Sickles Gryphons End Tournament Run With Loss to Berkeley Prep

The Sickles Gryphons took one on the chin in their last group game at Wharton Invitational losing to Berkeley Prep 6 to 1 Tuesday evening.

Sickles starting forward Gavin O’Malley was back in the lineup and The Gryphons pressed the attack and pressured Berkely Prep’s back line in the early going. However, Kevin Harvey of Berkeley drew first blood.

Sickles would play from behind the rest of the game. Carlos Rodriguez closed the score to 1-2 with a boot from the top of the box but that was the high water mark. Carlos would be red-carded later in the first half and the team played with nine players for the rest of the game.

Berkeley Prep took advantage of the disadvantage and pinned Sickles back on their own side for the rest of the game. This invariably led to a third, fourth, even a fifth goal by The Berkeley Buccaneers. Team Captain and center back Brian Wittel, who had his hands full and at times, seemed like the only one on the back line.

Justin Vogel of Berkely Prep had a good game. The 6’4” player headed a dangerous ball away from his goal early in the game.

Sickle’s one goal came from Carlos Rodriguez who quickly got downfield and pounded a shot in. A few minutes later Carlos fouled Kevin Harvey of Berkely in the box. Apparently, Carlos let a curse word fly and was given a red card. This was the melting point for Sickles. The penalty kick went in, extending the lead to 1-3 and Carlos was ejected.

It wasn’t long before Kevin Harvey knocked in his second goal of the game, making it 1-4. The closest The Gryphons got in the second half was when Quinn Berven got the Berkely keeper away from goal and passed it to Austin Iglehart, who got a toe on the ball but it went wide by a couple inches.

Sickles would later yield goals to Bradley Glisson and Kurt Akman to seal the final score at 1-6. It was a disastrous tournament for Sickles. Not only did they drop all three decisions but Carlos Rodriguez will be suspended for at least the first game of districts.

The coaching staff pointed to sickness as a reason for the team’s poor performance.

“We had this stomach virus that made its way through the whole team eventually,” said assistant coach Ricky Calvo.

However, it’s not all doom and gloom for The Gryphons.

If Sickles can just forget about their performance at The Wharton Invitational they should be okay.  Their likely opponent in the first round of districts will be Chamberlain. Sickles blew the doors off of Chamberlain a couple weeks ago. They are a young team that can bounce back and hopefully, they have a selective memory.