The Earthquakes played their final game of 2008 at 2:00pm today in the mist and the rain. The Earthquakes knew going in that if they won the game, they would win the U9G San Ramon Championship, and they clearly played like they wanted to win that championship.

The extremely vocal coach of the Explosion screamed at his girls to double team Jillian Weber, who was playing the center-mid position, but less than 10 minutes into the game Jillian got the ball in the center of the field with most of the Explosion team on the left hand side of the field. Jillian then drove to the right and had probably the most impressive goal of the season with a strong blast up and over the goalie’s head with authority. Wow!

Soon afterwards, Megan Hooks scored her second goal of the season finishing off a ball that Samantha Denton brought down near the Explosion’s goal, who earned an Assist patch. Megan did a great job of running right to the ball between two defenders and taking it directly to the goal. She didn’t hesitate or try to make any fancy moves, either of which would have resulted with the defender stealing the ball from her. It was a very impressive goal for little Meg. Nice job!

There was no more scoring in the first half, thanks in part to the Earthquakes tough defense. Victoria Karlson did a nice job at goalie, stopping all shots and getting some nice punts off. Both Brittany Jimena and Erika Shen played the entire first half at defense and were a big reason why the Explosion were shut out in the first half. Both girls have proven to be my most reliable defenders this year and I truly appreciate all their hard work. Defender isn’t always the most fun position to play, but as far as I’m concerned, it’s the most important.

In the second half, Sydney Place knocked in her second goal in as many games. Sydney lurked behind the goal box waiting for the Explosion’s goalie goal kick. As soon as the ball made it out of the goal box, Sydney came up and kicked it in for a goal.

A little while later, Victoria Karlson brought the ball deep down into the Explosion’s territory and Samantha Denton, playing center-mid perfectly, ran down to help in the attack and when the ball popped out in the open, she aggressively went for the ball and made a nice goal, which added to her impressive goal total for the year. Sam’s goal rounded out the Earthquakes scoring for the game.

Late in the second half, the Explosion got behind the Earthquakes defense and took a shot that got by the second half goalie Megan Hooks. The shot wasn’t very strong and Megan dove at the ball in hopes of keeping it from going past the goal line. She almost made it, but the ball squirted out from under Megan for the Explosion’s first score. Megan got a little banged up so we needed to make a goalie change. Kaitlin Lord volunteered to play goalie, and although she hadn’t had much experience at goalie against a good team, I figured that with a 4-1 lead and the game almost over, it wouldn’t be too dangerous to have Kaitlin back there.

Not liking the fact that the Explosion just scored a goal, Jillian Weber almost demanded to play center-mid in hopes of getting that goal back. Well, in almost no time at all, the Explosion got beyond the midfielders and took another shot on goal that went straight to Kaitlin, who seemed to stop it, but somehow the ball bounced off her and into the goal. Just like that, the score was now 4-2. Jillian then informed us all that she was going back to the Stopper position.

Kaitlin was obviously not comfortable playing goalie, but I decided to leave her in there. As it turned out, she didn’t allow any further goals, but it wasn’t without some nervous moments. Kaitlin was a good sport about it and I’m glad she was able to finish out the game at goalie. Final score was 4-2 with the Earthquakes holding on for the win.

All in all, this was a great game and an even better season. I couldn’t be prouder of our girls and how they have progressed this year. They are all good girls and I thank you for letting me have the chance to get to know them. I’ll see you all at the little jamboree next Saturday from 1:00-3:00pm and then at the end of season party at 6:30pm at the Crow Canyon Round Table Pizza.

Patch awards
Victory Patch: the entire Earthquakes team
Goal Patches: Jillian Weber, Megan Hooks, Sydney Place, Samantha Denton
Assist Patches: Samantha Denton (for Megan Hooks’ goal)
Blood Patches: Isabella DeSanti & Megan Hooks
Defender of the Game: Erika Shen & Brittany Jimena
Hustle Patch: Alicia Seronio
Star of the Game: Jillian Weber, Erika Shen, & Kaitlin Lord

This October has been beautiful and this Saturday was no exception. Before this game even started I was a little nervous because I thought we would only have 9 girls for this game since Samantha Denton was on a family trip. This morning, I then found out that Victoria Karlson had a prior commitment, so she wasn’t able to make the game. And then at the field, I found out that Isabella DeSanti was sick and wasn’t going to make the game. For those that are counting, that makes for a total of 7 girls available to play. In case you hadn’t noticed, the girls play 8 vs. 8, so this meant that we didn’t even have a full team. I wasn’t sure how this was going to work, but as it turned out, I had nothing to worry about. The final score of the game was 6-0, and it was even more lopsided than the score would indicate.

