RYE – Field Hockey New York

Rye came up a little short in the final Big Apple indoor tournament to be played in New York City before the event is combined with the national championship at a purpose build venue in PA next year. Playing in a strong group including defending champions Toronto Lions, Toronto Titans, Boston and New York Islanders, Rye started well with a 1-1 draw against the favorites Toronto Lions. Rye were solid in defence with Cheetham, Stutz and Anich containing the skilful Lions forwards and limiting them to a sole penalty corner goal. Unfortunately Rye struggled to break down the Lions creating precious few chances of their own. Rye responded with a penalty corner from Geertz but with little effective offense from either team a draw was the fair result. In the second group game Rye easily overcame Boston running out 4-0 winners to get up showdown with the Toronto Titans (who had previously lost an ill tempered game to their in city rivals) to see who would qualify for the semi finals. Rye started well and dominated possession but again failed to create many clear cut scoring opportunities. The Titans were content to sit back and try and hit Rye on the break and moved in to a 2-0 lead through a penalty corner and a breakaway goal that really took the wind out of the Rye sails. The second half was more of the same, Rye controlled the game but continued to have difficulty breaking down their opponent. A third Toronto goal on the break sealed the result before the teams exchanged scores in the final seconds to make the final score 4-1. Rye finished their group games with a comfortable 4-1 win over the Islanders but the Titans and Lions took care of business in their final games to finish in the top two spots and move on to the knock out rounds.

The two Toronto sides went on to win their respective semi finals and met again in the final with Lions running out 3-0 winners. Although playing in a tough group and enjoying periods of good hockey Rye can have no complaints with the result. They will need to create more scoring opportunities if they are to enjoy the success they have in the outdoor game on the indoor court. With a group of players who it seems will be in New York for a number of years, Rye will have every opportunity to make the necessary improvements and compete for the Trophy next time around.

Rye FHC: Milan Tyrubec, Chris Cheetham, Patrick Stutz, Alex Anich, Matt Hogben, Randy Christie, Dennis Akkaya, Lennart Cherifi, David Geertz.

The Monday following the superbowl always leaves people feeling a little worse for wear. Rye’s indoor players will be feeling rather more tired and hungover than most after a couple of nights on the town in Boston and 5 games of indoor hockey. The tournament, hosted by the Boston Minutemen at MIT in Cambridge MA, provided a great tune up for Rye FHC ahead of the upcoming Big Apple International Indoor Tournament at the end of February.

The weekend started well with the team taking in plenty of Boston culture but spending 7 or 8 hours in the ‘Cheers’ bar and sampling as many different variations of Sam Adams as were available. Lennart Cherifi, the teams German defender, quickly dispelled the myth that Germans were good drinkers by doing a number on himself very early in proceedings to the extent that we nearly persuaded him to sing ‘Neun und Neunzig luftbaloon’ in an empty karaoke bar. Lucky for him the team became distracted slating Matt Hogbens bright yellow and orange shirt…yes Matt…I’m sure it looked great in Java when you bought it…

Rye began the tournament with huge success…getting all of their players to the facility at 9 am on the Sunday morning. Surely, the hard part was done. Running for 5 games with no subs did prove somewhat difficult for both Rye teams but in general Rye will be pleased with their final warm up competition. Rye Pirates won all 5 of their games and the Buccaneers won 3 of 5 with the two losses both being closely fought.

The weekend was great fun and no doubt people are already looking at their calendars for the next time they can use hockey as an excuse to hit the beers in Boston.

Rye FHC hosted it’s inaugural indoor tournament over the 23rd/24th January. Organised at late notice after the Brooklyn All-stars tournament in Maryland was cancelled, the event was well attended and proved a great success.

The tournament followed a round-robin format at Rye’s indoor facility at Park West High School in Mid-town Manhattan. Rye entered two teams and the group was completed by the Boston Minutemen, New York Islanders and the USA womens team. The two Rye teams (Buccaneers and Pirates) proved to be the strongest sides, both winning 7 of their 8 games with each teams loss being against the other Rye team. The Buccaneers had the upper hand on Saturday and the Pirates took the honors on Sunday. Eventually the Pirates won a closely fought final.

All in all, given the short notice, the weekend was a huge success both with the quality of hockey on the pitch and the ‘refreshments’ with old friends in the bar on the Saturday night. Hopefully it is just the beginning of a resurgence of indoor hockey in the North East/Mid Atlantic area after it has fallen by the wayside in recent years.

All the ingredients were there. Top of the table Rye versus the defending champs in a Gladiator style, duke it out battle for pre-winter league supremacy. On our side we had the complete cast of swordsman and fighters – including a bearded Russell Crowe wannabe in central midfield – and on their side… well, let’s not take this analogy too far. Given Rye came away 7-0 victors on one of those days everything goes right, there’s no need to push it too far.

