WESTPORT - Heading into their third round of the spring, the Ancient Warriors traveled to Westport to face nemesis Connecticut Storm at Wakeman Park. Two prior encounters saw The Storm get the better of Wilton, most notably a 3-0 drubbing at Wakeman during the 2008 season. Now, both sides squared off for the first time as members of the top division, with a critical 3 points at stake.

Wilton entered the match with high confidence and ready for the test. The tenor was set early on with physical play between the areas as neither side was able to mount a serious scoring threat. If it weren’t enough to battle their border rivals, the Ancients had to contend with the rain, the loss of their striker to injury and another key man to a red card early in the contest. As they had in their first match of the season, Wilton found themselves a man down just 20 minutes in.

Wilton would again have to be resolute for the remainder of time.

Adversity seemed to serve as a catalyst for Wilton as, just 10 minutes later, Bill O’Herron redirected a corner kick at the near post across the goal to the far post where, unmarked, Robert Sztachelski buried the ball to the back of the net with a bullish header.

Undaunted, The Storm retaliated quickly with 5 minutes remaining in the first half capitalizing on a corner kick of their own. Straight off the free kick, Wilton seemed well positioned to clear the ball from danger, but an errant header out fell to the feet of a Storm defender and hammered in the lower right corner to draw the match even by the half.

Playing a man down began to take its toll seeing the Warriors tire as the second half progressed. The Storm took ownership of midfield and advanced seemingly at will. Nevertheless Wilton’s defensive corps of Piotr Bierezowiec, Andrew Copley, Kurt Azarbarzin, Michael Schneidman, Hossein Sadeghi and Tom Parsons marked tightly and executed timely tackles to keep the Storm at bay.

On their own offense, Wilton was unable to apply consistent meaningful pressure and, aside from tireless running of Ferenc Kiss to occupy the Storm back line, Wilton was unable to maintain effective possession. However, Wilton slipped through in the 65^th minute converting its only real chance of the half as O’Herron, catching the opposing defense flat footed, sprang Bierezowiec for a breakaway goal, and a 2-1 lead.

Despite the go ahead goal, play once again quickly returned to Wilton’s defensive end. Now The Storm was finding more space to attack, including one shot that fortuitously rang against the right post. Finally, with just ten minutes remaining, the home side equalized again, poking home a second chance rebound spilled at Goalkeeper Mark Isaacs' doorstep.

And there the score remained, 2-2. The Ancients have fought through their first three games without a loss and currently sit fifth on the table with six matches left in the Spring season. Wilton’s next battle (and first home match) will be against Greenwich Gunners on May 17, 8am at Lilly Field.