Apparently the old 70’s tv show was wrong, because in the Earthquake’s case, “Seven is Enough”. I don’t think the other team even noticed that we were playing only 7 players, and if you weren’t counting, you would never have known that we were outnumbered. Despite being down a player, the Earthquakes dominated this game from the opening kick off. Of the four goalies that played for the Earthquakes, only the last one, Brittany Jimena, ever even touched the ball. In fact, at one point in the second half, Kaitlin Lord was playing goalie and was sitting cross legged in the goal box. If Megan Hooks’ brother hadn’t pointed it out, I don’t know if anyone would have noticed since the ball was never in our side of the field.

Jillian Weber started the scoring early in the first half and that just opened the floodgates. Jillian scored another one and then Alicia Seronio added two goals of her own and then Brittany Jimena got a goal too. Going into halftime, the score was 5-0. Knowing that Jillian, Alicia, and Brittany could keep on scoring if given the chance, I put all three in a more defensive position and told Jillian and Alicia that I wanted them to concentrate on passing to their teammates that haven’t scored yet. Erika Shen, Kaitlin Lord and Sydney Place all had numerous shots on goal, but all three just couldn’t quite get the ball in the back of the net. Finally from a nice pass from Jillian, Sydney was able to get one by the goalie for her first goal ever! Sydney was really working hard for that goal all game long, and because of that, she was given the Star of the Game patch. Good job Sydney! Erika Shen scored her first goal this season on a pass from Brittany, but the ref either incorrectly called her for being offside or oddly called halftime during an attack, so her goal was officially called off, but for all intents and purposes that was a legal goal, so she still got a goal patch and Brittany was given an Assist patch.

Since we didn’t have any substitutes, I made a real point in having the girls stay on their respective sides of the field and it worked out really well. This extra space made it much easier to pass to each other and the girls did a great job of passing to their teammates. Some of the girls still chased the ball a little too much, so we can still work on that, but they’re definitely showing progress in that regard. I was very proud of all seven of our girls. They played very well, but were still very respectful of the other team (Kaitlin’s little siesta not withstanding :) ) Nice job Earthquakes, you have now played all the San Ramon U9 girls teams and have beaten all but the Elite, whom we tied last week 1-1. Our record is now 7-0-1 and we have outscored our opponents 39-7.


Patch awards
Victory Patch: all 7 of the Earthquakes
Goal Patches: Jillian Weber, Alicia Seronio, Brittany Jimena, Sydney Place, Erika Shen
Assist Patches: Sydney Place (for Jillian’s goal), Jillian Weber (for Sydney’s goal), Megan Hooks (for Alicia’s goal, Brittany Jimena (for Erika’s goal)
Blood Patches: none!
Defender of the Game: Jillian Weber & Megan Hooks
Hustle Patch: Erika Shen
Star of the Game: Sydney Place

This Saturday’s game against the Elite was played at 10:15am and the weather was absolutely beautiful. It was clear and sunny, similar to last week’s game, but without the heavy wind. Unlike last week’s game, the Earthquake’s competition came to play, and play hard they did.

The coach of the Elite had his girls ready to play and told them we’d be a tough team. After a tough fought first half, the score was 0-0. The Earthquakes had taken some nice shots, but just missed on all of them. The Earthquakes defense was stouter, as the Elite never got any clear shots on goal. The ball did manage to get to the first half goalie, Sydney Place, who had a really nice punt, but for the most part, we weren’t in much danger of getting scored on.

After about six minutes into the second half, it was looking like it might end up in a 0-0 tie, but Jillian Weber managed to break free and take a nice strong left footed shot that flew by the goalie into the net. Within five minutes of that goal, the Elite had a breakaway towards the Earthquakes goal and Alicia Seronio fought hard to keep the Elite forward from taking a shot. Unfortunately, the referee considered Alicia’s defense a foul and gave the Elite an indirect kick just inside of the goal box. During the game, I thought the Elite had one girl tap the ball and then had another girl dribble the ball up and shoot, but looking at the video, it looks like the girl that initially kicked the ball also took the shot before anyone else touched the ball. Technically, that is not a legal play as someone else much touch the ball before the initial kicker can touch the ball again. If I had been aware of that during the game, maybe I would have said something to the referee, but as it is, it is way too late to complain about it now. The Elite player did take a nice shot that went over all the Earthquakes heads and just like that the game was tied up 1-1.

