Soccer season is officially under way. We opened up the season last night against rival Johnstown in our annual Stop DWI Tournament. Let me start off by saying we've lost to Jtown once in about 10 years.... and that we've never lost our DWI tourney. And that's me above in the goal. No pressure, right?

I'm not going to lie, I was nervous all day.. We all expected to have a ton of people at this game and the turnout was in fact HUGE. Johnstown is about 5 minutes away, and though the results have been lopsided over the last 10 years, there really hasn't ever been a game that wasn't exciting or fun to watch.

After getting out on the feild, I don't know what it was, but I was more focused than I've ever been. (This is my 3rd year in the goal, but first year on Varsity and I'm a senior). During warmups I saved every shot.. No one could score on me. It was at this point I knew that I was in for a great game.

The first half was scoreless for both teams. I made a few good saves and one spectacular one off a perfect hit to the side netting. We came out pretty flat in the first half, and it was hard to get things going. Even after my save, people were still kind of moping around and playing with little to no energy. We came out great in the 2nd half. 15 minutes in, we got a great goal from our forward. 1-0 with 25 to go. Things are looking good, right? About 15 minutes to go, Johnstown gets a free kick from a little past the 18. I tried to come out and grab it, change my mind at the last second and try to run back, but it was too late. 1-1.

Nothing exciting happened from this point on - 2 10 minute overtimes and we still were tied 1-1. Time for PKs. Great.

My teammates and coaches keep telling me to read their foot instead of watching the ball, and (stupidly) I listened to them. 2-2. If I had just went with what I thought was best for me, I could have at least saved one of them. I decided to change it up again, but it didn't matter. They got the third one in, I managed to save the last two and keep us in it, but our last 3 players all shanked their kicks. Game over.

I was pretty pissed with myself after the game, but to be honest, I pretty much played the game of my life. The more I look back at it, I can think "I should have done this," but at the same time, one of our three players should have put one of their kicks on goal. I did all I could to keep us in the game, and that's all that anyone can ask for. I'm happy about what I did, and I think I can give our team the chance to hang with anyone if I keep giving performances like last night. Only time will tell.

Also, for anyone interested, here's a link to the story of the game in the local paper.
http://leaderherald.com/page/content....html?nav=5014

Result: Loss 1-1 (3-2 in Penalty Kicks)
Next Game: Consolation Game vs. Schalmont