We played Forest Park Community College in St. Louis on Ocotber 19th. The match was played under the lights at the beautiful soccer specific facilities of St Louis University High School.
We got on the scoreboard first with a goal by Jared White. Forest Park tied it a little later on, and we went ahead again by a nice goal from Eli Bradley on a beautiful assist by Cesar Garcia. Forest Park tied the score with 35 seconds to go in the match on a nice corner that they converted on the back post. After two 10 minute golden goal overtimes the match ended in a 2-2 tie.
Our thanks to Coach Henson and his boys for hosting us. We're looking forward to returning the favor in the 2010 season.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
RLC vs ICC
The trip to Peoria is a long one on any given day, but when you drive for 11 hours the day before it makes it a bit longer. We got back from our Mississippi late Friday night, then left for Peoria on the morning of the 17th to drive for four hours and play one of the best teams in the nation.
It wasn't the best of days to play. Peoria had received a lot of rain and the pitch was in bad shape. Add to that the cold weather and it didn't make for one of those "perfect days" to play on.
We went up 1-0 on a nice goal by Griffin Groves. He had a nice break away on the left side and sent the ball to the right side of goal from 20 yards out. ICC tied it shortly after that on a PK, and by half it was 4-1. The game was called in the 72nd minute due to the unsafe conditions of the pitch with ICC leading 9-1.
Coach Oz has done a great job assembling a nationally ranked team. They are awesome! One of our boys summed up the day the best when he said, "this is the best team I've played against on the worst pitch that I've played on".
It wasn't the best of days to play. Peoria had received a lot of rain and the pitch was in bad shape. Add to that the cold weather and it didn't make for one of those "perfect days" to play on.
We went up 1-0 on a nice goal by Griffin Groves. He had a nice break away on the left side and sent the ball to the right side of goal from 20 yards out. ICC tied it shortly after that on a PK, and by half it was 4-1. The game was called in the 72nd minute due to the unsafe conditions of the pitch with ICC leading 9-1.
Coach Oz has done a great job assembling a nationally ranked team. They are awesome! One of our boys summed up the day the best when he said, "this is the best team I've played against on the worst pitch that I've played on".
RLC's Mississippi Trip
One of the items on our fall agenda was to take a road trip in order to get our program some exposure outside of Southern Illinois. So on October 13th we hit the road for Mississippi.
We played Southwest Mississippi Community College on the 14th and walked away with a 4-3 win. It was a good physical match for us. We played one of the best possession games that we've played all year and it paid off for us. Many thanks to Coach Strother and his staff for making us feel welcome at SWMCC.
We left Summit the next day and drove to Poplarville to play Pearl River Community College. After going up 1-0 early in the game on a penalty kick by Ceasar Garcia, our boys were shot. The game the day before, the 90+ temp, the humidity, and a very good Pearl River team, were to much for us on that day. We lost 6-1. I would have preferred a day's rest between the games, but there wasn't much we could do about the scheduling this year. Next year, we'll try to avoid back to back matches. But our jerseys go off to Coach Byrd and the Pearl River boys, they played a heck of a game.
Hopefully we'll get to host one or both of these programs next year. This may be the beginning of some good matches with some Mississippi teams.
We played Southwest Mississippi Community College on the 14th and walked away with a 4-3 win. It was a good physical match for us. We played one of the best possession games that we've played all year and it paid off for us. Many thanks to Coach Strother and his staff for making us feel welcome at SWMCC.
We left Summit the next day and drove to Poplarville to play Pearl River Community College. After going up 1-0 early in the game on a penalty kick by Ceasar Garcia, our boys were shot. The game the day before, the 90+ temp, the humidity, and a very good Pearl River team, were to much for us on that day. We lost 6-1. I would have preferred a day's rest between the games, but there wasn't much we could do about the scheduling this year. Next year, we'll try to avoid back to back matches. But our jerseys go off to Coach Byrd and the Pearl River boys, they played a heck of a game.
Hopefully we'll get to host one or both of these programs next year. This may be the beginning of some good matches with some Mississippi teams.
