Weekend BME Wrap Up

Wow, a great weekend of soccer. Teams, fields, weather. Really great.
The tourney started out against a tough Montana ODP squad. With the lady warriors pounding the box at every opportunity it was good to see newcomer Easton Kawawaki making such an impact. Her deflected shot was finished by Emmy Owens for the first score and again she was instrumental as she lofted a cross that finished by a flying (literally) Marisa Reid to bring the final tally to 2-0.
The second game pitted Sodium against the Moses Lake team, CB United Navy. It was a grinder. Very physical with little action at either end, mostly confined to the midfield. This team a little dirty and their classless fans brought them down even further with their taunting of the Sodium players. Unbelievable display of blatant idiocy. Late in the contest, as Sodium began to ware the CB United squad down the action began to happen. The last 5 minutes of the match saw headers off the crossbar or over, shots going wide or off the post. The lady warriors dug deep to provide a constant onslaught of shots that was cut short by the closing whistle with final tally 0-0.
Sunday brought a whole new team, 3RSC Dodson (Rage). Touted as the toughest team in our bracket the Rage was coming off a 4-2 loss to Magic and was ready for revenge. Couple the screaming from the coach with outright horrific officiating, (ask me later about this :) ) and we had ourselves a ball game! Rage scored first but the Sodium squad had been here many times and knew what it needed to do. Even though they weren't playing quite there 'A' game, Sodium methodically plugged away at the 3RSC squad until late in the second when Marisa & Easton paired up again. This time it was Marisa who lofted a high cross where Easton planted at the far post for the header and the tie! The fans went nuts as the girls mugged their team mates. Time wasn't on our side as the match ended with another tie, 1-1.  

Now the drama begins.....

EMFC Magic was solidly in first place, Sodium was barely hanging onto second spot by one point. Magic was scheduled to play third place SSC Elite out of Spokane right after Sodium. So, if Magic could shut out SSC Elite then they would play Sodium for the championship. If Magic tied or lost to SSC, they have a rematch with them for the championship. So, you can imagine all the support Magic was getting from Sodium players, fans and parents for that game! Magic never let the momentum down from the previous games and just blew SSC Elite out of the water with a 3-0 clobbering. Now the stage was set for the 2:30pm championship game; Sodium vs Magic, OR vs OR, friend vs friend. It was awesome.

You can imagine how exhausted these two teams were; this would be their 3rd game of the day. The weather was now in the 70's. These teams had both met a couple VERY physical teams and Sodium was banged & bruised, I can imagine Magic was too. What I know for sure this; this was one of the best, most hard fought, well matched games I have seen in this 2009 season. Both Sahalie Doe and Taylor Luty were called upon time & time again to make incredible saves at keeper. The mids, defenders and forwards all gave everything they had and left it all on the field. Emmy Owens severely rolled ankle cause her to leave the match late but the forwards all rallied to keep the heat on. When the final whistle blew these exhausted warriors knew what was before them; 2 periods of 5 minute over-time! At the end of the OT's the score remained locked at 0-0.
Every players nightmare (and fans and coaches...), PK's!!

What a fitting end. Putting the players who had showcased their talents in the box all day, Sahalie & Taylor, out in center stage. A crowed had gathered to watch for they knew, these were the true warriors.






To be honest, in the end, it didn't really matter who won. What mattered is what was left on the field. What mattered is that these two Oregon powerhouses met in the Championship of a Washington Tournament. What mattered is that Magic had swept the bracket with dominance which helped their Oregon sisters get to the Championship.

What mattered is in the end, they all hugged......

THAT'S what mattered.