DUBLIN, CA -- The Cinderella run for the Crush came to an end this afternoon when the champions from Danville held off the Crush. There was a three way tie for first in the Crush’s bracket between the Crush, Danville and the Sabercats, all at 2-1. Unfortunately, both Danville and the Sabercats scored more goals in their wins, so they both got to go on to play one more game. The Sabercats, due to beating Danville 4-0 yesterday, won the tie-breaker and got to play in the championship game.

Although it looks like a rather lopsided game when looking at just the score, it was anything but. The Danville scores were mainly slop kicks right around the goal amidst a crowd and the Crush had numerous scoring chances but just couldn’t capitalize on them.

The first one was within the first five minutes of the game when Danville was called for a hand ball inside their goal box, so the Crush got to take their first penalty kick of the year. Emma Young was called on to take the shot as she has the best pure scoring kick on the team. Emma struck the ball hard, but her shot was just a little too far to the left. From that point on, I must admit it was kind of a blur. I know at halftime, the score was 3-0, Danville’s advantage, but I really don’t even remember how they scored.

After halftime, Judy Kang came out and scored within the first 2 minutes of the half, but unfortunately, Korah Rose was in an offside position and the assistant referee deemed that she took part in the active area of the play. Even though Judy did not pass to Korah, it did look like Korah interfered with a Danville defender, so I can see why she was called for the penalty. Without the aid of the video, I did not see Korah’s interference, so I came a little unglued at the time, but after checking the video, I don’t believe it was that bad of a call anymore.

Korah had a couple more really good chances at making another goal, but each time the ball just couldn’t find the back of the net. Julia Guesnon played a great game, especially in the second half, as she exhibited a toughness that she didn’t show before. Julia also made some nice passes that impressed her coach, as well.

Although it wasn’t the way we wanted our season to end, I couldn’t have been more proud of the Crush girls. They fought till the end of the game, the Danville girls just played a better game today, which is nothing to be ashamed of, especially considering they were the Danville champions.

The Crush took advantage of not playing in the championship game by going to Zachary’s early to celebrate the end of the season party. Pizza was enjoyed by all, Coach Jim handed out awards, Coach Susan handed out the trophies, pictures were taken, Coach Jim cried (?!?!?), and Adrienne, Judy, and Jeanina won signed balls for getting the most right on the “Guess which Crush girl gets which award” game. It was a great party and it was a great season and I’ll miss you all. (At least until indoor soccer season starts in February. :) ) Thanks and enjoy the holidays.

DUBLIN, CA -- The San Ramon Crush played their second Crossroads game against the Newark champions this afternoon at 2:30pm at the Dublin Sports Ground Field #5. Similar to this morning’s game, the sky was clear, the sun was out and there was nary a breeze. Unlike this morning, though, it was about 70 degrees out at the start of the game. It was simply a glorious November afternoon for a game of soccer. Exactly like this morning’s game, Judy Kang got the ball late in the second half and took it by herself past numerous defenders and finished with a great scoring kick to give the Crush a 1-0 lead. And just like the earlier game, the Crush held on and kept another team scoreless.

The Crush came out a little flat in this game, probably due to the fact that most of the girls were still a little tired from the morning game. Newark had also played earlier in the day but they seemed to be more aggressive than the Crush. In fact, all throughout the game, the Newark team was very physical and a few of the Crush were intimidated by them. Early in the first half, Judy Kang got kicked in the ankle and was in too much pain to continue. Hannah Skrentny moved to stopper and did a good job of keeping Newark from getting too deep in Crush territory while Judy was out of the game. Judy’s father came over to the sidelines and helped Judy ice her ankle, so she was able to get back into the game late in the first half. In retrospect, maybe it was a good thing that Judy got the forced extra breather, because her coach probably wouldn’t have taken her out voluntarily.

Much of the first half was spent with the ball on the Crush side of the field, but the defense comprised of Jeanina Farmer, Dawn Ye, Vidhi Sachdeva and Caitlin Weber played fearless and tough once again and never gave the Newark team any clean shots on goal.

The Crush did have a few chances of their own in the first half, especially a close one by Emily Ball who was playing right forward. Emily was perfectly positioned in front of the goal and the ball came right to her. Emily took the shot, but it went just to the right of the goal. Both Korah Rose and Makena Woon had some chances in that first half as well, but the Newark goalie did a nice job of protecting their goal. So once again, the Crush went into halftime tied 0-0.

