And You Lose Some

Yesterday we lost our 2nd round playoff match against Astoria High School by the score of 2-1. They scored five minutes in, we equalized 20 minutes later, and they popped another in 10 minutes before half. The rest of the game we spent pounding away at their door, but nothing came to fruition. It was heartbreaking for many reasons, but most of all because I will miss this excellent group of seniors. Bravo to them for fighting hard to the end.

Hooray!

We won our playoff game 3-1! The guys played well, including an unreal shot from 35 yards for our first goal. We broke the "Sisters Curse," after they beat us two years ago and our volleyball team in the state championship game last year.

Tomorrow morning we leave for Astoria, Oregon to play the Cowapa League champions. One of the team goals was to get a road playoff game, so we can check that off the list.

Tuesday is Election Day, so it has the making of an incredible day (Obama and we win), an okay day (Obama loses and we win or vice versa), or the worstest day ever (we both lose).

Wish us luck!

Soccer Playoffs

We just found out last night that our first round playoff match is against Sisters High School in Sisters, Oregon. We lost to them in the 2nd round two years ago in what was probably the worst weather in which I've ever seen a soccer game played. There's a bit more history: Last year Sisters beat our volleyball team in the state finals. We have quite the burden of stopping Sisters in their tracks and it starts this weekend!

For those of you around town we play at noon on Saturday. Come watch!

Big Soccer Day

Today's a big day for my team. We play Ontario with the winner all but securing second place in league and with that a much better playoff position. We lost the first game to Ontario (at their place) 3-0 and won the second game (at home) 3-1, so it's a great match-up. We started the day right with a big pancake breakfast at my place, so we're ready to go!

An extra treat: Nebraska football is on tv this morning. Hooray!

UPDATE: We won 2-0! We're locked into second place with a loooooong shot at the conference title if everything falls into place right. Tonight we celebrate!

Pickin' Up

The last week has been great for my soccer team. On Thursday we played Ontario, a team that beat us 3-0 in the first match-up. This time we won 3-1. Ontario was missing a couple key players, but I'm proud of my guys for taking advantage of the situation and putting forth a solid performance.

Yesterday was even bigger. We played Milton-Freewater (known as Mac-Hi) at their place. History lesson: Mac-Hi has won the past three state titles, haven't lost a league game for at least four years (since I've been around), and and is currently ranked #1 in the state. Two weeks ago we lost 8-0. Yikes. This weekend was different. We went down 2-0 early and then scratched and clawed our way back into the game for a 2-2 tie. We won the last 60 minutes of the game 2-0 so it gives me hope for the final game with them in a couple weeks.

Hooray!

Tough Soccer Week

This was a tough week with my soccer team: we played three games in five days, were missing one of our captains (he is traveling in Ireland, tough life right?), and had a couple players nicked up with injuries. With the short bench and lots of game time we came up with three wins, including a win in our first league game. Hooray!

Raced Today

Today I raced (I think) my final road race until June at the Kings Valley Road Race. I felt like I was dodging bullets out there: a guy behind me broke a spoke, another guy behind me blew a tire in what sounded like a gun shot, and another guy beside me was sketchy as hell and caused a crash with just a couple miles to go. After all the fireworks I ended up with a 2nd place finish behind my new friend Lenny. He's a friend of a friend from home and turns out we're a pretty good cycling team. I actually had two chances to beat him at the end, but he's extremely strong and I simply didn't have the legs! After last weekend's crashes I'm happy finishing upright, the good result is icing on the cake!

After the race I rushed to an indoor soccer game; I'm playing on a friend from home's team. We had a blowout win, but next week we start a new "season" against the next level of competition. More on that later, right now I'm totally wiped.

One last thought: I won $35 from the race after paying a $20 entry fee. Does my +$15 make me a pro?!?!?