State Champs Held Scoreless

In front of a record crowd at Roosevelt Field the ERHS boys soccer team played its best game of the season. This, too, against the defending Maryland 4A State Champion Bowie Bulldogs. The Raiders definitely looked motivated, as they used the home crowd to their advantage in shutting out the Bulldogs.

"There's no way to describe it, the crowd being there...awesome," said junior midfielder Rene Pizarro about the support given to the team by the fans. In what was expected to be a close, hard-fought game, Roosevelt dominated. Senior forward Michael Beard took a throw-in from fellow senior Jeff Hopper and headed it right into the goal to give ERHS an early 1-0 lead in the first half.

Early in the second half junior Teo Wilkening took a long lob pass that went over the goalkeeper and put it in the net easily. Later Hopper added some insurance as he put the Raiders up 3-0. ERHS goalkeeper Chris Bonnell was not as busy as expected. Bowie did not have many shots on target in the game as Roosevelt's defense stepped up.

The crowd was treated to an intense game two of the doubleheader. The girls team got an early lead on Bowie and looked like they would come out victorious. But in the second half the Bulldogs evened it up and the game went back and forth until the final four minutes.

Roosevelt senior Janice Johnson was fouled in the box and kicked the penalty shot into the top left corner of the net. But the goal was disallowed on a questionable call for a player stepping into the penalty box. Johnson took another shot, but this time missed high.

With the game still tied with just over a minute left a streaking Bowie player was knocked down close to the goalkeeper's box. Instead of a free kick, she was allowed a penalty shot one-on-one with the ERHS goalie. The Bulldogs scored and the Raiders did not have enough time to work with as Bowie pulled out another close game against the Lady Raiders.