June 23, 2012
TOUGH BREAK
Strong performance, but NY Fury fall 2-0

Kyah Simon scored two goals for the Boston Breakers to beat the New York Fury 2-0 Photo courtesy of Boston Breakers

SOMERVILLE, Mass.---Kyah Simon scored two goals to lead the Boston Breakers to a 2-0 win over the New York Fury in a WPSL Elite game at Dilboy Stadium on Saturday night. A crowd of 2, 117 was on hand for the game, which was delayed almost an hour because of weather.

With the loss, the Fury fall to 5-3-1. Two of New York's losses have come against the Breakers, who improve to 7-2.

Simon, the league's leader in scoring, gave Boston the lead in the 35th minute when she punched in a shot off an assist from Katie Schoepfer.

Simon sealed the win two minutes into stoppage time, with her eighth goal of the season, just moments after Fury defender Jazmyne Avant had cleared Heather O'Reilly’s shot off the line.

"This was the closest to WPS quality of any game we've played this season," said New York Fury coach Paul Riley, referring to the former women's professional league. "There were 20 former WPS players in the starting lineup tonight."

With both sides bolstered by U.S. National Team players, Tobin Heath for New York and O'Reilly for Boston, the two teams played an attacking game the entire 90 minutes.

"We started chasing the game a bit," said Riley. "We went three in the back to try and get the equalizer, and it ended up costing us.”

Despite the scoreline, Fury goalkeeper Michelle Betos came up big once again, making a total of seven saves. "She kept us in the game," said Riley.

Betos made a diving stop on Schoepfer in the seventh minute. In the 33rd, O'Reilly sent a cross to Simon, who got a head on it. It was tipped by Betos, hit the crossbar and came down before the New York goalkeeper was able to hang onto it. Just a minute later, O'Reilly rocketed a shot that was punched out by Betos.

The Fury's leading scorer, Merritt Mathais, had chances in the 17th and 24th minutes that were stopped by Boston goalkeeper Alice Binns.

Despite the loss, Riley says he sees his team improving, especially after back-to-back wins on the road last weekend. "The performance was better than when we played them at home", Riley said of when the Fury fell to Boston 2-1 on May 23.

After four straight road games, the New York Fury are back home on Thursday night (June 28), when they host ASA Chesapeake Charge at 7:00 pm at Hofstra University.