SAN RAMON - The San Ramon Crystals played their first game of the 2009 season this morning at 11:30am at Quail Run Park. The Crystals came out of the gate looking like they knew what they were doing. Zoe Papadopolous started the scoring less than a minute into the game by plunking one into the back of the net. Unfortunately, the team videographer was not yet back from fetching some missing insoles, so we don’t have any video of Zoe’s goal. That just means Zoe will have to score again next week so we can get it on tape.

The second goal of the game came right in the middle of my first shift change. I called almost all the players off and luckily for us Jillian ran out there and pretty much took on the Sapphires by herself. The rest of her team hadn’t gotten on the field yet but Jillian wove through the Sapphire defense and got a quick goal after being in for less than 15 seconds.

In the rest of the first half, Grace Platts, Alicia Seronio and Jillian Weber each added another goal to bring the halftime score to 5-0. I’m not sure if our first half goalies, Avalon Jones, Isabella DeSanti and Jillian Weber, even got a chance to touch the ball. The only scoring opportunities the Sapphires got were a result of being grossly offside, in good part because the Crystals were playing their defenders very far up in an attacking position.

One of the highlights of that first half was a gorgeous pass to open space by Grace Platts, which was caught on tape and is now up on our website. I know it was only a pass at the midfield, but it was a great soccer play which was my favorite moment of the game.

The second half was fairly uneventful. The Sapphires got their lone goal of the game from a very rare penalty kick due to a hands call in the goal box. Jillian Weber was in goal and was not able to stop the penalty kick. Brittany Jimena scored the only goal for the Crystals in the second half off a pass from Joy Tuteja.

The most excitement in the second half came when Joy Tuteja screamed after getting stung by a bee while sitting on the sidelines. After icing the sting, Joy was ready to go back in there and she almost scored a couple of times and did end up getting the assist to Brittany.

After each game I give out special awards to the players. The defender of the game patch went to Isabella DeSanti, who I did not plan on playing in defense, but she really wanted to play it and she did a great job the last part of the second half. The hustle patch was given to Sarah Chi who was always running hard out there and always with a smile. The star of the game patch was initially given to Jillian Weber, but Jillian thought that Grace Platts actually deserved it and I agreed with her, so Grace got the star of the game patch.

Nice game Crystals.

End of Game Awards
victory patch: the Crystals
blood patch: Joy Tuteja
assist patch: Joy Tuteja, Jillian Weber
goal patch: Brittany Jimena, Zoe Papadopolous, Grace Platts, Alicia Seronio, Jillian Weber
defender of the game patch: Isabella DeSanti
lightning hustle patch: Sarah Chi
star of the game patch: Grace Platts

Game Stats:

Goals:
Brittany Jimena 1
Zoe Papadopolous 1
Grace Platts 1
Alicia Seronio 1
Jillian Weber 2

Assists:
Joy Tuteja 1
Jillian Weber 1

Season Stats:

Goals:
Jillian Weber 2
Brittany Jimena 1
Zoe Papadopolous 1
Grace Platts 1
Alicia Seronio 1

Crystals 6
Opponents 1

Assists:
Joy Tuteja 1
Jillian Weber 1