The Crush came out in the second half and continued bringing the pressure on Newark, but they couldn’t quite get the ball past the goalie. Midway through the second half, Newark split through the Crush defenders and the sweeper Emma Young was all that stood in the way between the Crush being down 1-0. But Emma cut off the angle and forced the Newark forward to miss wide left on her shot.

With less than five minutes to go in the game, Judy Kang put the team on her shoulders and took the ball at midfield and drove past a few Newark defenders to the goalie and blasted it right over her head for the lone goal of the game. It was a bit of deja vu from this morning’s game.

Coach Jim sent Judy back to be a double stopper again with Hannah Skrentny and they both helped fight off Newark’s final surge. Makena Woon, in the most impressive play of the game, (Judy’s amazing goal notwithstanding) got a hold of the ball deep in the Crush territory and took it all the way down to the Newark goal box, which effectively took away Newark’s last chance at a tie.

Although Isabela Escalante didn’t play the whole game, the time she was in there, she was impressive with her hustle and toughness, and it didn’t go unnoticed. Isabela and Makena shared the hustle patches for the game. The team voted on the defender of the game, and once again, Caitlin Weber won the defender of the game patch. An assistant coach of the Newark team could be heard yelling at her girls to “stay away from #43 (Caitlin’s number) because you just can’t get by her.” That’s two games in a row that Caitlin Weber played unbelievable defense which was a huge key in the two shutouts.

There really was no surprise who got the star patch of the game, because once again Judy came up big right when her team needed her. Nice game Judy and another fantastic game by the Crush! One more win tomorrow morning and the Crush will be playing in the Championship Game at 2:45pm! Go Crush!!!!!

Patch Distribution:
Victory patch: The entire Crush team
Goal patch: Judy Kang
Assist patches: Korah Rose
Blood Patches: Judy Kang
Defender of the game patch: Caitlin Weber
Hustle patches: Makena Woon & Isabela Escalante
Star of the game: Judy Kang

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

DUBLIN -- Although this morning’s game was at 10:00am, it had a feeling of being earlier than that. It was overcast and the girls all seemed a little groggy. During this lethargic beginning of the game, the Crush gave up an early goal to the Dublin Galaxy, Dublin’s U12G co-champions. This goal proved to be the game winner, as for the second time this season, a tough Dublin team shut out the Crush.

The rest of the first half was played evenly and the Crush had some chances to score that they couldn’t capitalize on. In the last minute of the second half, the Galaxy had a breakaway and their forward had a one on one with the lone Crush defender, Caitlin Weber. Without any support, once the forward got past Caitlin, it was just a matter of the forward shooting past the first half goalie, Adrienne Lampo, which she did. So, the Crush went into halftime down 2-0, exactly like their game against the Dublin Sabercats.

Adrienne informed me that she wanted to play defense in the second half, so that meant I needed a new goalie. I asked the team and Caitlin Weber said she wanted to get a goal, but Dawn Ye stepped up and offered to play goalie, something she has never done. Dawn made a nice stop early in the second half, but the ball got away from her and the Galaxy followed up their shot and managed to get it by Dawn. But, that was the only time that a ball got past Dawn. She made some nice stops later in the half and got off some good punts. Dawn played very aggressively and I’m looking forward to using her in goal at times during the Crossroads tournament.

Once again, Judy got the star of the game patch and was everywhere on the field and played the entire game. I probably should give her some rest during the games, but she plays so tough the whole game, I just can’t bring myself to take her out. She did find some time to make grass angels late in the second half after trying to get the ball past the Galaxy goalie, though. I wish all the Crush could have as much fun playing the game as Judy. She’s fun to watch and it’s hard not to smile when she’s out there playing.

Victoria Gaither played her usual tough defense and played it very aggressively. Victoria’s hustle helps make the defense work as well as it does. There is a possibility that Victoria and her family will go to Disneyland during the weekend of Crossroads. Let’s all hope that she goes the week before or the week after, because the Crush defense is definitely not the same without Victoria back there.

Makena Woon had another good game where she did a good job of hustling after the ball and helping to bring it up into the attack. Because of her hustle, Makena earned the lightning bolt patch. Hannah Skrentny also did a nice job of bringing the ball up and played a good game.

