Week 3 (Sept. 9, 2008)

Glory Glory Milwaukee…

There is one team that I do not like… Marquette. So there is no better feeling then beating them…especially on their home field. And, that is exactly what we would do.

We moved to 4-0 for the season.

It was a back and forth game, each team having their chances and in the end we came out on top. Sarah Hagen came up with yet another goal, off a corner from Nicole Sperl, to give us the 1-0 win. She just before was put in on a breakaway from a great through ball by the Canadian, Keara Thompson. And that earned us the corner.

I don’t have much more to say besides it was back and forth and intense. When I say back and forth I mean possession wise, not that they had many close chances. Every time they were near our goal it was an easy save for Kane or we were able to force them into an off-target shot. Kane was forced once to make a superman save.

Our fans were amazing, and were just as loud as their home field “birdcage”. If it wasn’t for them it could have been a different game, so thank you to all that were there!

We beat Madison, now Marquette, last to beat is Green Bay to win the state… for the third year in a row!

Western Michigan

Western Michigan isn’t necessarily a big name team like Ohio State or Marquette, but still a team that could come out and give us a game. Now for those who have seen us play the past four games, have seen us play good attractive soccer, with the occasional situation that needed work. However, this game was a little different, we came out a little lethargic and caused some unforced turnovers. They came out with a lot of energy and we didn’t react the smartest and gave up some turnovers. Nothing that proved too damaging, but prevented us from scoring and keeping possession like we would normally like to do.

Luckily however, I started the scoring off about 18 minutes in. Now I would like to say I was on the left flank, looked up and saw their keeper out of position so I hit a nicely flighted ball and chipped her with the ball hitting side netting on the far post… BUT, the truth however, when I looked up I really saw Hagen cutting to the back side and was looking to play the ball to her head. I then over hit it and ended up with a goal! But if anyone asks, it was on purpose!

We played out the rest of the first half, leaning more towards the ugly side of play and headed into the locker room with some things to fix.

We came out in the second half improved, we got a corner, Beth Steuer played short to Nicole Sperl and she crushed the ball on goal, then got her own rebound and crushed the ball a second time, 2-0.

They lost a player a little while later to two quick yellow cards, so we had a player up and we began to knock on the door some more, we got another corner. I played it in and Hagen finished…surprise, surprise Hagen scores again! That is one of the most exciting things to me, a consistent scorer, that has been a major factor to our success this year.

Finally, our scoring ended with Beth Steuer smacking a sweet shot from the top of the eighteen, over the keepers head and into the goal. It was one of my favorite goals on the year—easily.

Wisnewski Battle

Our final game of the weekend, Illinois State, home to Senior Drea Wisniewski’s little sister Ammanda (not a typo). Now in the past six days, we started classes, attended them, beat Marquette (emotionally and physically exhausting), beat Western Michigan and now must get “up” for yet another game. We walked away with the win, but it was a struggle, 1-0.

We started off quick, thinking it was going to be a high-scoring game. Kayla DeJardin served the ball in, I flicked it onto Hagen, who took a touch and then into the back of the goal 1-0 four minutes in. We had other chances, never finishing them. Mentally we were worn out and it showed on the field. The turnovers were high, and we called on our bench a lot, many new faces got playing time in this game and against Western Michigan.

Every team will have the games were mentally they just don’t seem to be there, but the important thing is we walked away with the result. We just need to turn around have a good week of practice and bring the true style of our play to New Mexico next weekend. I know some families are traveling but many of you can’t be with us there so I will be sure to write an action-packed entry next week. Until then, Go Panthers!