Reservoir's momentum, the boost it got from scoring less than a minute before halftime, was fading quickly.

Long Reach's Josh Chelleh had scored on a breakaway six minutes into the second half, and now just four minutes later, he was once again streaking alone down the field, threatening to break a score deadlocked at one.

But in that moment, just as it seemed the Lightning were going to strike again, the Reservoir defense found an answer. The Gators' back line managed to catch the speedy Lightning forward and goalie Paul Engelkemier made a diving save to keep the score tied.

Two minutes later, Reservoir's John Earl made the most of it by collecting a loose ball in the box and firing home what turned out to be the deciding goal in a 2-1 Reservoir win Sept. 13.

"We played like we were going to win this game, even when things weren't really going our way early in the second half," Earl said. "We've been in these situations before and we've lost or come away with a tie, like last year against (Long Reach), but there's a different feeling this year for us. We feel like we are the ones that are going to make that big play."

Most of the time, it has been Earl coming through with the big play for Reservoir, which improved to 4-0. The senior, who was also responsible for kicking off the scoring against the Lightning, already has seven goals this season.

That first tally saw Earl track down a ball played from the midfield and then beat Long Reach goalie Steve Lagow (seven saves) into the bottom right corner with just 15 seconds left in the first half.

"We had done pretty much everything right but score in the first half, so mentally I think we needed that one," Reservoir coach Ivan Croft said.

It was Long Reach, however, that came out energized after the break. A couple near misses were followed by Chelleh's score that knotted things up.

"This team has had that fighting spirit for a couple years now ... last game against Oakland Mills, then today, we give ourselves chances to win games," Long Reach coach John Horner said, who guided his team to a 1-0 win over the Scorpions two days earlier. "It just didn't go our way today and give (Reservoir) credit. We looked like we were going to break through and then they turned around and put one in."

Once Reservoir got the lead back, its defense tightened and never let Long Reach generate anything substantial in the game's final 25 minutes. Engelkemier needed to make only three saves.

The Gators, which also beat Oakland Mills, 3-0, Sept. 16, are off to their best start in school history.

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