Joseph Video

 

Click here for the video of the musical

Canton Cup – Postscript

 

Game 1:  If they wanted to make a statement about who the best team in mid-Michigan was, they certainly did it.  Beat us 5-1; could have been more than that.  There isn’t an aspect of this beatdown that the other team did not completely out-class us in.

Yeah, that kid is huge.  And a very good forward too.  Didn’t help (but wouldn’t have changed things) that our best defender was out sick.  Didn’t help (but wouldn’t have changed things) that Matthew was a little under the weather (had an emergency stop on the way down to the game to take care of ‘issues’.)

And it showed in the first half; Matthew wasn’t quite there and didn’t play much; did things that indirectly led to two goals against us.  Not happy with coach over one of them; Matthew was in position between 82 and our goal around midfield, our coach yells at Matthew to move up and double-team him, Matthew does, the kid goes right through the spot that Matthew vacated and two or three passes later it is a goal.  Alex pulls Matthew off field for this ‘mistake’…

2nd half is much better for Matthew; we have maybe three real chances on goal and Matthew helps create two of them. 

I am sure I will eventually post a much more complete post on the thought process we are going through trying to figure out what to do for soccer next year….one of the things that really appeals to me about the Chill right now is the dedication their coach is putting in to make that team develop and excel.  So he is scouting opponents, he prepares scouting reports, he prepares post-game reports….it’s very enticing to a soccer-obsessed Dad like me…

I’ve seen the scouting report on our team.  It is uncannily accurate and the truth hurts. 

Game 2:  Every bit of the beatdown I expected.  We were down 4-0 before Matthew came on the field for the first time in the first half.  The less said about the 7-1 loss the better.

Game 3:  We won 3-2 on Sunday to at least go home happy.  One kid doesn’t show up on Sunday; we are down to only 1 of our normal defenseman. 

One of the very obvious things about our better opponents is that they play 3 defenseman, where we only play 2 and if you really read that scouting report you can see what a weakness the other coach thought that was.  The best news about our opponent is that they play 2 on defense too!

We scored, they scored, we scored, they scored. We had the run of play but had a few very scary moments though on defense with our kids-who-haven’t-played-there-all-year (don't kick the ball to the middle!)

The second half is dominated by one of our players running into their goalie...not dirty, but, he busted the kids' head open. Big delay, ambulance comes up while the game goes on....

They have some, um, unique kids on this team.  #10 is the single worst player I've ever seen; always pushing, always with elbows. AAU #2 is weird too; strange yelling noises all during game. But last minute redeemed it all...we have multiple chances in the last 10 minutes and are really taking it to them….and finally get the winner.  Click below for video

Love that video!  From Henry’s Mom’s reaction to the continued antics of #10 (he finally received a yellow card from his run-in with Matthew here) to my noise of disgust at Matthew’s shot (because I thought he would try and put the ball more on goal and instead he put it exactly where he wanted to put it…where his teammates could get it) to watching different people’s reactions after the goal (some schadenfreude watching 10 and 2 react and watching Matthew grab his teammate to the very fleeting moment of the U11G coach congratulating our coach on the sideline).  The game ended about 10 seconds later…..a last-minute finish!

Quizbusters Round 6: Jackson Christian

 

Last episode of the season!

Quick Ten: Which vowel is used least often?  ‘U’.  Every member on the team answers at least one question; JC lives and dies with the kid that Kevin will match-up with in the Pop Quiz.  Up 70-30 after this round.

Toss-Up 1: Seems like Kevin know Hephaestus and Pandora and the liver in the bonus, but so did most of the team. Up 140-60 after this round.

Pop Quiz 1: The letters are t-o-l. Kevin gets beat to Tolkien; they both miss Toluca.  Kevin gets toll….house.  Getting the split with that kid from JC is a good thing!  Score is 200-80.

Toss-Up 2: Not much going on for the team here.  No toss-ups, so no bonus questions.  JC did not do well on the bonus though.. 200-120 at halftime.

Toss-Up 3: Finally get a toss-up; Kevin knows that Pluto is now a dwarf planet but I think did not know the other two questions. Unlike JC, the team sweeps the bonuses and pretty much ends the game with a big run.  350-140.

Pop Quiz 2: The letters are t-o-n again. Kevin walked in while I was re-watching the episode to do this blog entry.  Even before I got to this point, he said “make sure you write down that I was just a split-second late on all of those t-o-n answers!”.  Did not get ‘tonto’.  Did not get ‘Tonga’.  Did not get “Tony the Tiger”. 400-210

Toss-Up 4: Seems like Kevin knew the Tudor dynasty questions in the bonus category here; only won one toss-up but again swept all of the bonus questions.  450-280.

