five minutes, but thanks to a couple of clutch saves by Colin Stevenson and great play from everyone involved, we held the 2:1 lead until the end. Premier League Champions!!!!
2007 - Masters Team Loses to Lions 80 in CVSA Cup Final. It was quite an honor to make it to the finals of the
CVSA Cup - almost 90 teams from all levels entered the annual tournament. And now we were facing one of the toughest
squads in CVSA - Lions 80 from premier division. We said all along that if we could hold the Lions 80 youngsters off for
the first 30 minutes, then we'd have a chance. It didn't really work as planned, but we still hung around until the bitter end
and made the Lions lads work to keep their victory. After giving up two goals in the first 20 minutes of the game, we finally
settled down and got adjusted to the speed of the game. At the 30 minute mark Ronnie Benson was able to get a cross in to
Big Jeff Waite who knocked in the header to make it 1:2. The real crusher came in injury time at the end of the first half -
Lions 80 got free again to make it 1:3 at half time. The first 20 minutes of the second half were even, then things took an
unexpected twist. Jim Thomas got tangled up with Lions 80's Greg Ridout (former Thomas Dale HS star and recent
Randolph-Macon grad) and Greg sprained his ankle. The Lions got a PK, but, as usual, Sean Walle saved it. That could've
been the game, but we still had a chance. The Sting lads took heart and started to turn things around a little bit. At the 75th
minute Jeff Waite pressured the Lions keeper into rushing a clear and the ball went right to Chris Segaar's chest at the 30
yard line. Segaar was a marked man all afternoon and he quickly had two guys on him as he cut diagonally across the front
of the goal, held off the defenders, and played the ball back to the far post for the score! Down 2:3 with 15 minutes left -
game on!!! Shortly after that, during a questionable bit of refereeing, one of the Lions players lost his cool with the ref and
picked up a quick red card. A little more hope for the Sting! We pressed as much as we could for the last 10 minutes, but
we couldn't get the equalizer and force overtime. Youth won out over experience, but I felt like we gave the 2nd best team
in the league (after our Premier squad, of course!) a great challenge and hopefully earned a little more respect for the old guys! 2007 - RISE 30+A Team Completes the Perfect Season. The usual 2007 - Masters Team is the first-ever 30+ team to play in the CVSA Cup Championship - 2007 - Jan-March 40+B Indoor -
MSFC Old School completes the perfect season, finishing 10-0-0 and winning the tournament. Joerg Paule and Mark Fowler lead the old guys to glory 2006 - Masters Team wins 30+ Division, Premier Team comes in 2nd. The fall campaign saw both teams have best-ever seasons! In the process the Masters Team notched
first-ever 11-a-side victories over Edo's Squid and Athletico United! I'd been waiting a month for the new Masters Team to jell - and it finally happened! After moving a
couple of players from premier for the fall season, the return of Joerg Paule, and renewed committments from a few key
players, hopes were high for the Fall 2006 Masters campaign. Unfortunately, it takes time... After going through the motions
for the first five games, signs of life were detected last Sunday vs Edo's Squid (10/15/06). We had never beaten the
fearsome Squids in 11-a-side, going 0-7 over the past 3 or 4 years. The team finally started playing ball and we not only
beat Edo's - we shut them out 3-0. Hopes were high heading into the Wed. night (10/18/06) showdown with United (1st vs
4th). Masters had always been crushed by United: 0-13-0 dating back to CASA Masters, but things were falling into place.
We picked up where we left off with Edo's and fought a tough United squad to a 1-1 tie at the half. We put our best team
on to start the 2nd half, but United still drew 1st blood, going ahead 2-1 on a tough shot from the end line. Then, slowly, but
surely, Mo (momentum) was traded... Chris Segaar, our offensive ringer, making his Fall 2006 debut, notched 3 more goals
and 1 assist (4G1A for the night - all on 1 move according to United). When all was said and done, the final score was 6-2
in favor of Metro. 1-13-0 - Maybe a new streak has started!!! On a similar subject, I have to give the Premier team some of the limelight too - they recorded their
1st ever victory over Lions FC on 9/17/06 and Fan Rats FC on 12/2/06. Maybe it's time to rewrite the rules!!!! 2006 - Premier Team Wins Copa Bruce!
The only silver lining to being relegated from Premier Division is that you become eligible for the Copa Bruce tournament. Metro Sting FC moved from Premier to 1st Division after Fall 2004 and
struggled through 1st Division in Spring 2005 before merging with Internationals FC in Fall 2005 and winning 1st Division.
