RLC vs Lewis & Clark

We drove to Godfrey this past Saturday to take on Lewis & Clark. Godfrey isn't a bad drive, a little over two hours. So, we weren't to terribly exhausted when we got there. The weather was excellent for a September match. The sun was out and the temp before game time was upper 80's. When we stepped on the pitch I was very surprised that the pitch was in such bad shape, but when Coach Tim explained that they had a double header on it during a big rain a week earlier then I understood why the pitch was so beat up.

In spite of the poor field condition our boys played a very good first half. We had three shots on goal and held them to only one shot. The Warriors came off the pitch at half confident that we would put one in the net before they did. We had plenty of very good opportunities to do so. When you get excellent shots on goal like we had you tend to think that surely one is going to get in sooner or later. However, that's not the way it turned out. They got a 22 yard free kick at the top of the box on a questionable call that resulted in the lone goal of the game in the 73rd minute. But our guys did not put their heads down, they stepped up and played intense soccer for the remainder of the match with a couple of excellent chances to score. In the last minute of the game, the blind official missed an aggressive foul on L&W that should have resulted in a PK but instead he ruled it an obstruction and gave us an indirect kick in the box with 33 seconds on the clock. We took the kick and almost converted it as it ricocheted off one player and then another.

We had some good performances from several players in this match, but the young man that stood out was Tyler Weston. He stepped in and played the 4 spot for the absent Griffin Groves. Griffen was at his Grandmother's funeral. Tyler played excellent and demonstrated to the coaches and the team that he is capable of stepping in and playing at a high level in the back.

The 1-0 loss was a little bitter since we played so well, but that's the way the ball rolls sometimes and we have to learn from it, keep working hard, and hope that the ball will roll our way this Tuesday and Thursday.