Although the score was 3-0, other than a few overly aggressive defensive mistakes, the Crush played the Galaxy very tough. In fact, the 3 goals that the Galaxy scored was the least number of goals they have scored all year. If the ball had taken a few different bounces, the game could have been much closer and we just might get a chance to play them again in Crossroads. Both the Galaxy and the Sabercats are going to the Crossroads tournament, so the odds are that we’ll play at least one of them, if not both of them, in a couple of weeks.

We have three more practices before the Crossroads tournament, so we know of some things we can work on. Hopefully we’ll play well, but we should all be proud that the girls at least made the Crossroads Tournament.

Patch Distribution:
Victory patch: not this time :(
Goal patch: none
Assist patch: none
Special goalie patch: Dawn Ye
Defender of the game patch: Victoria Gaither
Hustle patch: Makena Woon
Star of the game: Judy Kang

This evening at 6:30pm, the Crush got to play under the lights of Central Park. It was a very mild October evening, which made for perfect soccer weather. The Crush played the Crashers for the second time in 11 days. This game was even more lopsided than the first game with the Crashers. This time the Crush managed to get multiple goals and once again shut out a San Ramon opponent, winning 3-0.

This game started with three starters on the sidelines, as Jeanina Farmer, Dawn Ye, & Emma Young all came a little after the start of the game due to chorus practice. Because of this, I was able to put Jeanina as forward, a position that she hasn’t played all year. I wanted to put Jeanina there last game, but she knew how important the last game was and she didn’t want to move from her sweeper position. Well, it took Jeanina only three minutes to get a clean look at the goal and she pounded it past the goalie for the first goal of the game and Jeanina’s first goal of the season. Jeanina’s goal was actually setup by a beautiful pass from Kaitlyn Tran, who easily had her best game of the season. In fact, partly due to this pass, Kaitlyn got the coveted hustle lightning patch as well as getting an assist patch. Nice job girls!

The Crush took their 1-0 lead into halftime, but once again they completely dominated the half, with most of the action taking place on the Crashers side of the field. Any time the Crashers thought they had a breakaway, Stopper extraordinaire Judy Kang would come in and take the ball away or force a bad pass that another Crush could intercept. I don’t know how she does it, but Judy covers the entire field, and she makes it look almost effortless. As good as our defense has been, we would not have shut out every single San Ramon team without Judy’s incredible effort on the defensive end. As good as Judy has played in the past, this game was definitely her best one to date. Not only did she keep the one Crashers player that had a chance at a score from even taking a shot, but she scored a goal of her own in the second half, as well as constantly tormenting the Crashers everywhere on the field. There was no doubt in my mind who deserved the star of the game patch and that was Judy Kang. Great game Judo!

After taking four or five shots last week, Emma Young only needed one good one this week. Emma got her first goal of the season midway through the second half. Just seconds after the right forward, Julia Guesnon, got hurt and had to come out, Emma took her place and one touched a beautiful pass from Judy over everyone’s head right into the goal. It was a very pretty play! I’ve been playing Emma as left forward all this year and maybe this tells me I need to put her in at right forward. Good job Emma!

Victoria Gaither had another strong game at right defender and earned the defender of the game patch. I wanted to let Victoria get a chance at playing forward, but she really didn’t want to play anything other than defender. She does such a good job back there that it is hard to argue with her. Dawn Ye played left defender for the second half and she had some absolutely huge kicks back there. This is Dawn’s first year of organized soccer and at the start of the season, Dawn could hardly kick the ball. She now probably has the strongest leg on the team and I’m looking forward to see if she can’t use that newfound monster kick to get a goal or two. Still, it’s nice having that strong leg and her tough play on the defensive side of the ball.

I also need to thank both Isabela Escalante and Korah Rose for playing goalie part of the time in the second half. Isabela just about never saw the ball while she was in goal since it was almost always about 70 yards or more away from her. I know it probably wasn’t a lot of fun, but I appreciate you both for stepping up and playing goalie without complaining.