Saturday, October 10, 2009
RLC vs St Charles
We hosted St. Charles Commuity College this afternoon at 2:00. This was our first look at St. Charles. I knew very little about them before the match, except for their record. I had a hunch that it would be a pretty even match, and I was right.
We started the match like we have started most of our games this year, that is we scored first. Jared White laid off a text book cross in the box and Thad Snell was there to clean up. St. Charles looked a bit down, but they responded with an unlikely goal five minutes later. 1-1
After a foul just outside the box was awarded us, Thad Snell takes the free kick and messes their net up with a rocket shot that went through the wall and past the Keeper before he knew what was up. We're up 2-1 and feeling pretty good. But ten minutes later they take the ball down the right, cross it in with a diagonal pass and tie it up 2-2. That's the way the half came to a close.
In the second half one of our boys gets his second yellow (I'm not going there to talk about the call) and we have to play the rest of the half down one man. That worked to St. Charles' advantage. They scored in the 70th minute and we failed on several opportunitites to capitalize. 7-7-1 is not where we wanted to be at the end of this week, but that's the way the ball bounced for us.
We're taking a trip to Mississippi next week to play Southwest Mississippi Co.Co.and Pearl River Co. Co. We get back on Friday, go to Peoria on Saturday and wrap up our season on the 19th in St. Louis against Forrest Park Co. Co.
We started the match like we have started most of our games this year, that is we scored first. Jared White laid off a text book cross in the box and Thad Snell was there to clean up. St. Charles looked a bit down, but they responded with an unlikely goal five minutes later. 1-1
After a foul just outside the box was awarded us, Thad Snell takes the free kick and messes their net up with a rocket shot that went through the wall and past the Keeper before he knew what was up. We're up 2-1 and feeling pretty good. But ten minutes later they take the ball down the right, cross it in with a diagonal pass and tie it up 2-2. That's the way the half came to a close.
In the second half one of our boys gets his second yellow (I'm not going there to talk about the call) and we have to play the rest of the half down one man. That worked to St. Charles' advantage. They scored in the 70th minute and we failed on several opportunitites to capitalize. 7-7-1 is not where we wanted to be at the end of this week, but that's the way the ball bounced for us.
We're taking a trip to Mississippi next week to play Southwest Mississippi Co.Co.and Pearl River Co. Co. We get back on Friday, go to Peoria on Saturday and wrap up our season on the 19th in St. Louis against Forrest Park Co. Co.
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
RLC vs Parkland
Parkland was one of those teams that beat us pretty bad last year. They are one of those teams that is on our payback list...:) We knew going into the match that we would give them a good one, and that we might even be able to pull off an upset.
The crowd, and the opposing team, were a little stunned when Thad Snell put one in from the right side in the 15th minute of the first half. The rest of the half was played hard, and physical on both sides, and it would have been a very good half IF the officals would have done what they were paid to do,,,, call a fair game. I don't like to talk about poor officiating, and 99% of the time I don't. But when lack of calls and missed calls result in goals,,,that's when I get a litte upset. What really upsets me even more is when an official acts in a non professional manner and taunts my boys! It is my responsibility to stick up for my boys, and that's what I did. Okay enough about the poor officiating, except to say that Parkland scored two goals on two missed calls, and we were denied one goal scoring opportunity because a foul on our attacker was not declared a PK, like it should have been. So, at the end of the first half it was 2-1 Parkland.
In the second half we had some good opportunities to tie the game, but their Keeper played a nice game and turned us away. Parkland got one more goal in the last two minutes of the game. When the whistle blew, we walked away feeling like it was a much closer game than a 3-1 loss.
They are still on our payback list, so hopefully next year when we welcome them to The Lake, they'll have a long bus ride home.
The crowd, and the opposing team, were a little stunned when Thad Snell put one in from the right side in the 15th minute of the first half. The rest of the half was played hard, and physical on both sides, and it would have been a very good half IF the officals would have done what they were paid to do,,,, call a fair game. I don't like to talk about poor officiating, and 99% of the time I don't. But when lack of calls and missed calls result in goals,,,that's when I get a litte upset. What really upsets me even more is when an official acts in a non professional manner and taunts my boys! It is my responsibility to stick up for my boys, and that's what I did. Okay enough about the poor officiating, except to say that Parkland scored two goals on two missed calls, and we were denied one goal scoring opportunity because a foul on our attacker was not declared a PK, like it should have been. So, at the end of the first half it was 2-1 Parkland.