Pre-game everything went according to script, except Herr Kapitan who rambled on for way longer than usual, which means it was probably something important. I think it was about the game, but could have been about hops and barley – who knows? Anyway, something was clearly different, and at this point it became apparent: an unhealthy proportion of Germanic tribes in the Rye line-up. Fortunately this has not yet influenced our erratic style of play, but it’s certainly one to keep an eye on – and particularly the goal count, which hasn’t been affected yet.

Back to the hockey, and what can be said is goals, goals, goals. After a quite frankly weird first half – that is, a half where your team is losing in every statistic except for ‘goals’ – Rye found themselves 3-0 in front thanks twice to Stutz and once to Sandhu. Three real chances, three goals and no real idea how. Perfect exection of Plan C – the ‘in front by accident’ plan.

Herr Kapitan went for another lengthy soliliqoy at half-time. In a stroke of genius it was concluded that allowing opponents waltz about central midfield unchecked was counter-productive to our cause. Now that’s what I call a hockey brain! An increase of personnel into the middle by +1 was implemented and it worked beautifully.

Plan C almost miraculously transformed into Plan A. A dominant second half performance from Rye across the park saw four more goals. One beautiful finish from the top right of the D into the bottom left side net by Sandhu and a well taken low drag flick from Cheetham. Finally some improved finishing from central midfielder Anich; one rebound off the post cleanly flicked low into the net and one unstoppable shot into the roof of the net from the low right side of the D.

Three more valuable points making it seven wins from seven games going into the winter break . In fairness to Greenwich the scorline didn’t really reflect the game, since they put up a good fight and had a few chances – especially early on when the game was still undecided.

For Rye it is probably only complacency that is the number one enemy going into the second half of the season. See you all in March, and stay off the pies over Christmas.

The Rye first and second teams squared off against each other for the first time this season on Sunday at Clinton DeWitt in the Bronx.  It is a measure of how far the club has progressed over the last four years from a club, on occasion, struggling to get 11 players for all their league games to the current situation where Rye can now field two competitive sides every week.  Despite missing several regulars (including Peter Jones who was representing a U.S. Veterans team in an international tournament in Hong Kong), Rye 1 eventually ran out comfortable 4-1  winners with goals from Akhlaq, Cheetham and Sandhu (2).  The game was hard fought and will be of great encouragement for Rye 2 captain Harry Labana.  Max Rijkenberg and Pere Torres Puyalto are forming a good partnership in the centre of midfield, Puyalto also scored a fine goal and forced keeper Oliver Stubel to make a couple of good saves. Eldrid Sequeira stood out in defence and with a couple of regulars expected back for the next Rye 2 game, Labana will be confident Rye 2 can continue to stay close tot he playoff race.

In summary, it was an excellent day for the club.  Rye 1, with one game to go before the winter break remain unbeaten and top of the standings and Rye 2 in their first full season in NEFHA are looking stronger by the week and are a team that no opponent is taking lightly.

The fact that we had to chase polar bears off the pitch was a sure sign that this was New York going into winter. But there were other clues: a warm-up that really wasn’t, the jarring sensation of hitting something hard with a piece of four-by-two and an opponent that didn’t show up until after the scheduled start time.

In fairness to the Islanders we anticipated a late start. Hockey at 9am on Sunday is nobody’s idea of fun. So eventually, after a few inspiring cliches from our Captain and a lot of something else in German, the game went ahead. And let’s just say that while Rye were not exactly smoking hot, we were certainly warmer than the weather and eventually emerged victorious 6-1.

A few anxious moments early on – just to showcase Rye’s incomplete range of ball-retention qualities – however, on balance a game the men in yellow controlled. One interesting twist in this game was that we went for Plan B first, followed by Plan A late in the second half. Plan A is of course to score three or more goals early, keep the ball, and then score more goals to close out the game. Naturally that is too boring. Plan B involves the odd goal, the odd turnover and most of the time smashing the ball over the backline so we can practise our press.

Plan B was working beautifully. And then on about 50min, 2-0 became 2-1 on the back of a breakdown of the plan and a dubious penalty corner. But that’s life. With the game now on, and the Islanders now gunning for a point, we then decided Plan A would be worth a try. Fortunately this worked – and with four goals in the final 15min victory was secured. Particular hard work down the left from Jaspreet Singh broke the deadlock and opened the flood gates. 6-1 in the end with two goals each coming from Stutz, Dr (Akhlaq) Tab and Jaspreet Singh. Rye are now sitting pretty at 5 and 0.

Rye FHC moved to 4-0 on the season after another comfortable victory on Sunday, this time over GFHC II. Playing for the second consecutive week at Columbia Universitys’ Baker Field, Rye immediately put GFHC under intense pressure with Greenwich repeatedly struggling to clear their lines. By the time the breakthrough came, Rye could have been a couple of goals up had it not been for some poor execution in the Greenwich ‘D’. As it was, following a fine move down the right flank involving Sandhu and Nerincx, Akhlaq, ever the opportunist, converted from close range. Sanhdu quickly doubled the lead with a back hand strike of his own after beating a couple of Greenwich defenders. Rye, feeling they had Greenwich on the ropes continued to surge forward and it wasn’t long before Achlaq added his second. It was another right side move that opened up the Greenwich defense and and Achlaqs’ deflection left the ‘keeper with no chance.