During Fall 2005 the Premier team stayed afloat in the CVSA Cup drawing Conga United (15:0 despite all F-Bombs
thrown out by Conga's Cussing Girl) and Big Nasty Masters (6:5 in what was probably the biggest Sting comeback of all
time). Luck ran out on Nov, 20 2005 when we had to play Lions FC and bowed out with a respectable 2:4 defeat. On to
the Copa Bruce... In Spring 2006 we entered the Copa Bruce tournament at the same time as we returned to the Premier
Division. We blew through our 1st four opponents without allowing a goal, blasting a few of our favorite rivals in the process:
2/26/06, 3 Monkeys, 3:0 (Monkeys, Rats - what's the difference); 4/12/06, Pink Panthers, 10:0 (where was Gerry's Head
when the goals were pouring in all around him); 4/20/06, MCV United, 4:0; and 5/4/06, Westend United, 6:0. A funny note
about the Pinks game - Dave Kelly reported showing up early at Dorey to discover famed marathoner, Gerry "Gerry's
Head" Kealy, running laps all around the Dorey fields for about 45 minutes. Being quite impressed with Gerry's warmup
routine, Dave started to become concerned about chasing Gerry around the field all night. His fears were unfounded
however, as Gerry went into goal and proceeded to give up 10 scores for the night. I guess yelling "Gerry's head!" from
your own goal line doesn't work so well! Our run through Copa Bruce finally met some oppostion when we played Ultra
FC in the semi-finals on 6/3/06, beating them 5:2. On to the championship - 6/11/06 vs old CASA rivals, Reggae Boyz FC!
It was a back-and-forth game. We were up 2:0 in the 1st half, but allowed a late goal and ended the half up 2:1. We
controlled things early in the 2nd half, but then gave up a PK and got a red card in the process and all of the sudden we
were fighting for our lives with the score tied 2:2! With Sting playing a man down, Reggae Boyz put in another goal to take a
3:2 lead. Chad Porter was able to get a 1 v 1 with about 10 minutes left and drew a PK, which we finished to knot the game
at 3:3. Regulation ended and we went straight to golden goal. It only took a few minutes to settle... Reggae Boyz worked
the ball to the end line, beat our fullback and took a shot from what looked to be an impossible angle. The ball hit the far
post and appeared to bounce back into the goal. The Reggae fans stormed the field... But wait. The refs are removing the
fans and signalling a goal kick. Turns out that the ball went over the top of the goal and hit the far post through the netting -
NO GOAL!!!! We take the goal kick, move down the field and Chad Porter gets past all the defenders and blasts the ball
past the keeper from 12 yards out and Metro Sting wins, bringing home our most impressive hardware to date!!! 2005 - CVSA Fall League Division 1 Champions!
After two bitter seasons of playing with too few players a merger was orchestrated with Internationals FC, also in 1st Div, forming Metro Sting Internationals FC. MSIFC went on to capture the
Div. 1 championship with a 7-1-1 record. After being relegated from Premier after Fall 2004 and nearly being relegated
from 1st Div. in Spring 2005, the Sting Internationals made a triumphant return in the Fall and is looking forward to returning to Premier Div. in Spring 2006.
2005 - CVSA Summer League Division 2 Regular Season/Tournament Winner! The summer team reassembled for
another record-setting season, moving up a division from 2004 and still posting the same result - 11-0-2! Things were a bit
tougher this summer. We scored 10 fewer goals and allowed 11 more (63 GF/31 GA), but still managed to take 1st place
and win the tournament. Kent Horner manned the goal again and did a fine job for a fullback (2.36 GA avg). Ed Grosso
(19G/10A) led all scorers with Chad Porter (17G/10A) close behind. Clint Sharp came in 3rd with 9G/8A. Chad Porter
scored his 100th Metro Sting goal in the championship game! Our last 2 tournament games came down to PKs and Chad
Porter went into goal to lead us to victory, blocking 1 against the Titans to give us a 4:3 win and blocking 3 against Three Monkeys to win the championship (3:2 and we didn't have to take our last kick). 2004 - CVSA Summer League Division 3 Regular Season/Tournament Winner! Ed Grosso destroyed all single-season Sting scoring records, scoring 28 goals and 15 assists in 13 games! What started as a 30+ fun team became a juggernaut when Chad Porter and Dave Guarnieri filled the last 2 spots on the roster. Chad (17G/16A), our only under-30 player, combined with Ed to shred opposing defenses, while Dave anchored a Sting defense that made Kent Horner look great in goal (1.54 GA avg). It was the first ever undefeated season for Metro Sting (11-0-2)! More info... 2001 - CVSA Summer League Division 3 Tournament Winner! Francis Amponsah leads us to our second summer league championship with a hat trick vs. Rundi Aadme. Joerg Paule has two assists and Randy Tootle adds one goal to make the final 4-2. Oh yeah, Will Shumate added a goal too - for Rundi!!! More info... 2001 - Third Place in the Metro DC/Virginia Challenge Cup Tournament! With an automatic "bye" to the final eight and a first round game vs. the Pitiful Pink Panthers we easily advanced to the final four. Then things went bad against Total Fitness from northern Va. On Sunday we played a grudge match against Atlas. After trailing 2-0 for much of the game, we put on an exciting comeback late in the game to capture third place. We were the top team from Richmond finishing behind Va. Beach and NOVA! More info... 2001 - CASA Spring League Division 1 Regular Season Champions! Undefeated in the regular season (9-0-0), we made it to the tournament final before losing to Liberty. More info...
