It may be five minutes for fighting in the N.H.L., but not so in East Hampton’s 7-on-7 men’s soccer league, whose overseer, Leslie Czeladko, recently expelled five players from league play — three from Maidstone Market and two from Liga de Gulag — after they’d thrown punches during a melee in the second half of a game at East Hampton’s Herrick Park on June 21.
Asked about the decision to ban the five, “for life,” Czeladko, who stopped play and declared a forfeit for both teams, said in an email, “We’ve had some fighting in the past, but it’s been rare.” Very rare evidently, for the biggest such incident Czeladko could recall took place, he said, when the entire Costa Rican team was dropped for fighting in the fall of 1984, the league’s first season.
“It is very important that no further fights break out,” he said. “What would people think were there to be constant fighting at our games? We can’t have that.”
The league’s players, he added, “are well aware that if they fight they’ll be expelled from the league forever.” Consequently, he said, he didn’t expect that any more fights would break out this season.
As of the 21st, the team that Czeladko manages, Tortorella Pools, led the league with a 2-0-0 record, followed by F.C. Tuxpan at 1-0-1, Sag Harbor United at 1-1-0, the East Hampton Soccer Club at 0-1-1, Maidstone Market at 0-2-0, and Liga De Gulag at 0-2-0.
Tortorella edged the Market 2-1 on the league’s opening night, June 14, as Cristian Gonzalez and Yonaton Menuey scored the goals. Menuey scored just before the first half ended, converting from about six yards out a pass he’d received from Romulo Tubatan.
Jorge Naula tied it up early in the second period, beating Tortorella’s onrushing goalie, Alejandro Bolanos, with a ground-hugger from about four yards away, but not long afterward Cristian Duran and Gonzalez teamed up to send Tortorella home a winner, a rarity when Tortorella and Maidstone, the league’s perennial powerhouse, are matched up.
Tortorella shut out the defending champion, East Hampton Soccer Club, 1-0 on June 21.
Following a scoreless first half, “both teams had several chances right in front of the net in the second half, but could not finish,” Czeladko recounted. Finally, Gonzalez came up big again, as he had on the 14th, maneuvering past several defenders to score the game’s sole goal with about 10 minutes remaining.
A Tortorella player went down with an injured ankle near the end of the game as the final minutes on the running clock ticked off.
Czeladko has said in the past that if the clock were stopped when injuries occurred, the lights would go off before the third game was finished.
The Soccer Club and F.C. Tuxpan played to a 2-2 draw on June 14. Mark Bako had both of the Soccer Club’s goals, scoring from about 15 yards out both times. Romario Arellano scored for Tuxpan in the first half, and Cristian Compuzano scored in the second.
Sag Harbor United bageled Liga de Gulag 3-0 on the 14th. The first half was scoreless, but in the second, Gabriel Aroyo broke the ice with a well-placed free kick that zipped by a three-man “wall” into the nets. Liga de Gulag’s goalie, Edgar Farez, “had no chance,” said Czeladko, who added that Farez’s chances were worsened by the fact that “the lighting on the Stop and Shop side of the field is poor.”
Sag Harbor followed up with goals by Marvin Martinez, a 20-yarder, and by Donald Martinez, on a breakaway.
On the 21st, S.H.U. lost to Tuxpan 2-1 after going up in the first half on a goal by Mauricio Guzman. Cristian Compuzano won the game for Tuxpan, firing a penalty kick by Sag Harbor’s keeper, Jorge Lopez, following a hands call in the box, and beating Lopez from 10 yards out to cap the win.