Finals of Bracket A.

Game 11, 30 September vs. Naperville North in Burlington (3-4)

What should have been a great celebratory match ended in absolute disaster. 

Yes, we lost Reid Howard midway first half—the guy who runs the back—but we played almost all of the first half without him, and we played pretty solid defense. 

Yes, we may have scored a goal that the ref ruled did not cross the goal line. And yes they had a similar shot that did count. And there was a handball on their second goal. 

But hey, we were up 3-0 with under 30 to go. 

They were dangerous on long throws and all set pieces. We offered them way too many opportunities. We played too many balls out of bounds, creating long throws, and we parried too many balls we should have just caught. 

And with the match 3-2 our keeper grabbed a guy’s legs in the box to take him down, creating a PK and a red card to leave us tied and with only 10 guys for the rest of the game. 18 long minutes. 

I think we made it to the 6-minute mark before they got us on a long throw. 

So, we left quite a bit on the table. We now will pray Reid is not done for the year and prepare Spencer and PJ to play goal. 

One cool thing that teams do in Illinois is they award a sportsmanship and good play award to one player on the other team each game. Their captains brought Jack Mason the award. So BWhite must go with them for the match. Jack Mason it is.

Stats:

First Half: Saints

Shots. 4 (3). Corners 1 (Wirt)

34:57. Whigham (Parker’s throw creates a handball in the box)

32:43. Wirt (Mason to Arias who chips it to Wirt)

30:48 Mason (Colling hit the long ball over the top)

NVN:  Shots. 3 (2) Corners. 2

Second Half:  

Shots. 3 (1). Corners. 1. (Mason)

NVN. Shots: 10 (6)

27:03 Long throw with back post knock-in

21:17 Dribble through and small T

17:12 PK

6:47 Long throw again