Pitting two rival teams against each other, it’s reasonable to demand fair officiating.  Absolutely, there may be a few calls that aren’t agreed upon by one side or the other, but given the talent similarities between the Erie Admirals and FC Buffalo, one should expect an evenly called match.  Unfortunately, NPSL referees have proven to be consistently below par; if they were quality officials, they probably wouldn’t be handling the fourth tier of the U.S. soccer pyramid. 

Judging by the scoreboard, the Erie Admirals roasted the Blitzers 4-1 at Erie’s Cathedral Prep Events Center’s Dollinger Field Saturday night.  Erie striker and FC Buffalo nemesis Afrim Latifi dominated the score-sheet, tallying two goals and an assist.  Credit Latifi’s scything diagonal runs for creating chances, but he was too often deemed onside by a hesitant linesman and an oblivious referee. 

FC Buffalo jumped out to a quick start, poised to shake off the previous night’s 1-0 loss to FC Reading and eager to close the road trip with a shocking upset.  Receiving the ball just outside Erie’s 18 yard box, Andy Tiedt toe-poked a through ball to a sprinting Chris Walter on the left flank; Walter’s low cross was redirected by Matt Stedman past a startled Erie ‘keeper Danny Mudd.  The third minute goal had Erie defenders showering blame upon each other and coach John Melody bellowing out missed assignments. 

The tides changed quickly though, as Erie began to mount an attack.  Blitzer goalie Jordan DiLapo stormed off his line in the 21st minute, perfectly reading a Latifi through ball to Shane Howard and diving to parry the ball out of danger.  Tiedt tracked back twice to nod away corners, but the momentum had swung in favor of the home side. 

In the 25th minute, a neatly clipped ball by Jared Ott found Latifi’s chest, and the swift striker calmly beat DiLapo low to the far post.  Cries of “offside” from the Blitzer defenders left the linesman in an awkward position with his flag briefly raised, mired in indecision over what he’d witnessed.  The goal stood.

FC Buffalo rallied briefly, hitting woodwork twice in the next five minutes.  Mike Reidy darted across the top of Erie’s box and sent a laser rattling off the crossbar, while Corey Phillips’ smart quick free kick connected with Tiedt on the left—the former Akron striker’s blistering volley grazed the far post. 

Erie jumped in front for good in the 35th minute, as a long ball from the back caught the Blitzer defense flat-footed.  Latifi raced onto the bouncing ball, dribbled past a committed DiLapo and trickled a shot into the gaping goal just as Andrew Larracuente flew in for a tackle.  Howls for offsides from the FC Buffalo bench were ignored by the officiating crew, which deemed that Larracuente had kept Latifi in legal position.  Irate head coach Dan Krzyzanowicz appealed to the center official to no avail.

Frustration ruled for the next five minutes as Tiedt and Chris Walter were shown yellow.  The Admirals doubled their lead in stoppage time of the first half, as a driven free kick by Latifi 30 yards from goal met the head of Brian Fitzgerald, whose unmarked header was too strong for DiLapo.

“It’s disheartening,” said FC Buffalo fullback Jake Rinow.  “We go up 1-0 early—they benefit from [terrible] calls—and then it’s 3-1.  I don’t say that you stop trying, but we were in a car for six hours, and you expect an even game.”

A litter of changes in the FC Buffalo lineup came at halftime; John Grabowski replaced Mike Reidy, Nolan Hartzell entered for Cory Cwiklinski and Patrick Zelko substituted Corey Phillips.

The game became increasingly physical after the break; Latifi, already on a yellow, just dodged a red card in the 57th minute, as his shot on goal long after the whistle wasn’t seen as a card-able offense.  A brief melee with Mbwana Johnson seconds later left the hot-tempered striker lucky his side wasn’t down to ten men.  Andrew Carr and Canisius College player Jarod Ott earned yellow cards later in the second half for Erie. 

Substitute Austin Solomon solved DiLapo in the 90th minute with an easy back-post finish, sealing the match at 4-1.  Owner Nick Mendola was ejected immediately after for questioning the center referee, while Stedman earned a red card for dissent from the bench. 

“The score doesn’t show how hard we really worked,” Rinow explained.  “4-1 isn’t how the game should have ended up, simple as that.”

“To me, it’s a 1-1 game,” Krzyzanowicz added.  “[Erie] scored on a header from a corner kick, but also scored two that, by the law of the game, were offsides.”

FC Buffalo closes out its 2011 slate with home matches on July 16 and 17 at Robert E. Rich All-High Stadium.