SAN RAMON -- The Huskies came out hungry in this third game of the Rec+ kick-off tournament against the Mustang Black Ice. Jeanette Sarkany had to be convinced that she could do it, but she played goalie the first half with very little drama. Most of the entire first half the ball was on the Black Ice side of the field. The Huskies had numerous scoring chances and the Black Ice goalie had to make a number of good saves. Unfortunately, she did make all the saves and the game was tied 0-0 at half time, even though the Huskies dominated most of the half.

Starting in the second half, Erin Cantoni took over as goalie and her presence was sorely missed out in the field. In the first half, Erin played right midfielder and she had two great shots on goal that just missed. Erin did a good job at goalie, but the Black Ice got one clean look at the goal and put in a shot that Erin couldn’t get to for a 1-0 lead. Although the Huskies didn’t dominate in the second half, Drew Dudley almost tied up the game in the last minute with a nice shot that went just left of the goal.

Natali Feyzbakhsh won the star of the game patch at the end of the game. She played right fullback for the entire game and she was a wall back there that the Black Ice couldn’t get past. Caitlin Weber won the defender of the game patch with some nice saves in the sweeper position, but Amanda Fornataro easily could have won the patch as well because she played center fullback like a bulldog back there. It’s fun to watch a tough group of defenders like we have. It will make it very difficult for any team to score very many goals on us as long we keep that kind of play up. The team voted for the lightning patch hustle award winner and it was pretty much unanimous that it belonged to Emily Glaser, who is our left-footed left forward specialist. I normally like to rotate my forwards out, but Emily just keeps running so hard when she needs to and is so dominant out there that I just can’t bring myself to take her out.

Although the Huskies ended up 1-2 in the tournament, they showed they could play with any of the Mustang teams. Even though we ended up with only one goal in three games, I think it is clear that it is just a matter of time before the shots start falling for the team. If we keep taking the shots on goal, good things will happen.

My memories of each girl for this tournament:
Navi Bal - versatile player that I can put anywhere, got the player of the game in our first win
Erin Cantoni - always willing to play goalie and aggressively goes towards the ball when in the field
Elizabeth Castaneda - hurt her right shin, but wanted to keep playing even though she was noticeably limping
Madeleine Clements - predominantly played left forward and did a nice job getting the ball to Emily
Drew Dudley - just missed scoring three goals throughout the tournament, but they’ll come soon
Natali Feyzbakhsh - defensive specialist that was the unlikely first goal scorer of the season, star of the game in the 3rd game
Amanda Fornataro - plays like a bulldog. Very smart player, can play almost any position
Emily Glaser - star player, enough said
Erin Glaser - just missed scoring off of one of her sister’s nice crosses
Kristen Glavee - played almost exclusively at the important stopper position and had to run a lot with little rest
Korah Rose - used great dribbling in that first game against the Rampage, was fun to watch her play defense
Jeanette Sarkany - didn’t want to play goalie, but did a fine job, although she prefers to play forward
Gabby Silva - took a nice shot in the first game against the Rampage
Colleen Tolan - took a beating in the second game, but still wanted to get back out there and play
Caitlin Weber - had some nice clears when she was the last defender



End of Game Awards
blood patch: Elizabeth Castaneda, Erin Cantoni
defender of the game patch: Caitlin Weber
lightning hustle patch: Emily Glaser
star of the game patch: Natali Feyzbakhsh

Season Stats:

Goals:
Natali Feyzbakhsh 1

Assists:
Emily Glaser 1

SAN RAMON -- After playing a good tough game at 8:00am, the Huskies needed to go back out for their second game of the tournament at 11:45am. The temperature was much warmer for the afternoon game, with the thermometer reaching 100 degrees.

This was the Huskies second game in about 2 1/2 hours, yet the Mustang Dynamos were playing in their first game of the tournament, so even though both teams had the heat to contend with, the Huskies were already tired before the game even started.

Coach Jim was hoping for a quick score in the first 10 minutes because he didn’t think there was going to be much of a chance after that due to heat exhaustion. The Huskies played hard, but just didn’t have enough in the tank to keep up with the fresher Dynamos. Throughout the game, Coach Jim had to come out and escort at least four different girls off the field after they got hurt. He felt more like a medic than a coach most of the time.

The girls that were out wanted to stay on the sidelines and the girls that were in the game all wanted to come off the field. Due to the conditions, this was just a brutal game. I’m just glad we made it out of there without any major injuries.

The Huskies did lose 0-2, but there was no shame in the loss due to the unusual conditions. Both goals scored by the Dynamos were excellent shots that the goalkeeper had no chance of stopping.

End of Game Awards
blood patch: Drew Dudley, Caitlin Weber, Colleen Tolan, Korah Rose

Season Stats:

Goals:
Natali Feyzbakhsh 1

Assists:
Emily Glaser 1

SAN RAMON - The first game of the season for the Huskies was against the Mustang Rampage at Coyote Crossing @8:00am. The game was part of the San Ramon Rec+ Kick-Off Tournament, which consisted of two games on Saturday and at least one more game on Sunday, with the top four (of 21) teams playing for the Championship and the Consolation game later on Sunday.

The lone score of the game came from one of the many beautiful crosses by Emily Glaser, the left footed left forward. The goal was actually scored by Natali Feyzbakhsh, the right forward who crashed towards the goal when Emily sent the ball right to the goal box, and was able to poke the ball in after it squirted out of the defensive bunch in front of the goal. The funny story about Natali getting the goal is she one of the few girls that really wants to just play defense and she was supposed to be the sweeper in this game, but she got to the game late, so I wasn’t able to start her there. Once I needed to make my substitutions, Navi Bal was playing sweeper and doing a great job, so I didn’t feel compelled to take her out, besides I usually sub out my midfielders and forwards, as they are the ones that do most of the heavy running, not the defenders. So, because she was late to the game, Natali got to play forward and she definitely capitalized on her chance.

I probably shouldn’t have written this all out because now everyone is going to show up late in hopes of being placed at forward! :)

Drew Dudley ended out missing much of the second half after getting her ankle hurt, so she earned the first blood patch of the season. Amanda Fornataro was given the defender of the game patch. She did a great job of always being in the right place at the right time and just making life miserable for the Rampage forwards. The lightning hustle patch went to the left defender Korah Rose, who showed great burst of speeds and fancy footwork to stymie the Mustang offense. The star of the game patch went to Navi Bal who was thrown into the sweeper spot in the first half (due to Natali’s lateness) and then played at goalie for the second half. If you can play sweeper and goalie in a 1-0 game, you deserve the star of the game, Navi.

Great way to start the season girl! Congratulations.

End of Game Awards
victory patch: the Huskies
blood patch: Drew Dudley
assist patch: Emily Glaser
goal patch: Natali Feyzbakhsh
defender of the game patch: Amanda Fornataro
lightning hustle patch: Korah Rose
star of the game patch: Navi Bal

Game Stats:

Goals:
Natali Feyzbakhsh 1

Assists:
Emily Glaser 1

Season Stats:

Goals:
Natali Feyzbakhsh 1

Assists:
Emily Glaser 1