From The Sports Desk – Williamston 4v4

 

The first 4v4 soccer tournament of the summer comes with a surprise twist.

We are a U11 team, we signed up to play U12 because the tournament grouping was U10/U11….figured we’d rather be challenged at U12 then blowing U10 teams out.

So the schedules come out….we’re playing U14!  They only had two U12 teams so they moved us up to play a U13 team and a U14 team.  We aren’t thrilled about this, but that’s the way it works out sometimes.

The Kung-Fu Pandas. I found these animal big-face shirts online, Matthew picked his top three, and the boys voted.  We ended up with the Pandas!

Game 1:  Against a group of TNT U12 boys.  We lost 4-3…we did not come out fast, or quick, or strong, or any of that.  They did, they were intent on pressuring us the entire time.  So we got down early….but once we learned to deal with that we did well and had some pretty goals.  But we could never get back the early deficit and lost by one goal.

Maybe the one notable thing to capture here was the other coach.  He just wouldn’t shut up…made every call for the referee, told his boys to do every little thing (run.  don’t run.  jump, etc.).  Just really annoying to listen to.

Game 2:  Against the U14 team…our kids are going into 6th grade; these kids are going into 9th grade!  And they are big, and we go down 4-0 early.  Boys are intimidated by the size and they go by them quickly for some easy goals. 

In Game 1 I had told the boys to stay back and jockey on defense; keep everything in front of them.  But these U14 kids are ok, but not great, and when we challenge them on defense we can steal the ball.  So I tell the boys to switch to challenging them at every moment.  And we start coming back….4-1, 4-2 at the half.  4-3 and then 5-3 them….and we score the next two goals to tie it with a minute to left and the game ends that way.  A good game for the boys and the parents….the ref comes over afterwards and tells the boys congratulations; he was really impressed by how they rallied back.

Game 3: Lost 7-3 to a U13  team from another soccer club down near Ann Arbor.  They were good; they were bigger and better and well, we weren’t ever really in this game.

Skippy Songs

Sent this song to Melanie; told her it might be the very definition of a Skippy Song.  Found it on a compilation disk I downloaded and about the second time I heard it I realized I really liked it…..like everything else I’ve heard by the band too…

Melanie responds “Oh geez.  that was a skippy song in the first 20 seconds…..it's a good song.   good band name too.”

The tipping point  that made me decide to throw this information up here happened yesterday; the song is playing while I’m working and Kevin walks up and goes “Hey, I like this…who is this?”  

E-e-o-e-o E-e-o-e-o!

Cosmetic Changes

 

The summer isn’t even two weeks old (from an out of school perspective, at least) but there’s been a lot done on the human health front.

Eyes:  Kevin’s vision, surprise, got a little worse.  I think he’s rocking half of the prescription I had before the laser surgery, so, it could be a lot worse than it is.  Matthew and Cpher, remarkably, are still at 20/20. 

Teeth:  No cavities for any of the three.  Matthew’s trip to the orthodontist earned him a band of braces on the top teeth.  Things go well here; the mask he wears at night is doing a great job of pulling the upper teeth out over the lower jaw hopefully sparing him more orthodontia as he grows older.  Kevin has learned that he may shed his braces in January 2014. 

Skin:  Matthew asked if we could do something about that big mole under his left eye (not very visible in this picture; it is right where the sun and shade meet).  So, we did that today.  I guess moles are like icebergs, and part of that one is still under the surface and may grow out more over time….where he’ll have to do this again.  Mole removal painless…getting the shot that deadened the skin to make mole removal painless?  Not so much.

Physicals:  Later this summer.

Scouting Report

 

One of the things about the upcoming year that excites me is that Matthew’s new coach apparently has no life…..he sends out detailed post-game reports on how the team performed and sometimes scouts his team’s opponents.

Wasn’t hard for him to scout ( T ) since we play games in the same town; heck, we saw him at two of the games.  I have a copy of the scouting report, and wanted to post chunks of it here so that, like many other things, I have this for all time.  Matthew hasn’t seen it (he has heard about parts of it) so I’m sure sometime later when he reads it he will find it interesting.

OPPOSITION TEAM ANALYSIS

TEAM NAME: ( T ) 02 Red

GAME DATE: 2 games in late April and May

WEATHER CONDITIONS: Game one hard Rain and Game two sunny and no wind! MOST notes from game two as this will be closest too this weekend game (Hopefully)

FORMATION:

2-4-1 / 2-3-1-1 (sometimes Center midfielders played attacking and defensive depending on the pairing up).