Speaking of goalies, I need to mention Adrienne Lampo. There’s a back story here that not everyone knows about. Apparently, a number of girls on the Crashers go to the same school as Adrienne and for some unknown reason decided it was a good idea to trash talk Adrienne all day at school. Adrienne, being the upstanding girl we know her to be, let it slide off her, but couldn’t help but get fired up for this game. For the first half, Adrienne played her customary goalie role and wasn’t able to contribute much since the Crashers never took a single shot on goal. But in the second half, Adrienne played center midfielder almost the entire 30 minutes. I probably should have taken her out for a little bit, just so she could catch her breath, but I wanted her to score so badly, I just let her keep playing. Adrienne took one really good shot on goal, but just barely missed it. Despite the lack of rest, late in the game, Adrienne showed off her speed and ran down a ball that easily could have been taken by the Crashers deep into our territory. Adrienne got there first and cleared it up the field safely away from the Crashers. That one play really impressed me because of how hard she ran that late in the game. In retrospect, I think I need to give Adrienne a hustle lightning patch right along with Kaitlyn Tran, because she definitely deserved it. Nice game Adrienne. I don’t think you’ll have to worry about the trash talkers at school anymore.

We have one more regular season game this weekend and then we get ready for Crossroads!

Patch Distribution:
Victory patch: The entire Crush team
Goal patches: Jeanette Farmer, Emma Young, Judy Kang
Assist patches: Dawn Ye to Kaitlyn Tran (for Jeanina’s goal), Judy Kang (for Emma’s goal)
Blood Patches: Jeanina Farmer, Julia Guesnon
Defender of the game patch: Victoria Gaither
Hustle patch: Kaitlyn Tran
Star of the game: Judy Kang

Going into this game, the Crush knew that if they won today, they would be the San Ramon Champions and they would be headed for the Crossroads tournament at the end of the season. Well, they did just enough to win this afternoon. Actually, they absolutely dominated the game on the field, but on the scoreboard, they squeaked by with a 1-0 win. I have never seen a more lopsided 1-0 game in my life. The Crush had numerous shots on goal that just missed, while the Crashers almost never made it into the Crush’s side of the field. In fact, in the second half, the Sweeper Jeanina Farmer never even touched the ball. The goalies, Adrienne Lampo and Caitlin Weber, had quite a boring game, since neither one of them was called upon to stop a shot on goal.

There were at least 14 legitimate shots on goal by the Crush throughout the game, many of them occurring because of some nice crosses into the center, which is something we’ve started working on. Some of the passes looked really good, but we couldn’t quite finish the shots. The lone goal in the game came on a bouncing shot that Judy took halfway through the first half. It wasn’t the best shot on goal that we had in the game, as it was essentially shot right at the goalie, but luckily it took a bad bounce (well, a good bounce for us) that hopped right over the goalie. If someone had told me that that was going to be our only goal of the game, I wouldn’t have believed them. But, as this team is wont to do, it didn’t waste any unneeded goals. In the four games that we’ve played against San Ramon teams, we’ve won by a total of 5-0. So, although we are not a big scoring team, man we are very tough defensively. As you so often hear, “defense wins championships” and it couldn’t be more true in our case.

Emily Ball earned a blood patch in this game early in the second half by hustling after a ball and then colliding with a Crashers defender. She twisted her ankle and was forced to watch the rest of the game from the sidelines. Luckily, she was able to walk on it after the game, so I think she’ll be okay.

This wasn’t the prettiest game, but the girls did what they needed to do to win. We’ll be playing these same Crashers in our next game in a week and a half on a Wednesday night under the lights. I’m going to work on shooting and scoring at the next couple of practices, so hopefully we’ll be able to capitalize on all the chances that we had today.

Congratulations Crush! We’re going to Crossroads!

Patch Distribution:
Victory patch: The entire Crush team
Goal patch: Judy Kang
Assist patch: Dawn Ye to Makena Woon (for Judy’s goal)
Blood Patch: Emily Ball
Defender of the game patch: Victoria Gaither
Hustle patch: Vidhi Sachdeva
Star of the game: Judy Kang

The Crush traveled to Dublin to play the Cyclones of Dublin today and managed to come away with a 2-1 win. It was a beautiful sunny day without a cloud in the sky, albeit a little breezy and a tad on the chilly side. In other words, it was perfect soccer weather. The Crush started out the game a little flat and didn’t seem to hustle too much. The defense uncharacteristically gave up a goal midway through the first half, thus falling behind 1-0. Late in the first half, Korah Rose showed great determination and fought through a number of Dublin defenders in order to get the Crush their first goal of the game.

