The Garden City Thunderbolts, a newly formed U10 boys' soccer team, began their premiere season by participating in the East Meadow Ref-Fuel Tournament, which consisted of a five game round robin format.

The boys had a very respectable first outing together, taking third place in their division with an overall record of three wins and two losses.

Brian Badget, Brian DeFliese, Jake Menges, Kevin Mercadante, Jack Metzler, Brian Pratt, Kyle Ritchie, Greg Vouzianas and Kyle Walsh worked well together defensively and offensively outscoring their opponents despite the grueling heat of the late August sun.

But the Ref-Fuel was just a primer for the fall season, which began in earnest Sept. 11, and which promises to be extremely competitive for the boys when they will come up against perennial soccer powerhouses, including teams from Massapequa, Oceanside and Hicksville.

In their first league game, the Garden City Thunderbolts were playing away at Albertson, known to have a very strong travel program. With much anticipation the game got off to a rousing start. The Thunderbolts controlled the match early with crisp passing and give and go runs down the lines.

Garden City had the upper hand early on offense with William White and Brian Badgett, playing up front, who were being fed some great balls by Greg Vouzianas.

Jack Metzler and Kevin Mercadante were tireless in the midfield and helped control the early part of the game for the Thunderbolts. Kyle Ritchie, Jake Menges, Brian DeFliese and Kyle Walsh, who neared perfection in keeping the Albertson offense at bay, anchored the backfield.

Although the Thunderbolts had the advantage and possession most of the first half, Albertson did break through the tough GC defense scoring first despite a tremendous effort by Brian Pratt playing in goal for the first half of the game.

The half ended with the Thunderbolts down, 1-0. Not discouraged, the boys started the second half aggressively, working hard to maintain control of the field and maintaining ball possession. Early in the second half Brian DeFliese and Alex Ostermann worked the ball with net give and go passing then pushed the ball to William White who took on the Albertson defense to score the Thunderbolts' first league goal.

Now tied at one the Thunderbolts continued to fight to take the lead. Kevin Mercadante and Kyle Ritchie continued to control the mid-field moving the ball forward to Kyle Walsh, Brian Badgett, William White and Alex Osterman who put relentless pressure on the Albertson defense.

However, the Albertson offense was again able to break through on the right side and scored a fine shot to the far post, past Jack Metzler playing goal in the second half.

Garden City was now fighting for the tie but it didn't take long for the boys to rebound. Kyle Ritchie, who was a wall on defense, floated a perfect ball over the top of the Albertson D to Brian Pratt who made no mistake firing the ball into the net to tie up the game.

With the score tied the Thunderbolts continued to pressure trying to take the lead. Speedsters Brian Badgett and Kyle Walsh took the ball deep into their opponents' end from the midfield with some fancy footwork and fine passing to Brian Pratt and William White who were playing up front for Garden City.

In spite of their relentless drive for the net Garden City missed some close opportunities and the game ended in a 2-2 tie.