KEY PLAYERS:

(26) Central MID (Matthew) Arguably their best player. He has nice feet and tries to get the team to play the game the right way. Is not the fastest must get tight with out diving in and he wont easily beat you. Must apply pressure and make him play on his left foot as often as possible. Scores goals for them

(13) Central MID (Jake) Similar to 26 tall and strong and likes a shot. Not as skillful but must try to force him to play wide and not bear us going forward.

(10) STRIKER (Cam) is s clever little player upfront but we just need to make sure we get tight and make him play backwards. He is happiest when running forward. Good at stop starts and fake shot’s…. don’t dive in!!!

(4) Central Defender (AJ) Probably their best defender especially the way they set up as two central defenders. Doesn’t deal well with the quick one two’s and is not as fast as our attackers. If we can drag him out of position is will leave the other defenders (not as good) isolated then we will have success.

(3)(6)(1) WINGERS (Henry, Nick, Zane) All fairly athletic and can take players on! Like to fake and then beat you and like to run downhill (be direct). Must stand them up and force them to use their skills rather then athleticism. However challenge their first touch by getting tight and forcing them backwards by arriving as they get the ball!

INDIVIDUAL PLAYER ATTRIBUTES:

· Direct style of play. They like to run at opposition. Generally a very direct style to the wide players.

· Most players can shot and cross the ball well if given time on the ball.

· Fake shots and turns to create goal scoring chances (must stand players up)

PATTERNS/STYLE OF PLAY:

The team plays a pretty direct style of play and looks to get it wide as quickly as possible. Centre mid (because there are two) can move up the field and they seem to create a lot of goal scoring chances from finding them higher up the field from crosses or diagonal balls into them. If we play a high line they will also try to hit a direct ball in behind or across field and try to stretch the field with their athleticism.

SET PIECES

· Kickoff they play direct and look to hit it on between our defender and midfielder and run at us. Be aware of this and win that ball into the channel.

· Corners and free kicks (did not see many) They look to hit the back post and have tall athletic players that can head the ball. We must mark up well and make sure we have an appropriate player to mark! Preferably tallest players on tallest and leave others free to attack ball and find it to clear!

AREAS OF STRENGTH:

· Fairly athletic.  Can shoot from distance.· Speed in the wide areas.· Two strong and tall players in the midfield.

AREAS OF WEAKNESS:

· Play with two defenders. Very vulnerable to balls into strikers feet and then back then wide! VERY vulnerable to the ball into the channel for the striker to run onto!

· Players are quick-(ish) but do not react well to 1-2s. If we do this higher up the field we are in for some exciting attacking soccer.

· Strikers can’t hold up the ball very well and want to turn up and face players. Must make them play backwards.

· Goalkeepers punting and Goal kicks. Defender will sometimes take goal kicks, If this is case leave striker high and look to get it to him as quickly as possible. Punting tries to play wide but will miss kick a lot must attack balls in air quickly!

· GOALKEEPER. Good at crosses but poor at everything else. Spills shots and miss judges long-range efforts. We must follow our shots in! Very obvious he has not GK training so we must play on this fact! If we win kickoff we will shot from first kick just to wake him up

KEY POINTS FOR GAME DAY:

Defensively

· Must keep our holding shape from the midfield and watch the late runs into the box as we are dealing with one more attacking player then we are used to!

· High starting position from goalkeeper, as they like to play long balls in behind. As they get closer must drop a bit to be set fro shot.

· Force the striker and wingers to go backwards by stepping up to them. They are not as confortable knock the balls around as us.

· Don’t dive in on number 26 he is tall and athletic and can move the ball quickly for a big guy. Stand him up and force him to use others around him how are not as good on the ball.

Attacking

· Know where we want to go before we receive the ball.

· As last week playing into the channels will be eye today! This will expose their two defenders and cause them to not be able to mark the weak side and force them to waste energy in quick transitioning back.

· Must swing the ball quickly through the midfield, as we will not have as much time on the ball centrally today with playing 2 central midfielders.

· Play forward backwards and forward again. This will help expose their organizational faults and hopefully help us show off our more athletic attacking play!

To Switch Or Not To Switch…..