2000 - CASA Fall League Division 1 Regular Season and Tournament Winner! We end up 6-1-3 in the regular
season and win the division on tie breakers. In the tournament we advanced to the final vs. the Diplomats and won a tight (0-0) game in penalty kicks. More info...
2000 - Metro DC/Virginia Challenge Cup Tournament Runner-Up. We finally entered the world of 11-a-side soccer.
We beat Richmond Blaze 4-1, then beat Pink Panthers 3-2 (OT) to reach the championship match. Unfortunately, we lost to Lions Masters 2-1 (OT) in a game that featured our first ever soccer brawl. 1999 - Played in CVSA Summer League Premier Division for the first (and hopefully last) time. After our great success in 1998 we tried the Premier Division. Big mistake! We finished the regular season 0-9-0. More info... 1998 - Undefeated in CVSA Summer League Division 1 Regular Season Behind the offensive onslaught of Ben Armstrong, Chris Stevens, Mike Bender, Sam Alkhadra, and Matt Little (combined 36 goals, 24 assists) and with Joerg Paule and Clay Mullican anchoring the defense we posted a 9-0-2 record in the preliminary and regular season. More info... 1995 - CVSA Summer League Division 2 Tournament Runner-Up! Details are sketchy for this season. We lost to Lions 80 in the championship. Mike Bender, Dave Hauck and Gary Rule were our leading scorers. Joerg Paule joined the team this year. More info...
1995 - Metro Sting adopts Mickey's Bigmouth Bee as its official logo. Much research (beer drinking) went into this
before we realized "Hey, we're the Sting and this tasty malt liquor has a cool looking bee on it!" The rest is history. Attempts to be sponsored by Miller Brewing have not worked out.
1994 - CVSA Summer League Division 3 Tournament Winner! We played The Rubes. They beat us 5-1 midway
through the season. The Rubes would have beaten us again if they hadn't been trying to run up the score on us. We trailed
for most of the game, 2-0. Clay Mullican and Clint Studdard scored on counter-attacking, one-on-one goals late in the
game to force a tie. After a scoreless OT, we went to penalty kicks. In what John Kabler called "one of Marc's greatest
coaching decisions ever" we had our goalie, Brian Cowles, take the final PK to ice the victory! The big guns in '94 were
Clay Mullican, Norm Peterson and Clint Studdard on offense and Brian Cowles in the goal. Mike Bender and Clint Sharp joined the team this year. 1993 - We pick black as the official team color! Not many teams tried to get black jerseys for summer league. And we
were tired of being a different color every year. So we started requesting black. We only had competition from
Westhampton (they had been around forever and always wore black). We already had a grudge against them (see previous
paragraph) and this only made it worse. This summer we played them and their captain told me that we'd "have to change
shirts because they were wearing black and they'd been in this league for 15 years." Well, I wasn't taking any crap from
him... I told him that "we'd been in this league for 10 years and we wear black too. And we're not changing shirts!" The ref
made us do a coin toss for the black shirts and WE WON!!! Westhampton had to go put on all of their skanky old-man,
white T-shirts! Then they kicked our ass all over the field!!! Oh well, you have to focus on the good things... Like where is Westhampton now??? 1987 - CVSA Summer Tournament, Slot F Champions!
The first time we ever won anything. Back in those days the tournament was played in one day. Start at 8 AM on Saturday - last one standing wins! We had an end-of-season party the
night before (we're smart like that) and barely made it through the first game.We won the second game on forfeit - the
Spiders, UR's soccer team, had practice and couldn't make it. We eventually lost to Westhampton, 4-1. Some names from
that era: Dan "The Man" Malinowski - our ringer, Todd Dixon - hangover boy missed all three games, Del Felter - our fearless goalie, and "Big Al" Timmons - the only player in Sting history who played better drunk.
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