As the final seconds ticked down to the Wareham United season, it was just Mike Santi, an arcing soccer ball, and the Green Team's goalkeeper watching that ball sail over his head...and onto the back of the net.

"If it was Yetti, he would have made the shot," de-facto coach Seamus Hogan joked after the game while Santi took the ribbing of his teammates in stride...after all they won 2-0.

But it's humor that holds the Wareham United team together as much as their soccer skills.

Members of the Acquidneck Island Soccer Federation, the adult soccer team played a ten-week season at Portsmouth, RI high school this fall, finishing with a record of 4-5-1, although there was some disagreement on this statistic.

The players are all residents who grew up playing Wareham Youth Soccer and then soccer at Wareham High School.  The team's  manager and organizer Rick Stuchlak, a coach and the president of Wareham Youth Soccer for many years, coached an under-18 team last spring, and he was looking for a way to allow the older players to keep playing.  He and his sons Dennis and Ricky started informal pick-up games over the summer on Sundays, attracting 15 to 30 players each week.  This fall, they decided to make the team official.

"My sons Dennis and Ricky said it would be fun to get everyone back together,"  Stuchlak, who added that he coached probably 90 percent of the players.

The youngest players are three 18-year-old Wareham High School seniors, Jesse Iacozzo, John Kolb, and Ricky Stuchlak.  The oldest player is Chip Vroom at age 46 - although his teammates agreed that he runs like a 43-year-old. And most of the players were teammates or coaches of the others at some point in their soccer careers.

Dennis Stuchlak remembered coaching the three high school players since they were in the Tots program, for instance.

The level of play in the league, and the level of emotion, is high despite there only being five teams.   Of course, the referees get the brunt of the criticism.

"This is the league where the fired refs come," said Dennis Stuchlak to Hogan's agreement - apparently, a punch was thrown last weekend by a player on the Green team and to keep the sides even, Hogan had to sit out this week to his disappointment.

The team jokes that their black-and-white "jail stripe" uniform might give the refs preconceived notions.  But the important part is that they have the sharpest uniforms in the league.

"We look good taking a whipping," joked Tyler Doughty.

But they'll be back in the spring.  And they're setting their sights high, according to Dennis Stuchlak.

Next season "we're shooting for a .500 record."

And while unlike in Youth Soccer, the players are able to drive themselves to games, they said wish they miss another very important part of the Youth Soccer experience: the oranges at halftime.

"We don't get to pretend we have bright orange mouth guards," said Nick Iacozza.