LYNNWOOD (Aug. 8)—The 2010 summer session concluded with an unprecedented performance by forward Mike Gill-More and his five first-half goals that sealed the deal early for FC Spare Tire in a 7-2 win over Disorderly Conduct on an un-summerlike drizzly early morning at the new Lynnwood High School.

Gill-More’s goals give him seven on the season, which leapfrog Work in Progress scorer Brian Percival who ended the session with four. Gill-More already owns 10 GSSL scoring title T-shirts to his name.

In their last meeting, Tire scraped by Disorderly 3-0 behind goals from Doug Hodson and Mike Gill-More (two) on January 24, 2010 at Shoreline A.

The way the things panned out with the July 4 holiday and various other reschedules, Disorderly had only played one game between June 27 and August 1 and entered the day at 1-2-3 with seven goals for and eight allowed. The team fell, 2-1, last week to WiP in a makeup game from July 11.

Tire would play the game with a full squad but no substitute players; a total of 11 rostered guys bowed out of this one for you-name-the-reason. And this game was a rematch from July 18 when both clubs felt it may be extraordinarily short for that one. Tire did however welcome back Jim Stern for his first summer game after two months away on Coast Guard assignment in an oil-infested area of Louisiana.

Disorderly would gain a full side after about 15 minutes, but started the game down two men. It didn’t look great for Tire either as forward Steve Lassiter took it upon himself to man the pipes since No. 1 Shelby Dobbs enjoyed SeaFair festivities and No. 2 Scot Rogers declared himself out via a 3:36 a.m. e-mail to Tire management stating he was “up sick” after hosting a celebratory event hours earlier in the evening.

From the opening whistle, Tire looked to be in good form—a rarity after two weeks away. Ball movement in both halves looked crisp, for the most part, and the offense did well moving to space against nine men. But then things soured in the sixth minute when Disorderly passing led to a ball-watching moment for mid Tim Farley near the top of the Tire box. With a hard cut, low shot and doink-style deflection from a teammate, the ball carried into the right corner for the early score. Keeper Lassiter, going the other way, was not pleased his clean sheet bid was suddenly ruined.

But Farley made up for the error four minutes later. Gill-More made a full-field switch to Farley on the left where he settled and ripped a 20-yard blast that bounced off the crossbar; Gill-More was following the shot and was alone as he nodded in his first into an open net.

Gill-More earned his second five minutes later when a breakaway led to a three-on-three chance. Midfielder Matt Loesch split defenders as he slotted a pass ahead on the right to a streaking Gill-More; with a hard blast, Tire had a 2-1 lead.

Another breakaway chance led to his third. A ball played to Farley in the Tire half was driven through the air upfield where Gill-More had to simply sprint from the halfline, still onside and ahead of defenders, to receive it and lean into a low drive shot on frame.

“That’s gotta be some sort of an FC Spare Tire record,” referee Gary commented at the moment. “He scored his hat trick by minute 22.”

But Gill-More would not be quite done. Both teams at this point were playing a fluid, box-to-box game. The Disorderly chances were decent, but each shot attempt was wide, high or blocked. Lassiter, on the other hand, was not stretched to make any perilous saves. Spreading the ball out and seeing the field well, Tire had looks of its own that caused the Disorderly keeper to be on the alert.

Gill-More’s fourth came on a right-side corner kicked ball from mid Doug Hodson; he was in the perfect spot to leap to hammer home a close-range shot with his head in minute 33. And seven minutes later it was more of the same—a low, hard ball into the Disorderly box from mid Kelly Antoncich met Gill-More’s head as he dove forward for the historic goal number five.

Gill-More has 24 goals in 2010 that make this year his most prolific as a scorer to date. Previous personal bests were 22 in both 2007 and 2009. And anyone with a calculator knows Gill-More now stands at 143 all-time goals for FC Spare Tire.

“That’s f-ing ridiculous,” defender Nate Burger observed. “No, I mean, that’s beautiful work, Mikey. Just beautiful, being in the right place at the right time. Makes it easy on us—we got a little room now for playing around.”

“Hey, I was just in the right place at the right time, you know?” Gill-More said. “I didn’t do anything different from normal … just right place, right time. It just means people are getting it to me, which is what I like to see.”

It was Tire’s fourth lead at the break this session, but only its first in four games. Loesch took the gloves from Lassiter for second half goalie duties, but with his quintella, Gill-More inserted himself instead for his fourth ever half stint as keeper in his Tire career.

It appeared obvious an integral component was missing from the front line at the restart—Tire could only make it into the Disorderly half once before the men in black would show an offensive resurgence. Gill-More was tested seconds into the frame with a very hard, low shot on goal that he had to go down to absorb.

Disorderly had at least two or three more good chances before a final pay-off—which may or may not have occurred on any other day. Into the Tire corner was a softball field pitching rubber that extruded from the field—its corners were sharp and “you’re dead”, according to referee Gary, should anyone meet it with any momentum. The only viable solution was to place a blue-colored recycling bin cover over the spot—better to have a player or ball hit that than potentially receive a gash at the mound.