Started to type out this post April 30.  Will see when I end up posting it…
(updated May 5 after this weekend’s events…and finalized on June 11th)
Switch or not?  That *is* the question…..with the departure of Coach Alex the question for us, the decision for us for Matthew, has become…..where to play soccer next year?  There are three choices, but, we can rule one out pretty quickly:

Detroit:  The top club teams, the academy teams, are based down there and there are five to ten kids in differing age groups who make the decision to make the trek down there for practice and games from mid-Michigan s is not the choice for Matthew right now; we still have arguments about going to practice!  I don’t think 90 minute drives each way make sense.  Would certainly mean the end of double-sporting….

I think Matthew could make one of the two academy teams.  Maybe sometime in the future.

( T ) or ( C ):  I’ll only use initials so that the search engines don’t drag someone here accidentally, but, anyone who actually gets here is not going to have much of a problem figuring out what I’m talking about.  There’s a lot of different things to consider, so, I’ll step through them one by one:  (6/11 update: should be pretty obvious by now by what I’ve written previously in other posts, but, Matthew will be switching clubs this summer and playing with ( C ).

1)  Coaching – Will probably be either Brett ( T ) or Stu ( C ): the ( C ) part is confirmed, the ( T ) part is not.  Brett coaches three different teams at the club currently and has run practices Matthew has been at in the past.  Has the minimal necessary licensing needed.  Stu coaches one team; has coached that team for a few years, and is the technical director for the club.  Has licensing above and beyond what is necessary.

For me, this is ( C ) by a landslide. 

(6/11 update….turns out it wasn’t Brett, it ended up being Jeff.  And it was just about the best choice ( T ) could have made because at least on this point, I think it is about even now.  Turns out that the decision didn’t turn on this part of the equation though)

2)  Club – ( T ) is not the best run of organizations even in its best moments; communication is poor and varies from coach to coach.  Definitely an air of favoritism in the air, and quite frankly the club owner has made it clear that he’ll do whatever he wants (many many people in the area have a negative view of him; we are friends, but I can see how that happens).  The best ‘guy’ in the club, the guy who ran everything, left a year ago and his departure shows.

( C ) by contrast, looks to be this well-run professional organization.  Just the difference in websites between the two says volumes. 

For me, this is ( C ) by a landslide

(6/11 update.  The ( T ) organization and my disgust with that part of this decision played large in our decision.  I realize I’ve never been able to move past the incident that led us to not play at Wixom for one of the winter sessions….that for 2.5 years I was happy in what may have been the misguided belief that the club was doing what was best for the kids regarding soccer.  But that incident, where the club decided we wouldn’t do that, and the only reason that makes any sense is that it was a financial move, well, that’s not what I’m looking for for Matthew.

The other part of it is that you don’t hear many complaints about ( C ) and how they run the ship, in fact, it is decidedly more positive and how they interact with the local soccer teams and clubs in volunteering their time and coaching is pretty neat.  They are about to take over the primary soccer complex in town from the city of Lansing; they are planning turf upgrades, etc.  

3)  Competition / Reputation – This has always been one of my bigger problems with ( C ); their teams just aren’t as good as ( T ) teams.  ( T ) qualified every age group for the State Cup knockout stages this spring (U-13 and above); ( C ) qualified none.  I realize a lot of this is that ( T ) is the incumbent and ( C ) is the challenger, but, it is important.

That’s reputation.  Until recently, I would tell you that even at Matthew’s age group, the ( C ) competition didn’t match up to who Matthew’s team is playing….they went to two lower tier tournaments in the fall.  But I’ve slowly come round on that thought; they play good teams in league play and in the winter, played teams we played and did as good if not better.

One of the snarky rumors of the Wixom-debacle is that we weren’t allowed / couldn’t play down there because we were lined up to play ( C ); and the powers-to-be were concerned that we would lose!

The latest piece-de-resistance is the brackets for the Memorial Day tournament that both Matthew’s team and ( C ) are playing in.  ( C ) requested, and were placed in, the top bracket.  I don’t know what ( T ) requested yet; I do know we are in the 2nd bracket. 

(5/5….turns out we moved up to the top bracket.  ( T ) will now play ( C ).  Guess a lot will be learned there!)

So, Reputation is a clear win for ( T ); Competition is even, if not a slight advantage for ( C ).

(6/11 – yeah, as chronicled here the game in the tournament was a pretty telling; they beat us 5-1 and our goal was pretty fluky.  But, the decision here really morphed….one of the things I ended up doing is figuring out what each team would look like next year; trying to predict out what a 11 v 11 roster would look like.  And what that did (I sat down with Matthew one night) was make me realize how ugly it might be with ( T )….moving up to 11 v 11 means adding more kids to the ‘A’ roster….Matthew is frustrated already that he makes play after play and his less-skilled teammates can’t convert or can’t even do the basic things to play successful soccer.  The prospect of continuing in that was hard to swallow….even with Matthew’s double-sporting he seems to be way more dedicated to this travel soccer team than any number of his teammates.)

