Aztex wins friendly in penalty shootout

By: BoriQa | April 3rd, 2009

Tonight the Puerto Rico Islanders and the Austin Aztex finished their scrimmage friendly in a scoreless draw after regulation time.

Everyone of the reported 1,125 fans in the stands thought the game was over, when they realized they were going to be treated to a penalty shootout. There was an agreement between both head coaches to do a shootout regardless of the final score of the game.

Funnily enough, the shootout coincided with the game’s draw result, and to the delight of the local fans, Austin came on top 3-0.

Wes Allen, Jarius Holmes and Alex Tapp scored the winning penalty goals for the Aztex; while Cristian Arrieta, Noah Delgado and Josh Hansen missed their shots for the Puerto Ricans. Arrieta missed his shot wide right; Delgado and Hansen had their shots saved by the Aztex goalkeeper. Sam Reynolds covered the posts for Austin, and newly acquired goalie Chris McClellan did the same for the Islanders.

The Islanders starting lineup included: Bill Gaudette, Noah Delgado, Cristian Arrieta, Nigel Henry, Kyle Veris, Scott Jones, John Krause, Josh Hansen, Sandy Gbandi, James Marcelin and Kendall Jagdeosingh.

Petter Villegas came in on the 33th minute to replace Noah Delgado, and on the 60th minute the Islanders replaced all the players on the field, except for Kyle Veris: Chris McClellan (goalie), Fabrice Noël, Sean Fraser, Cisneros, Andrés Cabrero, Martin Nuñez, Domenic Mediate, Villaroel, Rivera and Morris played the last 30 minutes of the game.

It was Fabrice Noël’s first game with the Islanders this year. The Islanders just announced yesterday that Noël was returning for his third consecutive season with the squad. Noël scored 6 goals in the USL and 2 goals in the CONCACAF Champions League for the Islanders in 2008.

The Islanders will now travel to Mexico City to play Cruz Azul on Tuesday April 7th in the 2nd leg of the semifinals in the CONCACAF Champions League.