2 Years was the last time that I won a championship with Steve and Sandy. That game I only played 5 minutes; 0 minutes in the first half. From that point I knew i wanted to start my own team.
Friday night was a completion of a 2 year circle. "Going Green" has became the Division D7B champions. It was a long night. It started with our supposed 6PM game time. Except the referee didn't show up. Another referee showed up 15 minutes later.
Semi-Final game was an intense physical game. We shot a lot of balls but the goalie was up to task. We executed perfect passes from the corner to take a 1-0 lead. But with less than 1 minute left in the half the other team was able to tie the game. The second half we executed another great pass from the corner and scored to make it 2-1. It was a battle and physical. but we were able to pull off the victory.
Between games, we found out that Diggers had won their game over sporting. That was good news for us. Sporting is an extremely physical team who we knew would take some cheap shots. Diggers was a team that we respected and we knew that they would be out to enjoy and have fun.
Diggers jumped ahead 1 nothing on a shot that perfectly went over my hands. Then 2-0 when I got beat high again. But less than 1 minute left, we were able to score and get 2-1 going into halftime.
So I gathered the team around and I gave them my pep talk: "Alright Green. It's one goal at a time. Lets get the game tying goal. And remember, we got Gatorade and cliff bars. And Gatorade is thirst aid." (no seriously I said this...)
The second half we took over. We quickly scored the tying goal. Then less than 3 minutes later, we took the lead, 3-2. (I think Cat assisted in both of these goals.) We traded goals again to make it 4-3. However they got a break-away and tied it up 4-4. Time ran out, and we went to overtime.
We switched ends and talked about who was playing front and back. Omar, Paco, Erin, and Jen S took over the game. I realized that our between game meal helped keep our strength up. Omar and Paco took full advantage of the open space of playing 4 on 4. Erin and Jen S backed them up. Everyone took shots and their goalie was up to task making save after save. We got lots of break-away on a tired team; we couldn't break him. After 4 minutes, we completely dominated the overtime period. Finally Omar took a pass and broke away, 1-on-1 with the goalie; he shot short side and SCORES!!! We have one our first Champion Game.
It was a hard fought game and everyone played their hardest on both sides. We got our picture taken and new shirts were handed out. It was awesome. It was great to see so many people come out and watched our game. Lots of thanks to my parents, and my wife. And there was Eric, Marissa, Mia and Marcus. And Nick came out. Also Cat's parents came as well. Tonya (who tore her ACL) came out and cheered us on. Many thanks to everyone who has supported us this season.
So things have finally come full circle. Especially for Steve, Sandy and Myself. They have been with me since the beginning. Our last title was that game so many seasons ago. Ironically Kevin was on that team too, and now he's got another title with me. But this one, This Championship, I will hold special to myself because I know I was able to make an impact and help lead this team to victory.
On to next season... and a repeat title!
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