4) Intangibles – Boy this is a mixed bag.  Matthew (and Suzanne and I!) have a whole lot of good friends on ( T ) and the thought of leaving them is distressing.  Some of those friends are asking the same switch or not to switch question as well, so, who know how this will end up.
There are some players (and parents) on the team that we’d be more than happy to wave goodbye too.  In some ways I’m sure that would mean that there are players and parents at ( C ) who would replace the current annoyances and complaints with different annoyances and complaints.
We’ll call this even right now.  I think it might be a slight lean towards ( C ) though.

(6/11 update.  It looks like Matthew may be the only person making a switch.  This is not particularly troublesome to Matthew, who I guess it matters the most to.  His friends at school play for ( C )…the kids from his school that play from ( T ) are friends, but, he is not particularly close to them and both have some personality traits that drive Matthew crazy.  So, there is that.

But Matthew has some very good friends from other communities on that team, coincidentally, Suzanne and I are very good friends with these parents.  We are definitely going on a cruise next year for spring break with some of them.  And it is sad that we won’t see them as much next year.  We will still see them, I am sure of that, because the friendships we have can survive the soccer-drama that is going on now.

At least that is what I hope).

5) DA – And last, but not least, the new feature in soccer around these parts.  The state is instituting a director’s academy; the top 16 teams as determined by application will play against each other and then participate in a year-end tournament.
During the Wixom-debacle, the owner of ( T ) quickly moved from discussing the debacle at the parent’s meeting to a preview of DA…noting that ( T ) would certainly be the only local club with teams in the DA.  ( T )’s reputation tends to support that notion.

( C ) also believes they have done enough in the recent years for inclusion.  Tournament brackets would seem to support that in our age group at least, one could make the call that ( C ) is better than ( T ).
We think being in DA is important for Matthew; he needs to play against the better kids to improve.  I think he does a good job of playing and dominating inferior teams (his 1 goal 2 assist performance last Sunday was a good example of that!).

(6/11 update:  Suzanne has very rightly told me I have completely flip-flopped on this item.  I do think it is important for Matthew to play against good teams.  What I have flopped on, or changed my opinion of so much, is that Matthew and what I believe his ( T ) team would look like next year is ill-equipped, no matter how much the training and coaching improves, to play at that level.  Given how badly the team has performed this year, it is akin to taking a Triple-A baseball team and throwing them into the major leagues.

( C ) did not make DA.  They believe, and Suzanne and I agree, that they belonged but were not accepted.  But the ( C ) team certainly seems equipped to play at that level…..and adding Matthew to that make a strong team stronger.  And in the end I guess it came down to being more comfortable with ( C )'s plan for next year and the year after, with or without DA, than what ( T ) is going to do.)

Things I need to write about later:
1)  The Whole DA saga
2)  Hindsight is 20/20, or, what I could have and should have done better during this process.
3) Scouting Reports

From The Sports Desk – The End of An Era

 

Three years and god knows how many practices, games, and fun later, Matthew’s journey with Coach Alex and with his current club comes to an end with two final games on Sunday.  All will be different next year.

First game is against long-time frequent opponent Canton White.  And the boys, for one of the few times all year, come out and play like we have been practicing, lots of passes, lots of possession.

We take a 1-0 lead in the 2nd half, and then give up the tying goal with 5 seconds left on what could be called a very poor offsides call but I will chose to call an example of one of the bigger problems plaguing this team….one boy just completely ignoring what he should be doing on the field to do something else.  And leaving a guy so wide open as to not even be believable.

So it is a sad melancholy type of day as Suzanne and I contemplate the switch that is going to happen and as we say our goodbyes to Coach Alex and Darus….I can’t say I’m happy with how the last 4 months have gone, but that’s not all on them, and they have consistently, to me at least, tried to do what they thought was best for the boys.  I know Matthew has grown a lot as a soccer player and as an athlete over the last three years.

So there are more than a few of these type of pictures from Suzanne’s picture-taking…boys with the coaches getting half-time instructions.

One midfielder was sick for the first half of the first game, so, Matthew played almost 25 of the 30 minute half.  Proud of that kid…was always hustling and moving even though he was playing quite a bit more than he usually does…..

