Soccer

I know, I know, another post about soccer.  Everyone must be getting sick of soccer by now ( I know I am!)  But before you just skim through this post I want to tell you that last night's game was an amazing game.  It was probably one of the best so far this season.  It was an away game down in Middletown, also a night game (ughh!).  I ended up going a little earlier than I planned to because Lauren forgot to bring a vital part of her equipment so I got there at 6:00 instead of closer to the 6:30 start time.  I can't believe they charged $5 to get in there!  Nobody but AI does that so that surprised me, good thing I had money on me. 

Anyway, back to the game.  The girls were announced, here's Lauren (on the right) running out to the center of the field.  

 Middletown actually dominated the first 10 minutes or so of the game.  The ball was within scoring reach for them for pretty much that whole time but Newark kept it from going in.  Finally they got their act together and the play went back and forth.

 Take a look at #17 in the above picture (she's a Middletown player, wearing white.)  More about her later.  Lauren's position for this game was mid so she had a lot of running to do.  She would run ahead and help/attempt to score and also fall back to help defend.



I love the pink socks the Middletown players were wearing! 

So the play goes back and forth with neither team scoring.  That is...until...Lauren takes the ball up the side, attempts to cross it over and miraculously it takes a curve and goes right into the net!  We were all shocked!  She was shocked!  All she was attempting to do was cross the ball like she normally does and never once thought that it was going to go in.  It was one of those fluke things but hey, a goals a goal.  It was a pretty darn good goal at that. 

To say she was thrilled was an understatement and her teammates shared in the enthusiasm.  I whipped out my camera real quick (of course I had already put it away before she scored, it was getting dark and my camera doesn't take good sports pictures in the dark) and snapped this pic of the girls running back to the center.  You can't really see Lauren but she's the 2nd girl back.  #14 is blocking her and they kind of have their arms around each other.  You can see her purple shoes though!

So she scored at the 29th minute of the first half (they play 40 minute halves) and the score stayed 1-0 at the end of the first half. 

The second half starts and both teams play well, lots of back and forth action.  Middletown is getting more aggressive but Lauren's team gets aggressive right back.  The game was getting to be a real nail biter for the last 10 minutes.  Finally its over and Lauren's team wins, 1-0!  All because of Lauren's goal!  I have to give credit to our goalie, she was simply amazing last night and made some great saves. 

Okay, the games over and of course Lauren's team is excited and run and hug each other.  As they're walking off the field that #17 girl that I mentioned earlier takes off her head gear, throws it on the ground and kicks it inadvertently at one of her own teammates.  She is obviously ticked.  The teams go to slap hands like they always do when (and this is where I rely on Lauren since I couldn't see what exactly went on) the #17 girl pushes one of our players.  People are trying to get #17 off the poor girl and from across the field it looked like a huge fight!  They get her away from everyone and she (#17) goes running into the middle of the field cussing at one of the parents on our side. The whole thing was unbelievable and I've never seen anything like that before.  No one likes to lose but really?  To fight someone and then cuss out a parent over it?  Wow.  I really should rename this post "Girl Goes Crazy Because She Can't Handle Losing!"  

Or a better title would be "Lauren's Unbelievable Goal!"  My girl gets the only and winning goal for her team.  You go girl!  Keep that up.