By: Pedro Heizer
FORT LAUDERDALE — The Minnesota Stars had a three-game unbeaten streak coming into Lockhart Stadium this past Saturday night for their matchup against the Fort Lauderdale Strikers and it seemed as if they were going to extend that unbeaten streak to four. But, thanks to Yoximar Granado in the 55th minute, the Stars’ streak was snapped; Granado scored a terrific goal from a pass by midfielder Paulinho Le Petit to put the Strikers up 1-0.
In the 65th minute, Coach Daryl Shore shook up the lineup by bringing in Brian Shriver to replace Granado who had scored the only goal of the match. Shriver wasted little time getting into the game by scoring his first goal of the season just 24 seconds after walking into the game, “It just happened to be the first ball into me and I was in. I had to make it count. It is the only way to get on the field,” said Shriver of the goal.
In the 77th minute of the game, Strikers defender Lance Laing received a red card for his two-footed tackle and it forced the Strikers to play with one less player for the last 14 minutes of the game and only up 2-0.
With the Striker defense on full alert, defender Scott Gordon stopped a ball from coming into Striker territory and crossed the ball to Abe Thompson who dribbled deep in the Stars’ territory and simply tapped the ball over to Shriver to score his second goal of the match and to ultimately seal the deal for the Fort Lauderdale Strikers. “Shriver is a good player to have on you team, he’s going to give you everything he got no matter if he’s in the starting 11 or if he’s part of the 18” said Coach Daryl Shore.
The Strikers extended their unbeaten streak to four matches, improving their record to 3-2-5 with 14 points and pushing them ahead of Puerto Rico in the NASL Standings.
The Strikers next game is on the road against the MLS-bound Montreal Impact, Saturday June 18th at 7:30 p.m.