Despite racing out to a 3-0 lead, the remainder of the second half proved to be frustrating for Rye. Looking assured at the back with Cheetham, Hogben and Cherifi starting to form a formidable partnership, Rye failed to convert their dominance into scoring chances. Greenwich defended well and were quick to get numbers behind the ball but Rye’s lack of patience hurt them on numerous occasions. Rye continually tried to force low percentage passes and wasted far too many opportunities in the final third of the pitch. The second half saw more of the same. Despite playing significant periods of the game deep in Greenwich territory, Rye could only muster four penalty corners and a handful of half chances that were comfortably dealt with by the Greenwich ‘keeper. Rye eventually added a fourth. Stutz, lively as ever, made a quick break down the left after a quickly taken free hit before threading a through ball to Achlaq who duly completed his hat-trick. Greenwich added a consolation goal in the final minute, a deserved reward for their hard work but by then the game was decided.

Rye will move on to game five of the fall half of the season with mixed feelings. While results have been good, the quality of play has not been of the standard Rye has come to expect. With both New York Islanders and GFHC I still on the schedule in the coming weeks, Rye know they will need to step up their level of play if the intend to remain unbeaten.

The third round of this year’s fall season brought a rematch of what has
become a highly charges affair between the reigning champions Rye and the
back-to-back league playoff finalist and former champion Tristate. Both
teams arrived at Columbia’s Baker Field unbeaten this season. For Rye this
was the opportunity to get some distance in the standings between an
uncomfortable opponent that in the past has proven to be a stumbling block
even in most surprising circumstances. However, this Sunday did not turn out
to be one of these days. The difference in commitment could not have been
larger. On Rye’s side, a 16-men squad arrived to fight for remaining spots
in the team’s first selection which is to be decided before next weekend’s
round. Tristate on the other hand showed up without their regular keeper.
The end result of 8-1 (5-1) properly reflects the balance between a full
force Rye team which played solid hockey but missed crucial opportunities to
make this a 2-digit affair, and a Tristate squad which despite being without
a chance to ever win this game fought relentlessly until the end and sold
their skin as dear as humanly possible even under worst-case conditions.

On Rye’s side some of the latest additions to the roster gave their NEFHA
debut. Thibault Nerincx from Belgium, Pere Torres Puyalto from Spain and
Rye-veteran Pepe “El Cubano” all brought their skills to the game and fit in
nicely from the start.

After the first 3 games Rye I tops the NEFHA standings with full points and
a 23-3 goal difference. This convincing start is no coincidence. While Rye
for years fielded a handful of very skilled players in their ranks, the team
lacked the depth of their main opponents Tristate and Greenwich FHC. The
recent additions of Jaspreet Singh, Alex Anich, Lennart Cherifi, Matt Hogben
and others has completed the roster in a crucial way. With the prospect of
being able to welcome back keeper Oliver Stubel to the team next weekend the
current Rye roster looks the strongest in years.

Rye I scorers: Cheetham (2), Stutz (2), Rijkenberg,
Puyalto, Akhlaq, Anich

Rye managed to dish out a 3-3 tie, after being 3-0 down at one point.
It was an exceptional display that shocked the full strength islanders a bit, even though Rye started with 10 men.

On a balmy autumn Saturday in the Bronx, Rye FHC continued their impressive start to the season with a commanding 8-2 victory over New York City.

Facing a much stiffer test than in their opening game, Rye started quickly with a penalty corner goal from Cheetham after 2 minutes. Dominating the early exchanges, Rye quickly added to their tally with a second from Cheetham and goals from Sandhu, Halim and Stutz. However, New York City, playing in their second NEFHA season were not prepared to lie down and struck twice in quick succession through Tom Sheridan and new addition Harry Jawanda.

With a 5-2 lead, Rye began the second half knowing they could take nothing for granted. A far more controlled performance from Rye after the break starved NYC of possession and nullified their counter-attack threat. Lennart Cherifi stood out in defense with a number of fine tackles but more pleasing for Rye was their execution in the final third of the pitch. Many of last weeks mental errors were corrected and Rye will be pleased with the number of penalty corners and goal shots they created. With the life choked out of NYC’s attacking ambitions, Rye put the finishing touches on an important victory with a third goal from Cheetham and further strikes from Sandhu and Singh.

Rye will go into their bye week pleased with their first two games but knowing there are tougher games on the horizon. Up next, in a repeat of last years Championship game is Tristate Falcons. This will be a real barometer of how far Rye have progressed this season.