For the last five minutes of the game, many of the Earthquakes were getting pretty tired since we only have two substitutes and I don’t think I did a good enough job rotating them around to keep them fresh. There were some scary times when I thought they might get a second goal on us, but time ran out with Jillian Weber with the ball and heading towards the Elite’s goal. For the first time this year, the Earthquakes didn’t get a Victory patch, but then again, they didn’t lose, either. After watching the video, the Earthquakes were the better team for all but the last five minutes of the game, but since those five minutes were the last thing I remembered, I lost track of how well they played the other 45 minutes. Good game Earthquakes.

I definitely did not do a good job of coaching this game and we’re probably lucky that we were able to come away with a tie. Towards the end, I was feeling the intensity that was being generated by the parents and the other coaching staff and I’m sure I got carried away. Part of the problem is that this coach is another Country Club parent and he also beat my team last year in the last game of the year, so I was really wanting to win this game and I let the emotions take over. I will definitely try to be better about that and I apologize to you all. I mean, we all have to keep this in perspective, these are 8 and 9 year old girls playing recreational soccer for the fun of it. If I took a little bit of the fun out of the game by being overly competitive, I will try to put it back in next week.


Patch awards
Victory Patch: not this week
Goal Patches: Jillian Weber
Assist Patches: none
Blood Patches: Erika Shen & Brittany Jimena
Defender of the Game: Erika Shen
Hustle Patch: Brittany Jimena
Star of the Game: Jillian Weber

Wow, the little Earthquakes were rockin’ this morning. It was breezy and cool this morning, but at 10:15am it was nice and sunny for our game. In other words, it was perfect soccer weather. Within the first 30 seconds, Jillian Weber weaved through the Excaliber defense and scored a quick goal to take a 1-0 lead. The entire first half was played in the Excaliber’s side of the field, as the Earthquakes defenders (Jillian Weber, Erika Shen, and Brittany Jimena ) quickly kicked any ball that dared to enter the Earthquakes side of the field. Victoria Karlson was the first half goalie and she never touched the ball. Unfortunately, Coach Jim wasn’t thinking clearly and didn’t move someone else to no man’s land for at least part of that first half, so Victoria had to stand out there all by herself. I will try to be better about that in the future.

Although the Earthquakes completely dominated in the first half, they went into halftime with only a 2-0 lead. The second goal of the game came from Kaitlin Lord, who got her first goal of the season, and possibly her first goal ever. Samantha Denton was working hard to get a goal, but she found an open Kaitlin near the center of the goal (exactly where she was supposed to be as the right mid fielder!) and Kaitlin finally found the back of the net. These last two weeks have seen Kaitlin take her soccer game to a whole new level. Every time she takes the field she’s the fastest girl out there, and she’s really starting to use that speed to her advantage now. I couldn’t be happier for her. Way to go Kaitlin!

The flood gates finally opened in the second half as Brittany Jimena scored two goals, Samantha Denton scored one and Jillian Weber added a second goal. Notable in these goals was a nice pass from Megan Hooks to Samantha and Erika Shen showed great hustle following up Jillian’s second goal making sure that it went in.

The final score ended up 6-0 with all ten of the girls contributing in the win. I don’t know if it was the Thursday practice of keep away or what, but the girls just played fantastically today. I was very proud of them, as I’m sure you all are as well. You all have a good bunch of girls and I’m really enjoying coaching them. Thank you all for continuing to bring your daughters to practice. I know they’re still having fun because I’m still having fun too.

Way to go Earthquakes. We are now 6-0 and the Earthquakes have outscored their opponents 32-6 so far. You girls are all special. Thanks for a great season.

Patch awards
Victory Patch: the entire Earthquakes team
Goal Patches: Jillian Weber, Kaitlin Lord, Samantha Denton, Brittany Jimena
Assist Patches: Megan Hooks (to Sam), Samantha Denton (to Kaitlin)
Blood Patches: Victoria Karlson
Defender of the Game: Erika Shen
Hustle Patch: Kaitlin Lord
Star of the Game: Brittany Jimena

This morning’s game was played in the October mist, which was a lot more comfortable than last week’s scorcher. For the second time in two weeks, the Earthquakes went up against the Extreme. The Earthquakes controlled the ball much of the game and won 4-2. Alicia Seronio had her first three goal game ever, as she confounded the Extreme defense with some fantastic dribbling. Samantha Denton started the scoring with a great left footed finish off a nice throw-in from Jillian Weber.

