Cpher: A whole lot of lacrosse to talk about here.
We played a home and home (they came here for both games) with Caledonia…..they went up 6-0 in the first quarter of the first game but we rallied to close it to 8-4; Mom and Dad missed the first quarter of this game but we have been told that Cpher picked up a penalty for slashing in that ugly first quarter.
The rematch, a week later, went better, a 4-1 win. We skipped a game in there (a 9-1 win against East Lansing) so that Cpher could get in a visit to the tutor (yes, we are still going, we are fitting it in when we can in amongst all of the sports).
The weekend before Memorial Day was taken up with the Waverly Lacrosse Festival; four games over Saturday and Sunday. We lost, 6-0, to Canton in Game 1 and won, 5-1 against Huron Valley on Saturday.
Game 3 is where the pictures are from, an 8-4 loss to Hartland. They were much better than us, and I think, like the Canton team, made up primarily of 6th graders. That will do it most times…..
Cpher played well, when he had the chance to mix it up and stop the other team he certainly did so….there was a defensive breakdown in the midfield more than once and there would be kids just running in untouched towards our defense…and they’d typically slow up and shoot before they got to Cpher and the other defenseman OR keep running in full speed; in either case, that’s almost impossible for Cpher or any kid on defense to do anything about….
But, if we do slow them down enough, the big guys in back can engage them. And knock the ball away and pick it up…..like Cpher had done here….
Of course, the other team can take the ball back, you can see that Cpher has lost it and it’s falling to the ground…
In the end he regained possession, took a few steps, and then launched the ball out of our end….
Matthew: All this time between posts and we only have two games to report on…and they took place back-to-back the Sunday before Memorial Day.
Sometimes you go for the ball…
and miss it completely! (you can see the ball near the yellow kids)
The first game we were winning 6-1 after about 20 minutes….they came back to make it 6-3 at the half on two goals that should never have been allowed; they were clearly offsides but one of the AR’s didn’t show up and the Canton parent who volunteered to be the AR on that half didn’t make the call and the head ref (who never moved from the midfield with the flow of play, both coaches were really pissed off about that!) was certainly in no position to overrule. And of course, if you’re winning 6-1, you’re not really supposed to bitch too much when that kind of thing happens. We ended up winning 7-5.
There is not much to say about the second game; The game was supposed to start at 1 pm, ref had 12:30 in his schedule, he started it at 12:35 and didn’t care what or how the kids might feel about that….Of course this is the hottest day of the year…..We were up 3-1 and they came back to tie it late to end in a 3-3 tie. They were happier about the outcome than we were.
A recent development in games is Matthew contorting out of position to head the ball (or attempt to head the ball). Some very strange turns and moves….
Matthew wasn’t happy with this guy, who planted his cleat on top of Matthew’s foot instead of the ball.
You can click on this last photo (it comes from the video); Matthew is about to take this shot and his teammate, Seth, on the far post, will punch it in after the goalie deflects it.
BUT, these refs, for both games, stink, and they rule that Seth was offsides and disallow the goal. I’ve seen the video a bunch; you couldn’t convince me that he was off, in fact, the AR (who is on the sideline and is supposed to make the call), doesn’t make the call, but the head ref, who is at midfield (you can see the midfield line in this photo) did. Not sure how, but he did.
