Stung

When you are playing your third game in three days, you are bound to be exhausted.  So when Friday's scores came in against James Monroe, it was obvious which team had played two games in two consecutive days prior to Friday (and had originally expected to play a fourth game on Tuesday).  The JV score was 3-1, with Jasmine Gray scoring her first goal of her SHS career on a sweet upper-90 shot.  The defense struggled with positioning most of the game, probably as a result of being tired and having to recover so much.  Megan Stewart also managed to pick up SHS's first card of the season, a yellow for what appeared to be clean shoulder-to-shoulder contact.  Rest up, ladies, because there are three games scheduled for next week as well.

The Varsity game was destined to be a letdown after the simply amazing performance on Thursday night.  However, the Knight pride and signature tough defense still stepped up and kept the score close at halftime, with the Jackets leading 2-0.  Things seemed to go from bad to worse when we lost Katie Brewer to an apparent concussion, the second defender in two days to be knocked out due to injury.  Stidham played well in goal, and the defense continued to log heavy minutes without a break.  The midfielders and forwards, in particular the left side, seemed to be cursed with a series of unlucky breaks.  The offense as a whole moved the ball well and stuck to the game plan, but could not get a lucky touch or ball to go our way.

As I told the team on the bus, this game does little for our standings and our positioning, and should not be dwelled upon.  We are currently fifth in our district, but with a win on Tuesday, we would move into fourth and set ourselves up nicely for a home game in the first round of the district tournament.  Continue to improve, continue to work hard, but also take time to have fun and enjoy the "beautiful game."