This week’s video section has many new faces in it, so make sure to check it out. I also included a compilation of crashes with many girls featured in that. The girls played really tough and quite a few of them spent some time on the ground. Samantha Denton took a ball to the face that ironically came from her own kick. It shook her up, but she was ready to get back out there after just a little break. Kaitlin Lord started feeling more comfortable out on the field and it showed. She had some great plays that we caught on video. I was also really proud of Isabella DeSanti this game as she did a good job of staying in her position. As a result, she had a few plays where she got the ball because she was in the right spot on the field. Way to go Isabella!

This game was the farewell game for the Menziuso twins and they both played well to end their 2008 San Ramon season. Good luck in Vancouver girls, we’ll miss you!


Patch awards
Victory Patch: the entire Earthquakes team
Goal Patches: Samantha Denton, Alicia Seronio
Assist Patches: Jillian Weber (throw-in to Sam)
Blood Patches: Rachel Menziuso & Samantha Denton
Defender of the Game: Claudia Menziuso
Hustle Patch: Rachel Menziuso & Erika Shen
Star of the Game: Alicia Seronio

This Saturday’s game was at 12:45pm and it was another scorcher in the high 90’s. Because of the heat, many of the girls wanted to stay in the shade of the easy-up rather than run in the sun. The Explosion didn’t seem fazed by the heat and came out playing tough. Except for giving up an easy goal to Jillian off a goal kick, the Explosion played really tough defense and managed to go in at half time down only 1-0.

The second half started with Jillian at center mid field and she quickly scored her second goal and was sent to defense along with Alicia Seronio. I didn’t think I’d see the defensive combination of Jillian and Alicia give up a goal, but the Explosion kept the pressure on and managed to get a goal past the second half goalie Sam Denton. This narrowed the lead down to 2-1 and the Explosion was generally out hustling the Earthquakes. The Explosion was spending a lot of time in our side of the field, which helped Jillian make a super highlight score, taking the ball from in front of her own goal and driving the entire length of the field and finishing it off with a goal. That ended up being the final goal of the game and the Earthquakes managed to hold off the very tough Explosion with a 3-1 win.

Along with Jillian’s goals, the video highlights include some good hustle plays by Claudia Menziuso and Sydney Place. Brittany Jimenez had another good defensive game and she’s turning into a very dependable defender.

Hopefully this will be the last of the really hot games as our game on October 4th will be the last one with a full team. The Menziuso twins will be leaving for Vancouver B.C., which means there will be very little rest for these girls.

Patch awards
Victory Patch: the entire Earthquakes team
Goal Patches: Jillian Weber
Assist Patches: none
Blood Patches: Megan Hooks, Rachel Menziuso (from Thursday’s practice)
Defender of the Game: Brittany Jimenez
Hustle Patch: Sydney Place
Star of the Game: Jillian Weber

It was extremely overcast this morning of the Earthquakes’ third game. It was a little chilly, but it was a far sight more comfortable than our first game in the 100 degree weather. The girls once again played very well with all of them playing a role in the 5-2 victory. The real score was 6-2, but due to a really poor offside call on Rachel Menziuso, the official score was 5-2. You can look at the video of Rachel’s score and you can see that Alicia passed the ball backwards to Rachel, which means that Rachel was not offside. Although I gave Rachel a goal patch, I forgot to give Alicia an assist patch, so I need to give that to Alicia on Tuesday.

It was very exciting for Rachel to get her first goal ever. Rachel was on my team last year as well and no one tried harder to get a goal than Rachel, but that darned goalie kept getting in the way. I’m very proud of her, she’s come a long way this year. That reminds me, I just recently found out that the twins are going to be moving some time in October to Vancouver, BC. That means they will not be finishing the season with us, but they will hopefully only miss the last three games. We’ll all miss you girls!

Make sure to check out the videos for this game. We’ve got some new faces making their first appearance in the videos section. The play of the game for me was when Claudia made a nice pass into Megan who made a quick one-touch left footed score, for Megan’s first goal of the season. We got all the goals on tape, plus I included some of the nice attempts, as well.

Once again, Jillian tried some of the moves that she has learned this year, but this time her move, a modified Maradona, (where you step on the ball and do a 360 degree turn in the air, but in Jillian’s case, she did a 180 and came back where she came from), actually resulted in a goal and was done in a more natural flow of the game. Granted, I’m WAY biased, but you need to check that one out in slow motion to appreciate it. Notice that when Jillian is going back toward the goal, none of the girls on the other team were expecting her to be coming straight back at them with the ball. I wish I could take some credit for that one, but she learned that at the John Doyle Soccer Camp in Danville over the summer

Good game girls. You are all having a fantastic season!

