Rochester Pride - RSC Lightning '96

Thunder 1 - San Marino 2 For the second time this spring, Thunder and San Marino played a very strong and entertaining match. Unfortunately from our perspective, the San Marino team edged us out by one goal for the 2nd time on the season, making them the only team in the league to win twice against us. For the 1st 20 minutes of play, Thunder actually carried a great deal of the play and looked very well poised to be the ones to pull ahead. But then on a counter attack, SM did well to recognize and then take advantage of a numbers-up situation and then make a very nice shot that Emily had no chance on - it was just too well placed and too well paced (hey, that was pretty good!). Later in the half SM again found a crack in the armor when a marking error left 2 players unchallenged and they collected a goal kick, and then found and buried their opportunity. In the second half, Thunder again came out playing well, just as they had in the 1st half, but tightened up on the little details and, in the end, played a better half than San Marino. Thunder drew within one when Olivia, starting from an perfect wide position, was played a ball from the middle of the field and was able to run onto the ball and bury it in the far post side of the goal. It was a magnificent goal. We created several other very good chances, including a few excellent opportunities off of restarts, but were just not able to come up with the equalizer. But this was a very good showing, girls, and I am extremely pleased with this outing. With this level of play and quality of effort, you will have an excellent match Thursday as we play out last match for the season. I am very much looking forward to it! Great job, girls. Keep up the hard work.