Way To Bounce Back

On Saturday the Suns won an extremely important game against Sunnyside. Going into the game there was a three way tie for first place between the Suns, Sunnyside, and Kamiakin. The winner of the game would stay at the top of the table and the loser could drop all the way to fifth place. The good thing was our boy's new this and rather than folding under the pressure they prevailed in a scrappy hard fought game against a very worthy opponent.

Coach Elfering unconventionally decided to go into the wind in the first half and the strategy payed off as the defense stifled all of Sunnyside's attacks to go to the half 0-0. In fact Southridge Forward Riese Byrd had the best chance five minutes into the game he beat the keeper but unluckily hit the crossbar. The game wasn't pretty by any means, Sunnyside had a wonderful attack all game long as they passed the ball from defense to midfield but every time our defense was in the right position and turned away every attack. Brandon Hale made four saves including a first half clearance of a dangerous cross that had a Sunnyside attacker waiting to finish. The shining moment in the game was when Corey Grady's pass made it's way to Ryan Downs who had to beat one defender than ripped a 20 yard shot passed keeper Joaquin Perez. The goal came with three minutes left in the game and was Ryan's first career varsity goal.

It should be noted that last year if a goal was scored in the closing minutes of a game it was unfortunately against us. This is a good sign of the maturation of this team, and the ability to close a game out.

Our next challenge is Tuesday. In our two seasons with this program and probably going back much further this team has never performed well on the road. In fact in most cases the results have been very disheartening. In West Valley you have a team that has yet to win a league game but has been improving each week. There are no easy games in this league. We have to go up there and prove that we can win on the road. Coach Elfering has pointed out that "if you have any aspirations of making a run in the playoffs you will have to win some road games." Let's get one Tuesday.

JV Note: The Junior Varsity squad beat Sunnyside 2-1 and improved to 3-1 in the league and 3-3 overall.