Patch awards
Victory Patch: the entire Earthquakes team
Goal Patches: Jillian Weber, Rachel Menziuso, Megan Hooks, Samantha Denton
Assist Patches: Alicia Seronio, Claudia Menziuso
Defender of the Game: Alicia Seronio
Hustle Patch: Claudia Menziuso
Star of the Game: Jillian Weber

Wow! I can only assume that every single one of the Earthquakes wanted to get their own videos up on the Internet, because this entire game was like a highlight reel. For further proof, just look at all the videos that I had to create this week. The girls played very well individually as well as a team. I was very impressed, but I have to admit I was a little embarrassed. I usually try really hard to limit any win to a maximum of a five goal differential, but this game ended up 8-1. Just about every single girl scored, or almost scored in this game. This team is definitely not lacking for aggressiveness or heart.

I can’t really write a complete wrap-up because there really would be too many plays and players to mention in this space. I can only suggest that you check out all the videos because they truly are worth more than a thousand words. I do need to mention that I was very proud of Rachel Menziuso and Sydney Place, as they really hustled and came very close to scoring a few times. Claudia Menziuso was very impressive as well, and you’ll see a lot of her in the videos. She did a great job of following up and ensured that no shots on goal would come up short. It was a little hard to tell how many goals she actually scored, but it could have been as many as three and that’s not counting one that was called back for a slight offside infraction. I was also impressed by Isabella DeSanti, as she was actually stung by a bee earlier in the game and she was ready to go back in after just a little while. Isabella also had a very pretty pass to Claudia that ended in a goal, but ultimately called back due to Claudia being offside. I didn’t realize that Isabella made that pass until I looked at the tapes, so I will need to give her the assist patch on Tuesday at practice.

I do want you to also take a look at the last two videos for this game, the ones called “Tricky Jilly” and “Alicia sweet footwork”. These are two of the most impressive bit of individual footwork that I’ve seen at this age, especially considering this is only the rec league. Granted, I might be a little biased as Jillian is my daughter and I’ve coached Alicia for the last four years.

All in all, the girls played great and I was very proud of them and how they composed themselves after the game.

Patch awards
Victory Patch: the entire Earthquakes team
Goal Patches: Jillian Weber, Brittany Jimena, Samantha Denton, Claudia Menziuso, Alicia Seronio
Assist Patches: Jillian Weber, Alicia Seronio, Claudia Menziuso, Isabella DeSanti
Defender of the Game: Sydney Place
Hustle Patch: Rachel Menziuso
Star of the Game: Jillian Weber and Alicia Seronio

In the first game of the 2008 season, the visiting Earthquakes outscored the blue-jerseyed Electric 5-0.

The heat was so oppressive in this first game of the year for the Earthquakes that neither team even bothered warming up before the game. The game was at 2:00pm, which sure seemed like the hottest part of the day, and to make matters worse, there wasn’t even a slight breeze up on Coyote Creek.

The first half highlights included strong defensive efforts from Erika Shen and Brittany Jimena who only allowed a couple of balls to the goalie, Megan Hooks. Megan did make a great diving stop of an Electric shot, which was their only real shot on goal for the entire game. Jillian Weber played the stopper position with gusto, despite the suffocating heat, and was seemingly everywhere on the field. Jillian noticed that the goalie would run to the opposite corner of the goal area before throwing it to one of her teammates and took full advantage of the situation by marking up on that other player and then stealing the ball from her. This resulted in two of Jillian’s three goals for the game.

In the second half, Isabella DeSanti started as goalie, but because of the tough defense of Jillian Weber and Alicia Seronio, she never even got to touch the ball. Victoria Karlson positioned herself correctly in front of the goal early in the second half, so when the ball popped out to her she was able to dribble past a defender and then made a beautiful left-footed goal. Brittany Jimena scored the fifth and final goal of the game with a very impressive effort. At near mid-field, Brittany stole the ball from one of the Electric’s best players, Grace Platts, and managed to dribble around a number of midfielders, passed the ball through the last line of defenders and followed it up and kicked it past the goal keeper. Considering the heat and how late in the game this was, Brittany’s effort was very admirable.

Victoria Karlson finished off the game at goal keeper and impressed all with her nice punts. Samantha Denton played very well and nearly scored a goal. Sydney Place, Kaitlin Lord, and Rachel & Claudia Menziuso all had good efforts in the game as well.

All in all, it was a very impressive first game, although it is clear that Coach Jim needs to work on the offside rule a little more. :)

Patch awards
Victory Patch: the entire Earthquakes team
Goal Patches: Jillian Weber, Victoria Karlson, Brittany Jimena
Star of the Game: Jillian Weber
Defender of the Game: Brittany Jimena
Hustle Patch: Alicia Seronio