4th Place

It's hard to imagine that this time last week we were in 1st place, but that's the way things go in this league. Last night's 1-0 loss to Sunnyside was a real heart breaker. It was probably the best game we'd played all year we just couldn't sneak one in the back of the net. The boy's never gave up though. Hopefully the most important thing we learned last night is how to play with intensity. During the last 24 minutes of the game we played so hard, we played with purpose, intent, and a desire to win that we'd never seen from them before. Hopefully everyone understands that this is how you need to play for 80 minutes every game. If we did this we would score often and nobody could stop us.

Our next game is Saturday against West Valley and it will be the seniors last athletic event for the blue and gold. We appreciate the effort they've put in over the years and we hope that a lot of family and Friends will be in attendance to honor them.

Tough Way To Lose

Shootouts. Everybody hates them nobody loves them. From a coaching standpoint we love our teams chances in a shootout. We have a great keeper who reads the shooter well. We also have about seven or eight guys who are very reliable shooters. The reason we don't like them is because any thing can happen, a keeper can just dive one way and guess right, a shooter can mishit the ball and not go where he wanted.

We played extremely well for 90 minutes and had a wonderful attempt blocked by their goalie. When you look at the way our defense played, and the way we moved the ball around this was definitely one of the best games we've played this year. Some highlights of the game included Brandon Hale making seven saves and earning his fifth shutout of the year. Jared Brisbin also man marked one of the best players in the league, he has now man marked top players three times this year and not only kept them from scoring or assisting any goals but also shut down the teams offensive attacks. Freshmen Josh Mendoza played his first career varsity game. He started and played really well, most importantly he earned his teammates respect.

The game against Sunnyside will be a great test tomorrow. They are playing their best soccer of the season so far and we still have a chance to win the league with a victory over them.

Saturday's Game Time

The game against Eastmont on Saturday will be played at 1:00 pm and 3:00 pm with the JV playing the early time as usual. Our next opponent Sunnyside will be playing Kamiakin at 11:00 am so it would be a good idea to come watch this game as both teams are tied for second one game back from us.

We would also like to take a moment and stress the importance of the Eastmont game, we need to win this game and maintain possession of first place so we will be positioned favorably in the playoff seeding.

Now The Good News

Kamiakin and Eastmont played on Saturday. Our reason for rooting against Kamiakin had nothing to do with the crosstown rivalry but with the fact that a Kamaikin loss would put us back in first place. Not only did kamiakin lose but it was the best case scenario, a 0-0 tie that Eastmont won in a shootout. So Eastmont only got two points for the win and Kamiakin got one. So here we are with four games left and we're at the top of the league table, Eastmont, Kamiakin, and Sunnyside are all one game back tied for second place. So the question is are we going to step up and take what's been put in front of us or are we going to squander another chance to win this league?

We've been saying it all year, this next game is huge. We've experienced what it's like to be in this position and win, as well as lose. It feels much better to win and control your own destiny. So hopefully we'll come out and train hard this week and put all of our energy into winning this game.

Practice Note: There will be no practice on Monday the 14th, we will resume on Tuesday and go from 5:00 - 7:00 pm

Tough Loss

Last Thursday's loss to Kamiakin was a tough one to swallow. It was such a huge game, and the stakes were very high. The winner of the game had a fast track to the league championship and the loser would have to battle the rest of the season for playoff seating.

The thing our boy's need to understand is that every team we beat in the first half is going to come at us harder than ever to prove that it was a fluke we beat them the first time around. kamiakin came into that game with something to prove, they came into that game like it was for the league title. We came into that game like we do every other game, we came to win, but we didn't match their intensity. I think a valuable lesson was learned in that game. We have four games left, nothing else matters, not being in first or second place, not how we started the season, not that we've broken the team records for wins in a season or shutouts in a season. The only thing that matters is these next four games and where we finish in the league table.