Despite the game being tied, due to the perceived “flatness”, I felt I needed to fire up the girls. For the first time in my soccer coaching career, I tried a half time motivational speech in an attempt to get the Crush to hustle and aggressively go after the ball. Maybe I just want to believe that the speech worked, but it seemed to me that the girls came out in the second half with more intensity and hustle. Due to Hannah Skrentny being able to play the all-important stopper position, I was able to put our most athletic player, Judy Kang, at the center mid position, in order to allow her a better chance at getting a goal. Actually, right before the second half started, I told Judy I wanted to see her get two goals. We all knew it was just a matter of time before Judy got a goal, and she picked a great time to do it. Korah Rose brought the ball up near the goal and one of the Dublin defenders accidentally centered the ball, which Judy pounced on and kicked it right past the goalie for the Crush’s second goal of the game. As it turned out, we only needed that one extra goal, so I’ll give Judy a little slack for not getting that second goal. :) Way to go Judy!

After getting the 2-1 lead, the Crush really picked up their defense and never gave the Dublin team any clear shots at goal. Once again, Adrienne Lampo played goalie the entire game and played very well, not to mention she had some really nice punts. It is obvious that Adrienne has been working on that part of her game. Unlike last week, Adrienne played goalie the entire game not because of a sore leg, but because we needed her ability at that position and Caitlin Weber was not ready to play due to a gum infection that she’s fighting. I certainly hope that I can get Adrienne out in the field these next couple of games. Her hustle play is definitely infectious.

This week, we had another ball to the face, this time it was Makena Woon. Makena had a good game prior to her injury, showing good hustle throughout. She was one of the few girls that did not need any motivational speech to get her running, as she’s always playing hard.

Anchoring the defense was Jeanina Farmer and Emma Young, who both had some really nice clears just when we needed them. Dawn Ye was placed in defense for the first time this year and I think I now have another option back there. Dawn hustled hard and was fearless, which is exactly what you want in a defender. As you all have probably noticed, I put my toughest girls back in defense and they have done a great job as a unit. I know defenders don’t necessarily get all the accolades that the scorers get, but as far as I’m concerned, they are the most important part of any team. If you’ve got a good defense, you’ll have a chance to win every game.

All in all, I was very proud of our girls. They really came out and played well in that second half and it resulted in probably the most gratifying win of the season. This brings the Crush to a very impressive record so far of 4-1 and they have only allowed a total of 4 goals in those 5 games. Good job Crush!

Patch Distribution:
Victory patch: The entire Crush team
Goal patch: Korah Rose, Judy Kang
Assist patch: unknown? (for Judy’s goal)
Blood Patch: Makena Woon
Defender of the game patch: Jeanina Farmer & Emma Young
Hustle patch: Makena Woon
Star of the game: Hannah Skrentny

Although Saturday morning was misting, our 2:30pm game was nice and sunny. It was definitely cooler than last week’s game, which was appreciated by all. This game saw the Crush get back to their tough defensive play, barely allowing the ball to even get to our goalie Adrienne Lampo. Adrienne has been fighting a sore leg, so she decided to stay in at goal for the entire game. The few times the ball got to her, Adrienne handled it well. The defense of Caitlin Weber, Vidhi Sachdeva, Jeanina Farmer and Emily Ball (and Emma Young in the second half) did a fine job of keeping the ball away from Adrienne. Vidhi especially had a fantastic defensive game, which is why she won the Defender of the game patch. I put up a video that showed the kind of effort that Vidhi displayed during the game. She got beat by the forward, but instead of pouting, she ran back and made a great defensive stop before the forward could even take a shot. That is exactly the kind of play that has kept us from getting scored on in three of our four games.

For the third time in four games, we had one of our girls score her first outdoor soccer goal ever. This time it was Julia Guesnon who put the ball in the back of the net. Early in the second half, Julia out hustled two of the Cobra defenders to the ball and made a nice shot that the goalie stopped, but Julia followed her shot and kicked it in on her second shot. Earlier in the game, Julia took a nice shot that the Cobra goalie had to make a tough stop on, otherwise she would have scored in the first half as well. Nice job Julia! It was even more impressive considering Julia missed both practices this week and only played in the first half of last week’s game due to sickness.

Not long after Julia’s goal, Korah Rose got her second goal of the season. It came from a throw-in from Judy Kang and she got a little assist from Makena Woon’s knee, but the rest was all Korah fighting to get that goal. No one on the team wants to score more than Korah and it shows in how she attacks the goal. Like I said the first week, this won’t be Korah’s last goal. Korah’s tenacity is what earned her the gold star player of the game.