Lightning Round: Hey, Kevin buzzes in again; knows BYU is in Provo.  Knows Jimmy Carter was President from 1977-1980.  Final is 520-310.  And that’s that.

Matthew would like to point out that you can see him in the background in the studio audience during the credits!

From The Sports Desk: Frost Warning Edition

 

A cold rainy ugly day for the 2nd-to-last regular season game of the season.  This is actually a makeup of the very first game of the season, where it was cold and rainy.  Symmetry.

No pictures from the day; it was wet and the camera battery ran out pretty early.  So I’ll grab the pictures of the boys that another Mom posted today from Facebook.

We won, 4-2.  Both boys played pretty well.  Was a notable night for Matthew.

The boy spent his first time in the penalty box; absolutely leveled this kid from Dewitt….the kid was coming upfield and Matthew hit him dead on and straight on in the middle of the field.  After a pause, one of the two refs threw his flag and escorted Matthew off the field….

And told Matthew he did nothing wrong! But because it’s 5/6 lacrosse, they have to call that type of a hit as unnecessary roughness…when you are older, it is a clean legal hit.

This boy spent a lot of time complaining after the last game on Sunday that he didn’t play as much as he would have liked (he didn’t).  I spent a lot of time after that game telling him to stop whining, he normally plays a ton and it is just not right or kosher to be complaining the one time it doesn’t happen.

So yeah, he played a ton today.  Especially as we were trying to hold onto our one and two goal lead, for the second time in recent memory the coaches tried to put some new kids back on defense….that’s when we were up 3-0.  Within 5 minutes it is 3-2 and the defensive stalwarts are coming back out.

One more game next Wednesday and the season-ending tournament and that is that for lacrosse season.

Quizbusters Round 5: Eastern

 

As always, a click on the picture takes you to the video….

Kevin thought, in hindsight, that this match was his best match of the tournament.  We will see…..

Quick Ten:  Knows his Islam, the Koran.  And Bampf is in Canada.  William the Conqueror and Catherine the Great too!   Up 80-20 after this round.

Toss-Up 1: Nothing, zip, zilch here for Kevin and the team.  Down (Down!  I don’t think I’ve ever typed that!) 100-80 after this round.

Pop Quiz 1: The letters are t-r-a. Kevin gets tractor after the other guy misses with tram; gets trampoline.  Doesn’t get trade.  Score is 150-150.

Toss-Up 2: The team is off to a slow start on toss-ups and bonus’s.  But some geography is a good cure for that, in the bonus, and then Kevin getting Ethiopia in the toss-up.  Seemed to really know US General Winfield Scott marched on Mexico City was very adamant about it to Mayank.  250-150 at halftime.

Toss-Up 3: Can tell he knew it was Liberia.  Think they all knew the capital, Monrovia.  A big guess on the number of stars on the flag for Liberia is right too.  And I remember now he was really pissed off about missing Lake Chad….didn’t like how they asked the question.  Again, not the usual amount of success on toss-ups and bonus’s here.  Kevin does know who Martin Lawrence is for some bonus points  350-230.

Pop Quiz 2: The letters are t-r-a again.  Don’t think I’ve ever seen Mayank lose all three.  Kevin gets ‘tragedy’.  Does not get ‘trachea’.  Does not get ‘trash’.   400-300

Toss-Up 4: Gets South Korea when the other team doesn’t give the correct answer.  Again, not a whole lot of success on the bonus questions when we get the toss-ups.  The Roald Dahl category was a Cpher favorite; he knew all of these questions, even the ones the kids from Eastern didn’t get.  440-330.

Lightning Round: Kevin knows Stephen Hawking….knows Greensboro is in North Carolina….and Lima is the capital of Peru.  Final is 490-340.

“Hey Mr. DJ, turn the record on….”

 

I know I have mentioned here Kevin’s sudden turn retro, from a full-force obsession with prog rock to the turntable that sits in his room.

Every so often Mom or Dad gets this text – “Can Drew and I go to FBC?”.  FBC is short for flat black and circular, ye olde record store.

Here’s the haul from today’s visit.  $12.

    

      

There literally are not enough words to go with those four pictures……

Quizbuster links

 

I’ll do the full write-up of each episode later, but, the video is posted.

The Green Division Championship against Eastern is here….

The Grand Championship against Jackson Christian is here….

Canton Cup – Preview

 

The second and last tournament of the spring arrives Saturday, the Canton Cup.  We played here two years ago; those games are well documented and involved a lot of rain and mud.  The forecast looks a lot better this year in terms of weather, but, the forecast for soccer looks gloomy.

Game 1:  The Battle of Mid-Michigan at long last!

              

Yup, the big battle of Lansing area clubs is the first game on the docket, an 8:10 am kickoff.  If you are curious, that means we will be on the road at 6 am.