In the second half we had some good opportunities to tie the game, but their Keeper played a nice game and turned us away. Parkland got one more goal in the last two minutes of the game. When the whistle blew, we walked away feeling like it was a much closer game than a 3-1 loss.
They are still on our payback list, so hopefully next year when we welcome them to The Lake, they'll have a long bus ride home.
RLC vs Danville
Danville. When I mention that name to my sophomore boys they get this look in their eyes and a taste in their mouth for victory. Last year in our first meeting we had a bitter battle with them at home, we lost 4-1. The second game of 08 was played at Danville and they won 2-1 on a last minute goal. So, needless to say, we wanted Danville in the worst way this year.
Our first match ended in a tie at the end of regulation, but that was due to poor officials who didn't know that we were supposed to play two ten minute golden goal overtimes. Fast forward to last Saturday, and we are hosting Danville for our second match of the year.
The first half was played extremely hard, something that our boys and Coach David's boys find easy to do when we play each other. In spite of hard, physical play the first half ended with a 0-0 tie.
What a difference halves can make. Our boys came out on fire. We shifted from a 4-3-3 to a 4-4-2 and messed up their net three times in the last 45 minutes. Jared White put in two and Thad Snell added one. Danville got one late in the second half, but that was all they could muster. Kudos for an excellent effort to our Keeper Josh Sears. He had several nice saves and some unbelievable boots up the field to help us keep the pressure on their end of the field for most of the second half.
Now that we have a win against Danville, maybe our boys can relax a little bit next year and put Danville away twice without the pressure of getting that first win.
Our first match ended in a tie at the end of regulation, but that was due to poor officials who didn't know that we were supposed to play two ten minute golden goal overtimes. Fast forward to last Saturday, and we are hosting Danville for our second match of the year.
The first half was played extremely hard, something that our boys and Coach David's boys find easy to do when we play each other. In spite of hard, physical play the first half ended with a 0-0 tie.
What a difference halves can make. Our boys came out on fire. We shifted from a 4-3-3 to a 4-4-2 and messed up their net three times in the last 45 minutes. Jared White put in two and Thad Snell added one. Danville got one late in the second half, but that was all they could muster. Kudos for an excellent effort to our Keeper Josh Sears. He had several nice saves and some unbelievable boots up the field to help us keep the pressure on their end of the field for most of the second half.
Now that we have a win against Danville, maybe our boys can relax a little bit next year and put Danville away twice without the pressure of getting that first win.
RLC vs Kaskaskia
We took a road trip to Kaskaskia last Friday to match up with the Blue Devils for the second time this season. Our first meeting ended in a 2-1 win for us in double over-time.
The game got under way just like the first one did. We found the back of the net early in the match for a 1-0 lead. KC got on the board a little later on and the first 45 minutes came to an end with a 1-1 tie.
In the second half we made an adjustment in our midfield that allowed us to dominate possession. Yet in spite of almost total control of the game we were only able to score one more goal. Give credit to the KC keeper, he made several saves.
Our boys wanted this win pretty bad, and in spite of a low scoring game they felt like they had the game under control for the bulk of the game. It's a nice feeling to be able to beat a conference opponent twice in the season. I'm sure this is the beginning of a very good rivalry.
The game got under way just like the first one did. We found the back of the net early in the match for a 1-0 lead. KC got on the board a little later on and the first 45 minutes came to an end with a 1-1 tie.
In the second half we made an adjustment in our midfield that allowed us to dominate possession. Yet in spite of almost total control of the game we were only able to score one more goal. Give credit to the KC keeper, he made several saves.
Our boys wanted this win pretty bad, and in spite of a low scoring game they felt like they had the game under control for the bulk of the game. It's a nice feeling to be able to beat a conference opponent twice in the season. I'm sure this is the beginning of a very good rivalry.
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