Rochester Pride - RSC Lightning '96

In a hard fought and well contested match Wednesday night, Thunder scored 2 goals in the last 15 minutes of the match to draw within one goal of 1st-place GPSA Mustangs. Pressure was building and the attack was furious. The goalkeeper made what can only be decribed as a sensational extention save on a gorgeous shot by Sandi to prevent the tying goal in the last minute or two. And one gets the sense that only the clock prevented the inevitable equalizer. Well, so be it. The loss is in the books. BUT THE FIGHTING THUNDER ARE BACK! And THAT is what is exciting and noteworthy to me. We got down early and scrambled a bit in the 1st half and yielded 2 unnecessary goals. But halftime adjustments and refocus on finding target players, marking to prevent turns and driving hard to the net paid off. The first goal came from exactly that effort. The ball was keenly played from the center of the field behind the defense for target player Sara out on the right wing to run onto. From there it was a breakaway situation and Sara pulled the ol’ knuckleball change-up shot out of there bag of tricks finishing into the far post side netting. A lovely piece of full-team effort & work. Straight off the chalkboard and onto the field. Very nicely done. Then 3-4 minutes later, in an inspired bit of individual effort, Tenealle picked her spot and made a ¾ field attacking run, beating opponents like they were orange cones, and finished with a decisive strike to the far post. It was a beautiful thing to watch. As I mentioned, one gets the feeling that the equalizer or even the game winner were mere moments away. But today, it didn’t quite happen. But is not as important to me as what I saw on the field tonight. I saw very very good things tonight. Last weekend I was bothered and disappointed by the loss because of the poor overall play of the entire team which led to it. I have no such reservations today. Tonight, even though we lost, I am extremely happy & pleased with the showing you made tonight. Especially the fight you showed all the way up to the end. That is something that was missing last weekend. But tonight you showed that it is not something that is gone. Congratulations Sara Driscoll & Tenealle Tenwolde on your first goals of the season. Congratulation all of you for a very good showing and a magnificent finishing effort.