Crush shock the Dublin Sabercats with 1-0 win!
11/22/08 11:29 Filed in: Games
DUBLIN, CA -- The first
game of the Crossroads Championship tournament for
the San Ramon Champions Crush was held this morning
at 9:15am at the Dublin Sports Ground Field #4. It
was bright and sunny, but decidedly brisk at the kick
off against the Dublin Co-champions Sabercats. The
Crush and the Sabercats met up back in September in
San Ramon and the Sabercats handily won the game 3-0.
There was no shame in the loss, though, because as
the season progressed, the Sabercats never lost a
game and in fact never scored less than 3 goals all
season.
The Crush definitely played this morning’s game differently than that game in September. Early in the game, the Crush was playing aggressively and took the ball deep into Sabercats territory. The Crush had multiple chances to score, but the Sabercats goalie played a good game and kept the Crush scoreless, despite some tough shots from Korah Rose and Emma Young. The defense of Vidhi Sachdeva, Dawn Ye, Caitlin Weber and Jeanina Farmer was stout and kept the Sabercats scoreless for the first half as well. The Crush MVP, Judy Kang, played her typical tough stopper position and even had a few chances at goal herself. Halftime came at a good time, as Judy and Korah were starting to get exhausted since their mean coach never took them out of the game.
Our goalie, Adrienne Lampo had a good first half, sucking up any Sabercats shots that made their way to our goal. Adrienne has been wanting to get out in the field more often, so Coach Jim was planning on using a different goalie for the second half, but Adrienne didn’t want to come out, so Adrienne ended up playing the entire game in goal, and she did a fantastic job!
As a reward for playing good defense, Vidhi Sachdeva and Dawn Ye got to start the second half up as right midfielder and left forward, respectively. Makena Woon and Emma Young took over on the defensive end and both played well. Caitlin Weber was in a lot of pain at half time, complaining of neck and upper back pain. Coach Jim, her dad, quickly had her lay down and adjusted her neck and upper back and threw her out in the game at the important center defender position. Apparently the adjustments worked, because Caitlin came out and played the half of a lifetime. Nothing and nobody was able to get by Caitlin who very deservedly won the defender patch of the game. The defense came up big in the second half and allowed only one really good shot on goal. Luckily, the Sabercats forward who took the shot lifted the ball a tad too high and it went up and over the goal.
With about 12 minutes left in the game, Coach Jim decided to go for the win instead of the tie and moved Judy Kang from the stopper position into the center mid/forward position. Hannah Skrentny took over the stopper position and played it admirably. The risk paid off when Judy got the ball with about 9 minutes to go in the game at the Crush side of the center circle. Instead of passing it up to the right midfielder Kaitlyn Tran or the right forward, Judy decided to dribble it up herself and managed to get by three Sabercat defenders. Judy got to the 18 yard line and had a sweeper and a goalie to beat. Instead of trying to dribble past the sweeper, Judy kicked it on the run and made a perfect scoring shot that sneaked under a diving Sabercat goalie into the far left corner. It was an absolutely stunning goal and the Crush side of the field erupted.
That left the Crush with a 1-0 lead with an agonizingly long 8 minutes to go in the game. Coach Jim quickly made Judy Kang go back to the stopper position and left Hannah Skrentny there as well. Judy played the more defensive minded stopper and came up with a number of big clears in the final minutes. The Sabercats played really aggressive at the end of the game in order to tie the game, but the Crush defenders kept coming up big and getting the ball out of danger.
At the final whistle, the Crush crowd went nuts, with Coach Jim leading the way, jumping up and down like a school girl. This was such a fantastic game and I’m proud to say I got to witness it.
The Crush still have another game at 2:30pm this afternoon and at least one more game tomorrow at 11:45am. If they can end up in the top two spots of their flight, they’ll get one more game tomorrow at 2:45pm. There’s still a lot of soccer to be played, but this game made my season, regardless of the outcome of the next two or three games. Thanks Crush!
