Logan Eschliman
Mrs. Jank
English block 3
8 May 2017
New Year, Same Outcome
Thursday May 4, 2017. It was a day every girl on the soccer team was ready, pumped, excited, and thrilled for. This was the rematch of the District Championship from the 2016 season. But first we all knew we had to take care of some business on Tuesday against Crete. We began preparing for Norris and learning where the weak spots were in their defense and we learned how to cover the weak spots in our defense. Tuesday came along and so had the first game against Crete. The whistle blows to begin the game. It took us a while before we finally put a ball in the back of the net, but when we did it started a thread of goals. One right after the other. Halftime came with a score of 7-0 us on top. 15 seconds into the second half we scored again making it 8-0. It wasn’t much later we again scored 9-0. And again about 3 or so minutes later we decided to cap it with the 10th goal coming in the 48 or 49th minute of the game.
Thursday came. Everyone had the look of pure joy and determination on their faces at school before the game that day. We all knew that Norris was out for blood this year mostly because of what had happened last year. 3:15 came and every girl was rushing to get to the field to prepare for what could possibly have been the last game of the season.
The whistle had blown to begin the first half of play. As the game began we learned quickly that this was going to be a hard fought, physical game for both teams. The first half was a little uninteresting except for a couple chances both teams had to score.
Halftime rolls around and it is now 0-0. We were ready to take this game in regulation and to send the Titans home. 5 minutes had been played and still nothing interesting had happened. Then the 55th minute rolled around. This is where things started becoming interesting. Layney received a beautiful through ball from a teammate and was off to goal. She entered the 18 yard box and took a look at the goal. She got her hips turned enough to get the shot off and thus the ball somehow ended up in the back of the net. 56th minute Lincoln Lutheran leads 1-0. There were more opportunities for both teams to finish on goal, but no one ever did. Now there was under 5 minutes to go in regulation when sadly Norris was able to place one in the back of the net. This then tied the game 1-1. This was heartbreaking to watch because no one wanted to go into overtime for the second straight year. The game then ended 1-1 so to overtime we went. At the end of the first overtime period it remained 1-1. By the beginning of the second overtime period we knew that this was going to have to be a mental game and we were going to have to not give up no matter what. The second overtime period had ended with the score still being 1-1. This meant penalty kicks for the second year in a row. Our 5 vs Their 5. We started out with a brilliant goal from Rachel, followed by a goal from Norris. The second round we missed, but Kassidy made a big save to keep us even. Third round we had another brilliant goal from Kassidy and a brilliant save from Kassidy as well. The fourth round we again put the ball in the back of the net, but once again Norris had also scored. Now it was 3-2 us. The fifth and final round had come. We failed at scoring, but so did Norris. Hence we win 3-2 and for the second year in a row we had sent Norris home after a long battle.
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