By WILL DAVIES / Special to the Reporter

PELHAM – Indian Springs earned their 14^th win of the season in style beating the Thompson Warriors 2-1 to capture the Silver group championship of the Metro Tournament held at Pelham High School.

Both teams were held scoreless in the first half with very little scoring chances, but the second half proved to be a different story. Thompson proved to be a threat first when Diego Miranda ripped a shot outside of the box that appeared to be on track to the back of the net, but was stopped by an amazing diving save by Indian Springs’ goalkeeper, Zak Haino.

“Zak Haino is playing his you-know-what off,” said Indian Springs Head Coach, Rik Tozzi. “Not only the save, but for someone who watches the game what’s more impressive than the save is the way he controlled the box. He played a world class game,”

40 seconds later, Thompson was awarded a penalty kick after Indian Springs fouled Miranda in the box. Miranda took the shot for the Warriors and hit the left post keeping the score tied at 0-0. The Warriors finally broke through with 27 minutes left in the game after a defensive break down by Indian Springs. Cesar Rivas took a free kick that went untouched by any player on the pitch and sailed into the back of the net.

“I think when we give up a goal like we did, I can’t say we played particularly well defensively the whole game. We played well for 79 of the 80 minutes,” said Tozzi.

Indian Springs was now forced to come from behind, which has been a familiar place for them this season.

“The team, all year, has come back. We were down 3-1 against Homewood and we came back and got it to 3-3. I am not particularly concerned when we are down. I am more concerned about performance,” said Tozzi.

Indian Springs knotted up the score 1-1 with 19:50 left in the game after Rakim Ali scored a cracker of a goal from outside of the box. Both teams went up and down the field trading scoring chances, but couldn’t convert until just less than six minutes remained in the game.

Indian Springs worked a ball into the box that volleyed around and landed on the foot of Austin Pack who buried it into the top part of the goal to take a 2-1 lead. Indian Springs held on to secure the championship win.

“For the last eight years, all but one of them, we have won some sort of title every year. It is something to build on for us. Thompson’s a really good team. They are very technical and work extremely hard,” said Tozzi.