Along with being very impressed by our defense, I liked how Hannah Skrentny played the stopper position in the first half, even though she’d never played it before and still isn’t sure where she is supposed to be. Most of the time, she was in the right place at the right time and was able to get the ball back to our offense, which is exactly what the stopper is supposed to do. I was also impressed by Makena Woon’s long drive with the ball towards the end of the game. She showed some great stamina and foot work. Now we just need to work on her finishing of the drive and she’ll be able to get her first goal ever. And finally, I was impressed with Dawn Ye’s performance out on the field. She really concentrated on her position on the field instead of just chasing the ball around the field. As a result, Dawn was in the right place a few times when the ball got cleared to her side of the field and she was able to make some good plays with the ball. Hopefully we’ll get to see Dawn make her first ever goal as well before the end of the year. It certainly wouldn’t surprise me.

Isabela Escalante took a nasty friendly fire shot to the head early in the first half, but she was tough and only sat out the rest of the first half and was ready to go back in in the second half. I’m glad it wasn’t anything too serious, but she definitely earned a blood patch for that one. Kaitlyn Tran took a nasty shot from Judy Kang, but that one was in the thigh, so it wasn’t nearly as dramatic as Isabela’s. Both videos are up on the site so they can show their friends just how tough they both are.

All in all, it was a great game by the Crush and I was very proud of how the girls played. Go Crush!

Patch Distribution:
Victory patch: The entire Crush team
Goal patch: Julia Guesnon, Korah Rose
Assist patch: Judy Kang to Makena Woon (for Korah’s goal)
Blood Patch: Isabela Escalante
Defender of the game patch: Vidhi Sachdeva
Hustle patch: Judy Kang
Star of the game: Korah Rose

This morning’s game was the first game the Crush played against a Dublin opponent. It appears that the Dublin teams are pretty tough, as the Sabrecats beat us 0-3.

Yet again, the Crush came out a little flat and started the game with the ball in our side of the field for much of the first 10 minutes. In fact, the Sabrecats took advantage of a defensive breakdown and scored within the first five minutes. Since that was the first goal allowed by the Crush all season, that seemed to be the wake-up call that the Crush needed, as they started to hustle a little more.

The Sabrecats kept the pressure up, though, and managed to get a second goal in the first half. Adrienne Lampo, the first-half goalie, made a nice stop of a Sabrecat shot, but the Sabrecats showed good hustle and followed up the blocked shot and poked it in for a 2-0 lead.

The Crush had some opportunities of their own, with some good shots taken by Caitlin Weber, Korah Rose, and Dawn Ye. You can check their shots on goal in the videos section.

Caitlin Weber took over the second-half goalie duties and helped to limit them to only one more goal. Caitlin definitely had some help from Judy Kang and Jeanina Farmer who played some tough defense.

For the second time in two weeks, both Judy Kang and Caitlin Weber had to come out for part of the game due to injury. It is no coincidence either, because both girls will give up their body in order to make a play. Check out Judy’s impressive effort in saving a goal to see what I mean.

The Crush were playing without Hannah Skrentny (vacation) and Emily Ball (sickness) and Julia Guesnon only played in the first half as she is still recovering from a nasty bit of sickness as well, so we didn’t have many substitutions to make. The Sabrecats had zero substitutes, so we definitely cannot use that as an excuse, though.

Although it was a disappointing loss, we can take a little pride in that we kept the Sabrecats to only three goals. In their previous three games, they’ve scored at least seven goals per game, so it’s nice to know that we were able to slow down their high powered offense at least a little bit.

Patch Distribution:
Victory patch: not this time :(
Goal patch: none
Assist patch: none
Defender of the game patch: Jeanina Farmer
Hustle patch: Victoria Gaither & Makena Woon
Star of the game: Emma Young

This morning’s game was the first and only early morning game of the year for the Crush. It was extremely overcast and pretty chilly, but once the girls started the game, I’m sure they appreciated the weather. Especially considering we were missing three of our players for this game (Julia Guesnon, Victoria Gaither, and Isabela Escalante), so we only had two reserves for the entire game. Things got even tougher later in the game when both Judy Kang and Caitlin Weber had to come out due to injury.

Because of this lack of reserves, many of the girls had to play the entire game. I was very proud of them, because they never quit even when many of them were tired.

This game was mostly dominated by the Crush, with the ball mostly in the Conquest’s side of the field. We took many shots on goal, of few of them just missing. But, we did manage to get one ball in the back of the net, and that turned out all we needed to win the game, as our defense was stout once again. After two games, we’ve allowed zero goals and really only two shots on goal.