The second game is nothing to talk about; we lost 7-1.  The more interesting things happened before and after the game….the White team played before our game so our players hung out on the sideline.  You know what, I’ll just go grab what Coach Alex wrote in his last email….

“Today during the first White team game there was a moment that I feel really summed up the past seasons...The White team was playing well on the field, and all members of the Red team were seated on our bench cheering loudly for their teammates.  The Red boys at times started chants and songs in support of their teammates, and it was clear through their faces that the boys on the field loved the environment that their buddies created.  The teamwork, respect, and enthusiasm for each other (and the game itself) was visibly present at that moment, and that type of selfless support is something that Darus and I are proud to see the boys embody as they move on to the next level.  Thanks again for allowing us to be a part of moments like that.  We look forward to keeping track of the boys as they continue their soccer careers, and we will cherish each success they have along the way.”

Last picture of the team…..holding Alex’s dog Buster above them as they do the team cheer one last time.  Darus there on the right had hugged all of the players but Suzanne and I both noticed he held onto Matthew a little bit longer than anyone else.  Makes me sad that they’ll be out of the picture next year and hope against hope that I’ve made the right decision for Matthew for at least the next two years.  The next post will be the long-hinted-at but never-posted discussion of that decision, why I/we (and there isn’t a whole lot of we there I guess) are doing it and the impacts of the decision.

From The Sports Desk – Playing The Weak Edition

 

Last weekend of soccer for this season; a long trip to Bloomfield to play the worst team in our division.  We emerged with a 5-3 win. 

The game was a lot closer than it should have been.  Again, I have to wonder about our goalie at times; seemed like he just dropped the ball into our goal at one point…

I always like pictures when Matthew is receiving the ball and doing something with it.  Like the last two photos….

Another sequence of photos; the ball between Matthew and the defender…and at least in this photo I’m not sure that Matthew is coming straight towards the beall…..

But he gets there first…..

And takes the ball and makes a move to get past the guy….

Suzanne’s best picture of the day of the boy…..

And Matthew’s best scoring opportunity of the day; his buddy Nick didn’t really have a chance to do much other than shoot since the goalie did a good job here and charged him….but if he only could have slid the ball over to that #26 charging down the middle….

A summary of results

 

Just wanted to capture these standings; the league doesn’t do a great job of archiving and I should have done better in years past….only a very specific google-search allowed me to travel back and get all this and I still can’t get all the way back to the Fall of 2010. 

Spring 2011:

Fall 2011:

Spring 2012:

Fall 2012:

Spring 2013:

Wildlife Part 2

 

By the end of the week, the number of wildlife in the backyard has been dramatically reduced.

1)  Last night at lax practice I get this text from Suzanne, “Dead groundhog in backyard and Holly’s mouth.  Yuck!”.  I had noticed Holly engaged in some serious excavation work over in one corner of the yard…I guess the one pup didn’t figure out that too far south was bad news…..

2)  Get home from lax practice and the boys point out the full-size still-twitching bunny that has been deposited on our porch.  Sigh. 

3)  Small duck like substance found this morning at the front door…..

It’s a rough world around here…….

The End of Lacrosse

The second-to-last raising-of-the-sticks before the game

 

So that’s it, another lacrosse season in the books.  Both boys seem like they are in for next year without needing much encouragement.  I found some pictures of the boys from another source from last weekend so will throw them in here as I talk about the season.

 

 

There are never enough pictures of Cpher from other sources; especially compared to Matthew….he just doesn’t handle the ball as much even though he is way more important to the team’s success in general.

 

And there aren’t many at all with both boys in the same picture!

 

Cpher had a good year; definitely the rock back on defense (one of our goalie’s Dad’s said “he really likes when Cpher is out in front of him!”.  I think he could stand to use more of his body instead of relying on his stick at times, but, the way the season went, I also realize he didn’t get a lot of practice time this year….

 

 

There is a summer lax program; it is, reportedly, very good, and incredibly, very cheap.  $35 for two practices a week for two hours each.  Almost a no-brainer to sign the boys up for it.  It costs extra to participate in tournaments with that group but I don’t think we have the time or inclination to do that. I wonder if they have enough d-men and if they will ask Cpher to go….

 

       

Next year will be different, he’s again the younger grade on a combined team.  Still think he will be ok size-wise, especially against the smaller attackers but kids will be bigger and faster. 

