Nick's Repeats as Soccer Champs

OCEAN CITY- Nick's House of Ribs captured its second straight Ocean City Recreation and Parks men's indoor soccer championship last weekend, beating Sunsations, 5-3, in the title game.

Nick's steamrolled through the playoffs, beating Keenwick Carpets, 10-0, in the first round; Barca, 11-2, in the second round; and Rommel's Ace Hardware, 4-2, in the semifinals to reach the title game. Sunsations also swept its first three playoff games, beating America, 12-2, in the opener; El Salvador, 6-3, in the second round; and Moor Disposal, 6-4, in the semifinals to earn a shot at Nick's and the championship.

In the title game, Nick's got on the board first with a goal by Vladimir Dvoravovskij at the 2:34 mark to take a 1-0 lead. Sunsations answered with a goal by Plamen Stoykov with just under 12 minutes left in the first half to tie the game at 1-1. However, Nick's went ahead again on a goal by Aleg Kazak just before the half to take a 2-1 lead into intermission.

In the second half, Dvoravovskij scored his second goal of the game to extend Nick's lead to 3-1, but Sunsations came right back with a goal by Volkan Cejlan about a minute later to cut the lead to 3-2. However, Nick's scored the next two goals on shots by Kazak and Mike Cericola to put the game away for good at 5-2. Sunsation's Stoykov scored a late goal to cut the lead to 5-3, but it was too little too late and Nick's walked away with the title.

Pictured above, team members including Andrej Pretskailo, Roman Cebcevs, Adam Mahew, Ehren Mahew, Vladimir Dvoravovskij, Mike Cericola, Dmitrij Zubko, Alex Lazians, Max Krizhevic, Aleg Kazak and Zaviad Pagala show off their trophies. Not pictured are Vitalij Alekseev and Andria Salmanis.