And for a long time I would have made us a slight favorite in this game.  But, while we have been playing down to our Division 2 competition this spring and seeing how many bad goals we can let in, the Chill has quietly just kept winning, against Division 1 competition, and playing good teams closer and better than we ever have.  So I am not very hopeful of a good result here.  The relative merits of each club at this point is a subject for another day.

Game 2:  Canton Celtic Black

             

We have played these guys before, in the semi-finals of the Fall tournament.  They killed us, 9-1.  I am not very hopeful of a good result Saturday afternoon.  I would be happy with a close and tough loss, especially knowing that we will be missing our best defenseman for this game and the next (he will be there for Game 1)

Game 3:  Ann Arbor United

             

Probably our best chance at a ‘W’ this weekend; Chill has beaten them handily twice this spring. 

From The Sports Desk – Waverly Lax Day Two Edition

 

The schedule gods were kind to us this weekend; Sunday’s first game is at 10 am, the second at noon.  We’ll be home by 1:30 easy.  Nice!

Game One:  Tied Tecumseh 2-2.  A good game; they clanked one off the crossbar with 2 seconds left so we are lucky to come away with the tie!

Don’t remember much about how Matthew did in this game…and it was less than 10 hours ago.  I know he had the ball a few times.  He made some nice passes, and was his usual physical self.

And he had two(?) shots on goal…..nothing to show for it, but, definitely nice that he’s finding the opportunity to shoot.

The team’s best d-man?  Might be.  He is a rock back there.  Knows when to come out and attack, knows when to hang back, and knows how to stop the opponent cold.

Like some categories in Quizbusters; it is just not fair sometimes what physical mismatches turn up on the field.  Glad he likes this sport so much; I’d like to watch a lot more lacrosse in the future. 

Game Two:  Beat Vicksburg 3-2.  Another good game with an interesting moment of high-drama near the end.

Same as above really; played, did well, but, nothing that struck me as memorable enough to merit mention here.  Did take two more shots on goal; the picture above is him getting ready to shoot.

Just pretend you hear Bob Seger singing “Like A Rock” when you look at these photos….it is very rare when someone gets a good shooting opportunity when Cpher challenges them.  The guy has the ball here…

And you can see the ball flying away here; Cpher has poke-checked the kid and caused the turnover.

Cpher saved the day in the end on a defensive play that he never expected to make!  One of our kids had the ball after a foul; referee whistled the play to start and instead of running up-field the kid headed into the middle of the field.  This is not smart, but, hey, stranger things have happened.  He then gets confused, and decides to head in towards OUR GOAL.  He comes up right next to Cpher and is about to shoot the ball at OUR GOAL and Cpher gets his stick up and deflects the very unexpected shot.  This all happens with one minute to go in the game…..crazy!

From The Sports Desk – Waverly Lax Day One Edition

 

Soccer:  Started the day in Ann Arbor; we could have divided and conquered and one of us could have stayed home with Cpher for the first lax game….instead we just decided to have both boys miss the first game and all go to Ann Arbor.

When Matthew hit this ball, there was a noticeable ‘oooh’ from the parents of the other team…

Tied 1-1.  Another great example of us playing down to our competition.  We were missing two of our players; our goalie let in another soft goal, but, still, we should have scored more than one goal.  Controlled the ball at least 75-80 percent of the time. 

Thought Matthew played well, but, certainly not as great as he had been playing previously.  The two times I heard Coach Alex yell out to Matthew during the game I was in complete agreement; Matthew was trying to one-touch the ball on these crazy turns and it was just really difficult….he needed to take a touch first and then do what he wanted to do.  And the team, in general, had a hard time switching the field today….

A complete non-sports related comment; this is the first time the black shorts have been trotted out for a game in months….Like the look, glad the coach went this direction today.

Really disappointing how this team is closing out the season.  Next weekend at the tournament could be real ugly……

Lax:  Lost 8-2 to Huron Valley.  When they came out we weren’t sure they were a 5/6 team.  They were huge!

Thought this kid played pretty well; the game was tied 1-1 at the half and he held up his end of the deal in that first half.  Stopped a bunch of guys, intercepted a bunch of passes, blocked(!) a few shots.  This photo is after he cleared the ball forward out of our end.

Since we are playing some pretty tough teams this weekend, he played it pretty close to the vest.  No big runs forward. 

Thought this boy played ok too….but obvious at times that he was playing kids older, faster, and better than him. 

And so there are a lot of these photos….Matthew playing defense from behind.

The game fell apart when we decided to take a bunch of stupid penalties in the second half (you really had to be blatant to get a foul called in this game, and we did that). Took major penalties and they scored multiple times on the power play…

One result of the quick scoring against us is that Matthew took three faceoffs in about two minutes.  Held his own against bigger kids the first two times and was completely and utterly schooled on the last one.