The first road trip of two for the season for 12-Nation team took place on Tuesday, October 3. HUGE THANK YOU to Ms. Toner for organizing transportation for the players and a HUGE THANK YOU to the parents that volunteered to drive to the game at Carleton North High School in Florenceville. You already know the result if you were at the game but keep reading to see how things went.
Bad news of the day – Obey was sick and unable to attend the game. One smile less to brighten the field- fortunately we’re playing in daylight. 😊
Coach Kevin leaving from work arrives at Carleton North and sees some of the team there. “Okay, who brought the balls?” OOPS. Thank you to the players of Carleton North for loaning us a bag of balls for warm-up. All goes as planned.
Warm-up was a little shaky with only 11 at the field, people are wondering “who got lost?”. But eventually, Zizou, Lorenzo, Issa, J-P and the others arrive. This first road trip, a 90-minute drive, to a different location may have created some challenges for newcomer drivers too.
To the game – for this team, spoiled by a nice artificial turf field in Edmundston, it’s their first time on a hard grass surface. We expected a lot of funny bounces and were not disappointed. Issa and Salva get slotted into starting roles and are on the field when 12 Nations Soccer opened the scoring in the 10th minute, Lorenzo putting a shot past the CNHS keeper.
Garrell is at his first game with the team and gets some action at the first change. Stephen, Steeve, Benoit and Taisiia all play their supporting roles as the game progresses. Everyone plays. Things were going well – for a while – then CNHS started to put a few goals in. They were awarded a dubious penalty in the 25th minutes when Zizou, in an attempt to clear the ball, had it bounce off his arm – how does that even happen??? – and the PK was awarded. CNHS converted and it is now 1:1. Then 3 more goals in succession at 26’, 30’ and 34 minutes. SMA down 4:1 after 35 minutes. Did we mention our first yellow card? Eita?
Salva and Stephen are getting more comfortable with the Team. Taisiia and Benoit are learning their supporting roles. The team is really coming together.
At the half, Coach Kevin says to Tyson, “Where did that speed come from? You haven’t shown that in practice. You realize we can teach soccer skills, but we can’t teach speed.” Coach is rewarded with a smile.
Noah, who stays solid on the wing, comments during the break “Lets win the 2nd half”. Maybe that is all we needed to hear?
In sports anything can happen. “SMA on 3.”
As fate would have it, CNHS opened the scoring in 3 minutes into the second 35-minute half. A game of ebbs and flows SMA was awarded a penalty when Lorenzo was fouled in the penalty area of Carleton North. Zizou stepped up to take the penalty and beat the keeper 5:2. Lots of hard work by the team was rewarded when Lorenzo passed to Zizou who carried and gave a beautiful pass to Eita who put the ball in the net in the 47th minute. Horland, not to be outdone by his teammate, created another opportunity for Eita to add another in the 59th minute. We were on the comeback trail 5:4. But Carleton North adds another goal – 6:4. A foul by Carleton North – yellow card –disrespect for the ref – 2nd Yellow turns red. Remember NEVER challenge the referee. It will never work out the way you think. Red card means SMA has about 2 minutes with a man advantage, but we were unable to equalize.
It was a great effort by the team. Coaches Kevin and Carleigh tried a few different combinations on defense knowing that our defensive anchor, Eita is away for the next game. J-P, Dimi, Sookie, Alex and Christiano did work well together. J-P has been the ironman of the season. Gab showed patience in goal and is getting more comfortable with every game. Some incredible grabs under pressure help.
Post-game celebrations included homemade sandwiches from a local shop, shout out to Bobbi’s Convenience Store. Huge sandwiches on homemade bread! wow! Thank you so much. And homemade chocolate chips cookies which Christiano especially loved (Thanks Mrs. T). Check out the fun photos below.
See you all in St Quentin for Game 4 against AJ Savoie on Thursday, October 12 at 4:30 PM Go EAGLES!!