U12A 10 Cheadle 9

This was always going to be an interesting morning, with all our year 7 boys unavailable as they were playing for the U14B. This left what was essentially an U11 team playing against Cheadle, who, like us, have reached the semi finals of the Onondaga Cup.
We got ourselves into a 4 goal lead early in the second quarter playing some nice lacrosse, but then the wheels fell off in a big way (a general inability to retain possession through poor decision making, bad ground ball, inability to clear, poor passing, not concentrating – you name it and we did it) and Cheadle scored the next 5 goals without reply leaving us 4-5 down at half time. I don’t think any of this team has played in a game where they’ve been behind for a length of time but come back to win, and it was an interesting half time team talk by Nelly, trying to get the boys’ heads up again. Cheadle scored a sixth unanswered goal early in the third quarter and things looked over for us. However, two quick goals from Ed Loveland galvanised the team, and a goal in the last second of the third quarter by Dan Walker saw us level at 7-7. We then got our noses in front early in the fourth quarter and managed to remain there, mainly through the outstanding goalkeeping of Matthew Stewart who made numerous saves at close range.

Matches like this are good for the spectator, and also good for the boys. The ease with which we usually win matches is not really the norm for lacrosse. More often, games are tight and are won by one or two goals. We have learned a lot today, about the 4 B team players who came in and played well (Will Callaghan, on his A team debut, looked really comfortable) and also how the younger A team players reacted to the pressure of leading the team.

The two performances of the day were by Matthew Stewart in goal and Ed Loveland in attack – they continued how they have been playing all season and gave the team the belief they could actually win the game.

Goals
E Loveland 5(+1 assist), Hirst 2(+1), Crosby 1(+1), Hunn 1(+1), Walker 1, Callaghan (2 assists)