Announcement
DRAGONSLAYERS!; Thunder Roll to Undefeated Season
Posted by Knut DeMuur on
Nov 02 2003
at
04:00PM PST
RSSC Thunder 3 – Grosse Pointe Dragons 0
It rained, and drizzled and misted and sprinkled all day long… and this team has always LOVED rainy, drizzly, misty, sprinkly days for playing soccer. Last week’s match was a great example of that. So was yesterday.
Thunder capped off a brilliant season yesterday with their 6th season shutout on a wet, muddy, puddle-stewn field against GPSA Dragons. The victory improved Thunder’s record to 6-0-2 in league play and sealed second place standing, just 2 points behind Clawson Strikers, also undefeated (7-0-1). Both teams are assured of promotion to the 1st division for Spring 2004.
Thunder carried play from the beginning and throughout the match creating numerous scoring opportunities through the first half. But we were just not able to out the finishing touch on during the 1st half, and at halftime the score remained tied 0-0.
But Thunder were just getting started. The 2nd half would find us attacking on the “fun side” of the field as Alyssa called it. And fun it was. Again, Thunder carried play and set the pace and tone of play. Running through puddles with total abandon and glee, the team looked like they were having more fun the 2nd half of this match than they had all season long. But having fun did not mean losing focus on what they wanted to do. And it didn’t take long for that focus to pay off. 4 minutes into the 2nd half, Olivia gained control of a bounding ball, and then lofted a lovely rainbow chip over the goalkeeper into the side netting of the far post.
5 minutes later, Meredith and Olivia combined beautifully for another certain scoring opportunity when Olivia got fouled just 2 yards outside the penalty area. Hillary calmly stepped up to take the direct kick, and after having the referee back the wall up to the full 10 yards, very coolly bent a gorgeous ball into the left upper-90.
Thunder continued to press and pressure and cross and play in the attacking 3rd of the match, all the while the ball would alternately stop dead if it hit a puddle or skip wildly off the slick grass. Water was flying with every kick and every player was soaked through and through and their faces spotted with mud. And if they didn’t have mud on their faces, they put it there themselves – or each others’.
Scoring was capped with about 8 minutes left as the ball played in from the right wing was being pinged back & forth in the goal area. Finally Jennifer Switzer saw her chance and alertly poked it past the scrambling keeper.
Defense, as has been the case all year was flawless and Emily Liles in goal for Thunder logged 3 saves on the day and yet another shutout (with 5 minutes of help from Hillary at the end) to cap off this amazing season.
And it HAS been an amazing season. You girls have worked so hard and with so much commitment. All year long you have taken your training to heart and put it to practice on the game-field. All year long I’ve asked you to play to the point where you can honestly say “I held nothing back! I gave everything it was possible for me to give.” And you have done just that, day in and day out, game in and game out.
And, to repeat what I wrote you heading into this last match: You have built something quite special and incredible this autumn. And now it is something you will ALWAYS have. No “could-have-been’s” or “I-wish-I-had’s”. You made your choice and followed through. And look at what you built for youselves. You are playing excellent soccer. You yielded only 2 goals all season. 6 shutouts. You are undefeated. You’ve earned promotion. And you are in every good and positive sense of the word, A TEAM. I love this team and everything about it. I love your determination. I love your focus. I love how hard every single player on this team works. I love how you play for each other. I love how you care for each other. I love the personality of this team – and the personalities on this team.
And I love how you chose for yourselves to commit to your season. You made that choice. And you have created your own success because of it. And it impresses me. And it heartens me. And it makes me very, very proud to be your coach.
Great job, Thunder. Well done, well earned and well deserved.
It rained, and drizzled and misted and sprinkled all day long… and this team has always LOVED rainy, drizzly, misty, sprinkly days for playing soccer. Last week’s match was a great example of that. So was yesterday.
Thunder capped off a brilliant season yesterday with their 6th season shutout on a wet, muddy, puddle-stewn field against GPSA Dragons. The victory improved Thunder’s record to 6-0-2 in league play and sealed second place standing, just 2 points behind Clawson Strikers, also undefeated (7-0-1). Both teams are assured of promotion to the 1st division for Spring 2004.
Thunder carried play from the beginning and throughout the match creating numerous scoring opportunities through the first half. But we were just not able to out the finishing touch on during the 1st half, and at halftime the score remained tied 0-0.
But Thunder were just getting started. The 2nd half would find us attacking on the “fun side” of the field as Alyssa called it. And fun it was. Again, Thunder carried play and set the pace and tone of play. Running through puddles with total abandon and glee, the team looked like they were having more fun the 2nd half of this match than they had all season long. But having fun did not mean losing focus on what they wanted to do. And it didn’t take long for that focus to pay off. 4 minutes into the 2nd half, Olivia gained control of a bounding ball, and then lofted a lovely rainbow chip over the goalkeeper into the side netting of the far post.
5 minutes later, Meredith and Olivia combined beautifully for another certain scoring opportunity when Olivia got fouled just 2 yards outside the penalty area. Hillary calmly stepped up to take the direct kick, and after having the referee back the wall up to the full 10 yards, very coolly bent a gorgeous ball into the left upper-90.
Thunder continued to press and pressure and cross and play in the attacking 3rd of the match, all the while the ball would alternately stop dead if it hit a puddle or skip wildly off the slick grass. Water was flying with every kick and every player was soaked through and through and their faces spotted with mud. And if they didn’t have mud on their faces, they put it there themselves – or each others’.
Scoring was capped with about 8 minutes left as the ball played in from the right wing was being pinged back & forth in the goal area. Finally Jennifer Switzer saw her chance and alertly poked it past the scrambling keeper.
Defense, as has been the case all year was flawless and Emily Liles in goal for Thunder logged 3 saves on the day and yet another shutout (with 5 minutes of help from Hillary at the end) to cap off this amazing season.
And it HAS been an amazing season. You girls have worked so hard and with so much commitment. All year long you have taken your training to heart and put it to practice on the game-field. All year long I’ve asked you to play to the point where you can honestly say “I held nothing back! I gave everything it was possible for me to give.” And you have done just that, day in and day out, game in and game out.
And, to repeat what I wrote you heading into this last match: You have built something quite special and incredible this autumn. And now it is something you will ALWAYS have. No “could-have-been’s” or “I-wish-I-had’s”. You made your choice and followed through. And look at what you built for youselves. You are playing excellent soccer. You yielded only 2 goals all season. 6 shutouts. You are undefeated. You’ve earned promotion. And you are in every good and positive sense of the word, A TEAM. I love this team and everything about it. I love your determination. I love your focus. I love how hard every single player on this team works. I love how you play for each other. I love how you care for each other. I love the personality of this team – and the personalities on this team.
And I love how you chose for yourselves to commit to your season. You made that choice. And you have created your own success because of it. And it impresses me. And it heartens me. And it makes me very, very proud to be your coach.
Great job, Thunder. Well done, well earned and well deserved.
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