 

       

I could have predicted how much this kid was going to like lacrosse; combine the hitting of football with the ball movement and passing of soccer?!?  And he did much better as the season went on and his skills improved….

 

 

I think the lack of practice (missed for soccer) also didn’t do this guy any favors.  But, he is always someone who will go out and practice on his own (our garage door has the dents from the tennis ball he has whipped into it while practicing his shots).  Also signed him up for the summer training; it’s good for Cpher for Matthew to be there and it’s good for Matthew.

 

 

But next year; the sixth grader on a 5/6 team?  Look out…..can not wait to see that!

 

      

 

Really like that picture on the right; the kid is not afraid to drive into a group of opponents and take some hits to get a shot away.

 

       

Going to have to figure out a good way to generate more video of lacrosse next year.  I didn’t try very hard this year and well, there is no video because of that.

Wildlife

 

My home office view is pretty awesome, I look out at the two backyards to the immediate north of the house and get some trains rolling by off in the distance very now and again (the trains are bad for phone calls though).

It has been a busy week or two on the wildlife front so I grabbed the camera and took a few shots as things wandered by….

I have, only once, seen a buck tromp through the back yard.  Not sure if this young one is male or female, but, it has been a frequent visitor the last few mornings….

Mamma Groundhog, I think, has had at least one pup this spring.  I think this one is of a size that the cats have no chance now.

Although this dog ran into one of them in the backyard and went absolutely crazy today!  Never heard her bark like that!

This bad-ass owns the terrain in easily a 3 yard radius from our house.  Can’t really count all the victims since I think the dogs help with clean-up duty. 

This is not the back-yard; this is the picture Suzanne posted on facebook last night.  We have hanging baskets out front; when I water them I usually put the hose on ‘soak’ and leave the nozzle up there for 25 seconds.  I haven’t watered recently.  Cpher takes the hanging baskets down, waters them with his watering can, and puts the basket back up.  And saw this nest and eggs!

I hope the bird comes back and finishes her job, but, I have some serious reservations about how things are going to go with that orange predator lurking above…

From The Sports Desk – Lax Bash Day Two Edition

 

Soccer:  Lost 6-1.  The ending to a miserable spring of soccer continues.  Three games next weekend.

Lax Game 3 and 4:  Wasn’t there, camera was with me, so, can only report the scores.  We won 2-1 in the first game against Grand Blanc and 5-1 in the second.  Seems very obvious to Suzanne that our team is missing a lot of our best players today; we are down 5 midfielders in the morning and I’m only bringing Matthew and one other kid (an attack) with me for the semi-finals and finals.  Could be ugly.

Lax Game 5 (Semi-finals):  We are the #1 seed, 4-0 and best goal differential (that’s what happens when you give up 5 goals in 3 games).  So we play Canton in the semi-finals.  Another Mom took a bunch of pictures, I’ll use hers for this post and use mine (I don’t have nearly as many) for a later wrap-up post…

You might notice that the field here is not as clean and immaculate as the field on Saturday….they really could have taken a lawnmower to these fields before the tournament!

And I will be honest; Canton was a better team.  They passed the ball better, they played the game well.  But, I’d say #16 there represents the tallest kid they have, and the kid in the distance there is a fair representation of the average team size…they were small.

and in a game where the refs were reluctant to call many penalties that favored us.  Missing 4 midfielders (and I would guess our 3 top scorers) came back to haunt us this game; had a hard time generating any offense.

We don’t keep track of penalties like we do goals (and the goal number will drift into the past as the boys score more).  But Cpher had his share of penalties last year and has done a good job, for the most part, of staying out of the box this year.  That #30 above is doing a good job of trying to catch his brother.  I don’t think he was sent off in this game, but, had a few calls against him, including one for the dreaded ‘warding’…

But, as always, I’ll say he played well.  Definitely stepped up when he was on the field and we had more offensive pressure when his line was out there than at other times. 

Defense played solid; only gave up a goal when we were a man down early…used their size and physicality to keep the other team at bay. 

It’s tied 1-1, we head to sudden death overtime.  And we have one rush upfield and score, and that’s that.  Boys rush onto the field!

Game 6 (final):  Lost, 7-1, to St. Hugo in the final.

Again, they were much better than us.  And the refs called a much tighter game; seemed like an endless procession of players off the field.  Matthew goes twice(!), once for slashing (deserved), once for tripping (not deserved…a very strange call).  And our defense and goalie held the fort for the first half (think we were down 2-1) but the roof caved in early in the second.

End o’ tournament photo…..