Last week, Korah Rose scored her first goal ever in her first game. This week, Hannah Skrentny scored her first goal ever as well. I find this hard to believe, but Hannah has been playing since around Kindergarten and this was her first real goal in a game. Way to go Hannah!

Korah had a few shots on goal that didn’t quite make it past the goalie, but she played a great game at right forward, where she played the entire game without a break. I’m pretty sure that the goal we saw last week is not going to be Korah’s last of the season. Korah’s tough play helped earn her the star of the game patch. Dawn Ye, playing in just her second game ever, almost scored as well, shooting just wide.

Like last week, the play of the week was a tough defensive play which helped to preserve the win. This play happened immediately after Hannah’s goal. On the kick-off, the Conquest kicked the ball downfield and Caitlin Weber attempted to kick it in the air and swung and missed the ball completely. The Conquest was able to kick the ball again and there was a deja vu moment when Vidhi Sachdeva tried to kick it in the air and swung and missed the ball completely. At this point, the Conquest forward was able to run down the ball and it was a foot race between her and our goalie Adrienne Lampo to the ball. Luckily for us, Adrienne is fast and fearless! Adrienne came out of goal and pressured the forward, which made her shoot wide and away from danger. Nice job Adrienne!

I was able to get more video this time around, so make sure to check out the videos section. Both Kaitlyn Tran and Meenakshi Pandiarajan got some nice passes caught on video. Check ‘em out.

Patch Distribution:
Victory patch: The entire Crush team
Goal patch: Hannah Skrentny
Assist patch: Korah Rose & Adrienne Lampo
Defender of the game patch: Emma Young
Hustle patch: Adrienne Lampo & Makena Woon
Star of the game: Korah Rose

Welcome to my first blog entry for the U12G Crush.

Although this was the second week of the season, the Crush played their first game this Saturday. The Crush started out a little tentative and the first five minutes of the game was spent on our defensive side of the field. But, our defense held tight and never gave the Cyclones any clear looks at the goal. Once the Crush started warming up, they played the Cyclones evenly throughout the rest of the first half. Judy Kang took a great shot late in the first half that was just wide of the goal, which was the closest either team got to scoring in the first 30 minutes. Victoria Gaither played a very solid half at left defender and pushed all Cyclone attackers to the outside and never let them near the goal. Considering this was the first real game that Korah Rose, starting at right defender, Dawn Ye, playing left midfielder, and Makena Woon, playing at center midfielder, have ever played, I was very happy to go into half time with a 0-0 tie.

To start the second half, Korah Rose moved from defender to right forward, and brought a new intensity to the Crush’s attack that was very obvious to see from the sidelines. Adrienne Lampo moved from goalie, where she did a nice job in the first half, to the important center midfielder position where she played with hustle and fearlessness. Emma Young was called for being offside twice early in the second half, and one of those calls negated a very pretty goal that Emma shot past the goalie. Just a little while later, though, Emma sent a nice pass to Korah, who finished with a shot that just made it by the goalie for the one and only goal of the game. As mentioned before, this was Korah’s first ever organized soccer game, so this was especially impressive for a new player to get a goal in her very first game. Way to go Korah!

The rest of the second half, the Crush managed to keep the Cyclones from scoring, but there was one play in particular in which they very nearly had a clear shot on goal. Late in the second half, the Cyclones had a midfielder make it past our right defender, Jeanina Farmer. The midfielder passed it up to a forward who dribbled the ball all the way down to Victoria Gaither, our second-half stopper. As Victoria went to challenge the forward, Vidhi Sachdeva came to help out, but the forward managed to get by both of them. All that was left between this forward and the goal was the second-half goalie, Caitlin Weber. An instance before the forward took the shot, out of nowhere, Judy Kang, who was playing in the stopper position, flew in and kicked the ball away. That play most likely saved the win for the Crush, and was definitely the play of the game. Check out the play in the videos section. Check out Judy throwing her arms up in triumph after she kicks the ball away! Very funny! Korah’s goal is kind of in the videos section as well. Unfortunately, the video wasn’t too great, but you can see the aftermath of Korah’s score.

Patch Distribution:
Victory patch: The entire Crush team
Goal patch: Korah Rose
Assist patch: Emma Young
Defender of the game patch: Victoria Gaither
Hustle patch: Dawn Ye & Makena Woon
Star of the game: Judy Kang