UNLUCKY:

Well, this last weekend we had an emotional roller coaster with our soccer pograms. The girls started off the weekend by scoring 7 goals and winning 7-0 in the semis. The guys played a very determined opponent and squeeked by 1-0. Sunday we had both teams in the region finals. the women kicked off at 11 a.m. The girls followed our game plan and at half time we had out shot our oponents 8-0. We should have been up 2 or 3 to nothing. We looked amazing. Suddenly the luck turned around. The opposition got a shot off in the 18 box, it went off of our all american goal keepers chect and landed right back at the shooters feet. Somehow the rolling ball made it in with no angle and 3 Reivers panicing to get to it. We ended losing 1-0 and out shooting them 12-2. Yes...their two shots were the two i just told you about.

LUCKY:

The womens match ended and as coaches had 30 minutes to regroup and relax...we wer actualy very proud of our girls..they won and lost in class. Anyway, the boys began warming up at 1:15 and kicked off at 2 p.m. We had played this team twice this season...both games ended in 1-1 ties after double over time play. So here we are after 220 minutes...no favorite (even though we were the top seed). The game was fast, passionat and explosive. The officials kept it undr control and was a BLAST to watch. it was 0-0 at half time. neither team could break the others defense down. With 27 minutes remaining in regulation one of our boys had a ball bounce his way 40 yarsds out, recognized the keeper was out of position and but the ball straight to the back of the net, likely the prettiest goal i have ever been able say....thats my payer! It was his first goal of the season, and at half time i had moved him from center mid to striker...so i felt like i was smart for 10 seconds. It was a lucky goal...he could not do it again, but it was as we refere to as "sexy socce" here at IWCC. 9 minutes later, our defense made a dumb error and the ball went in our net...not nearly as pretty as our goal..but all thta matters it that it crossed the line. We wnet in to overtime, then double overtime. At this point it was 5:04 p.m. Yes we kicked off at 2 p.m.. we had been playing for three hours. I will not bash, because I have some very beloved family members that stem from this culture but we had 45 minutes in the first half, 10 minute half time, 45 minutes in the second half, 5 minutes in between regulation and 2 minutes between the two overtime periods..lets do the math 45+45=90+10=100+5+10=115+2=117+10=127...2 hours and 7 minutes of accounted for time...you might ask, "what about the other hour?" The 6 Brazillians on the other team flop after flop, roll after roll, shreak and cry after shreak and cry. we spent nearly 20 minutes tending to them...that 2 hours 27 minutes. These are the guys that lats time we played them punched our capatain, an r.m. that served in Brazil and loved their culture and said, "I will not loose to a WHITE TEAM." Their head coach, he too from Brazil is the worst of them all. sweat pants and a stained t shirt to coach in...if i didnt know better...nevermind. back to the match. 4 minutes remaining in the second overitime. One of the Brazillian boys goes up for a header on a corner and knocked heads with one of our players. Thsi guy had fallen down more than a dozen times, so we had no smypathy for him when he went down. He got knocked out. The trainers assesed him for 10 minutes, the ambulance arrived 10 minutes later, it took them 15 minutes to get him off of the field ((he walked). The little shepard boy that cried wolf all game long finaly got the wolf and nobody cared. We played the final 4 minutes....so added time again: 2 hours 27 +10 +15 +10=3 hours and 2 minutes. we went intio a shoot out.

Round one: they scored, we shot the first one at the keeper
Round two: we scored, they scored, both shots, the keepers put a hand on
Round three: we score, they hit the post
2-2
Round four: we score, they score
Round five they score, we score
4-4
suddend death shots:
they hit the post. we score
3 hours 28 minutes and 31 seconds after the original kick off we have a mens conference champion...We head to Chicago Thursday at 1 to play #5 College of Dupage at noon on Saturday. We win we go to nationals in tyler texas. We loose we done.

the boys have not lost a game in 10 straight matches, have only allowed 19 goals and have an amazing record of 14-3-3. For a mens team that has played 11 nationaly ranked team...we are pretty freakin happy!

Love y'all

Dad...i sent you some mail today ;)