Patch Distribution:
Victory patch: The entire Crush team
Goal patch: Judy Kang
Assist patches: none
Blood Patches: none
Defender of the game patch: Caitlin Weber
Hustle patches: Makena Woon & Korah Rose
Star of the game: Judy Kang
The Crush definitely played this morning’s game differently than that game in September. Early in the game, the Crush was playing aggressively and took the ball deep into Sabercats territory. The Crush had multiple chances to score, but the Sabercats goalie played a good game and kept the Crush scoreless, despite some tough shots from Korah Rose and Emma Young. The defense of Vidhi Sachdeva, Dawn Ye, Caitlin Weber and Jeanina Farmer was stout and kept the Sabercats scoreless for the first half as well. The Crush MVP, Judy Kang, played her typical tough stopper position and even had a few chances at goal herself. Halftime came at a good time, as Judy and Korah were starting to get exhausted since their mean coach never took them out of the game.
Our goalie, Adrienne Lampo had a good first half, sucking up any Sabercats shots that made their way to our goal. Adrienne has been wanting to get out in the field more often, so Coach Jim was planning on using a different goalie for the second half, but Adrienne didn’t want to come out, so Adrienne ended up playing the entire game in goal, and she did a fantastic job!
As a reward for playing good defense, Vidhi Sachdeva and Dawn Ye got to start the second half up as right midfielder and left forward, respectively. Makena Woon and Emma Young took over on the defensive end and both played well. Caitlin Weber was in a lot of pain at half time, complaining of neck and upper back pain. Coach Jim, her dad, quickly had her lay down and adjusted her neck and upper back and threw her out in the game at the important center defender position. Apparently the adjustments worked, because Caitlin came out and played the half of a lifetime. Nothing and nobody was able to get by Caitlin who very deservedly won the defender patch of the game. The defense came up big in the second half and allowed only one really good shot on goal. Luckily, the Sabercats forward who took the shot lifted the ball a tad too high and it went up and over the goal.
With about 12 minutes left in the game, Coach Jim decided to go for the win instead of the tie and moved Judy Kang from the stopper position into the center mid/forward position. Hannah Skrentny took over the stopper position and played it admirably. The risk paid off when Judy got the ball with about 9 minutes to go in the game at the Crush side of the center circle. Instead of passing it up to the right midfielder Kaitlyn Tran or the right forward, Judy decided to dribble it up herself and managed to get by three Sabercat defenders. Judy got to the 18 yard line and had a sweeper and a goalie to beat. Instead of trying to dribble past the sweeper, Judy kicked it on the run and made a perfect scoring shot that sneaked under a diving Sabercat goalie into the far left corner. It was an absolutely stunning goal and the Crush side of the field erupted.
That left the Crush with a 1-0 lead with an agonizingly long 8 minutes to go in the game. Coach Jim quickly made Judy Kang go back to the stopper position and left Hannah Skrentny there as well. Judy played the more defensive minded stopper and came up with a number of big clears in the final minutes. The Sabercats played really aggressive at the end of the game in order to tie the game, but the Crush defenders kept coming up big and getting the ball out of danger.
At the final whistle, the Crush crowd went nuts, with Coach Jim leading the way, jumping up and down like a school girl. This was such a fantastic game and I’m proud to say I got to witness it.
The Crush still have another game at 2:30pm this afternoon and at least one more game tomorrow at 11:45am. If they can end up in the top two spots of their flight, they’ll get one more game tomorrow at 2:45pm. There’s still a lot of soccer to be played, but this game made my season, regardless of the outcome of the next two or three games. Thanks Crush!
Patch Distribution:
Victory patch: The entire Crush team
Goal patch: Judy Kang
Assist patches: none
Blood Patches: none
Defender of the game patch: Caitlin Weber
Hustle patches: Makena Woon & Korah Rose
Star of the game: Judy Kang
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