Tale Of Two Halves

In our first game against Hanford the defense allowed zero shots on goal. In the rematch last night they had nine, in the first half, three of which hit the crossbar. It seemed we couldn't do anything right except get lucky and watch Brandon Hale make six wonderful saves. At halftime a simple question was asked "do you want to be in first place or not?' The boys responded well, showing that yes indeed they do want to stay on top of the league table. We controlled the ball for most of the second half and had some wonderful chances including Corey Grady's potential game winner that was cleared off the line. Hale made five additional saves and played his best game of the season. Coach Elfering said "for the first time this season Brandon took control of the box and really owned it." Also Jared Brisbin once again drew the daunting task of man marking the best player in the league Dino Ramic. The sophomore proved he was the man for the job limiting Ramic to two shots on goal and limited his play making ability.

In the shootout Brandon was reading the shots right, but they were all on target until he blocked the seventh shot he saw. That set up John Zoulek, who only played five minutes due to an injury to come in cold and bury the game winner.

The game was important to maintain sole ownership of first place and set up another huge game against rival Kamiakin tomorrow at 7:00 pm. It will be important to have as many fans as possible at this game. We have the chance to sweep our rival and be clear of the other teams by two games.

Around the league: West Valley won their first match of the year against Sunnyside that dropped the Grizzlies two games out of first.

JV Note: The Junior Varsity squad improved to 5-2 in league with a 7-0 win over Hanford. They dominated every aspect of the game which was highlighted by Zack Patten's hat trick and Connor Craven's two goals.
JV's two league losses were both 0-0 matches that went to shootouts.
In the last three games they've outscored opponents 12-1.
For the season they've outscored opponents 21-10 and are 5-4 overall.

Complete Turnaround

Well for those of you who don't remember at this point last year we were 1-5 and hadn't scored a goal yet in the season. So as you can imagine it feels really good to be 5-1 and in first place at the half way point. Saturday we played another scrappy game and were rewarded with a 2-0 victory over Kennewick. Jared Brisbin and Corey Grady each scored their first goals of the season. Riese Byrd assisted both times and Brandon Hale earned his 3rd shutout of the year.

We're real proud of the way the boys have stepped up and are taking ownership of the season. There have been many times this season when it would have been easy to fold under the pressure and make excuses and so far we haven't seen that.

The way the next two games play out will really tell us what we're made of. On Tuesday we play at Hanford who is in second place one game behind us. If we don't win this game there will be another three way tie for first place. Then we play Kamiakin on Thursday who is also in second place one game back. We're still in a place that we can set our own destiny. We need to take every game one at a time and unfortunately we can't take a breath and enjoy where we're at, everything is still too close. So keep playing hard and beat Hanford tomorrow.

Game Note: The Hanford game times have been changed to 5:00 pm for JV and 7:00 pm for varsity to be played at Hanford's new soccer field on the East end of the schools property.

Dominating Performance

Yesterday we witnessed the best road game the Suns have played in a long time. Riese Byrd and Bill Landefled both scored their second goals of the year and Michael Brewer ripped a 40 yard shot into the upper seven to win the game 3-1. One of the best things we saw were some moments of wonderful passing and we also played stingy defense. The game was so important because we earned a much needed six points and it set us up to finish the first half of league play with a 5-1 record. However, this can only be accomplished with a victory over cross town rival Kennewick this Saturday. Kennewick is a difficult team to play due to their all out defensive tactics. They have played several different players so far this season so again it's hard to gauge them as a team. The good thing is we are now playing a brand of soccer that if we play our game, and play to our strengths the outcome should be in our favor.

The boys have done a good job of staying focused and taking one game at a time. We have to keep in mind that so far the only thing we've done is played well up to the half way point. We still have to play our best soccer moving forward so we can make a run in the playoffs. Let's focus on these next three day's of training and play a great game on Saturday.

JV Note: The Junior Varsity squad also improved their league record to 4-1 with a 5-1 trouncing over West Valley.