So in minute 50, Burger was step-for-step with a Disorderly player in that area … but was forced to leap over the spot while the dribbler made his move. The open pass to the box came to a teammate who leaned into a shot that was placed on the ground at the near right post past a diving Gill-More for the score. It was Gill-More’s first goal allowed in 140 minutes as keeper.

As the half wore on, the play began to open up, and the pace never slowed. Disorderly was determined to score a third and relied on wing play, good passing and effective dribbling to offer crosses into the box. Gill-More was called to catch, punch, deflect and save at least a dozen good scoring opportunities.

Center mid Doug Hodson got into the act around minute 59. A deflected ball from Farley came to Hodson’s feet about 25 yards out from goal. He knew he had space as he reached back to World Cup-style righty in a bender into the upper right V of the goal past the diving keeper for the score.

Hodson tallied his second as an unmarked runner up the left wing. Mid Casey Antoncich spotted him and made a perfect cross over everyone. Hodson timed his run expertly and redirected the pass with his head into the far post, and out of seemingly nowhere Tire is up 7-2, where the final scoreline would rest.

Teams continued to press for the remainder; a yellow was shown to a Disorderly player for dissent on a possession call. More interesting soccer moments were reveled, as well: A hard Tire pass that Lassiter was able to settle at his feet via his “spare tire” was something Gary enjoyed. Kelly Antoncich was sure about a corner kicked ball and announced three times to leave it for him before an “Oh, shit” as the ball kept going. And defender Shawn Menning threw out a foot in a clear trip attempt in the box of Disorderly’s best player that went uncalled.

Gary also levied a $1 fine on Hodson for missing his own hat trick when his hard shot at an angle was saved low by the keeper who minutes earlier had to replace the starter who went out with an injury.

“It was a good game,” Hodson said. “It’s all Gill-More, man. He was a one-man show. All we needed was his head, and we would’ve won the game. It was awesome with a capital A. We may have let up after getting such a good lead, but we controlled the midfield pretty well, which we hadn’t done in a while in division 2, and defense was solid too. Good to have Stern back anchoring that defensive line. Solid. Solid.”

“With no subs and that early goal,” defender Bracey Rogers said, “I thought this could have been a looong day. “ But we had great D, great offense, and we actually put together some passes and kinda looked like a team there for a while. We stepped up and performed. I’m kinda surprised. Kudos to Mike.”

“I like Doug’s goal he hit from, like 25 yards out,” commented Gill-More. “His was the best of the game. Top-shelf.  We all played well—it was a good, solid team effort.”

“Very happy,” Burger assessed. “Very happy with it. Gill-More puts in five, and who needs anything else? I liked our passing; we looked pretty solid and not sloppy, overall. I feel like I am actually able to see the damned ball—it only took three games. And of course, Bracey, our man in the back—a nose for the ball in the back just like Gill-More has it in the front.”

“A good game, a fun game,” Menning stated. “And no goals came from my side … I tried just keeping the ball away from [their best player] who is only 19, 20 years younger than me—not bad. He juked me two or three, five times, but … I just tried slowing him down ’til Bracey got there. I can only do so much ...”

“It was breakaways and Mike in the first half,” reminded Kelly Antoncich. “I mean, this is one of the teams it’s safe to say we’re better than, and we took care of business. We had good spacing on a tighter field like this—it’s narrow and short—but we played well.”

“I felt good,” Stern said afterward. “I felt like I knew what I was doing, a little bit tired, but it was fun moving up a lot in all that space. In the second half a big gap in the middle started to form, but we stayed on them pretty good and didn’t really give them anything.”

“I could’ve used about five more subs,” Casey Antoncich said. “Other than that, with no subs, we actually played a solid game pretty much the whole game. We had nice passing, I don’t know—it was just a good game. And Gill-More—I had heard rumors of this Paul Bunyan-type guy and didn’t think anything of it until today.”

“It was a good game,” said Matt Loesch. “I thought every time we slowed the ball down is when we scored. It was when we did long balls that they didn’t have much on them. We controlled it … the second half, they obviously put the pressure on, but we had ’em at that point. It was a great way to end the session.”

FCST is now 5-2 all-time vs. Disorderly Conduct with 21 goals for and 11 allowed in a five-game win streak.

Disorderly debuted in the GSSL in spring 2007 and has two titles under its belt: summer 2007 and winter 2009. DC is now 11-15-8 in the past year.

GAMENOTES:

• The win was Tire’s third all-time 7-2 win; the last came as the 2006 spring opener vs. Super Rock at Lake Washington High School.
• Hodson went headbandless in the game for the first time since a 5-3 win over FC Five Star on Feb. 28, 2010.
• Mike Gill-More has scored in 85 games; Hodson, 10 goals this year and 82 all-time, has scored in 66 games.
• Gill-More has recorded eight career hat tricks of the team’s 19—five more than second-placers Hodson and Isaiah Harris.
• Tire is 21-6-6 all-time at fields named Lynnwood High School.

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