Jon Ports' 2009 Season Blog
Welcome to another new feature of www.ycpspartans.com! Senior All-American Jon Ports will be posting a blog each week, providing insight to the 2009 York College men's soccer team. Below is Ports' blog about the season. Enjoy!
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2009 - 4:25 PM - Jon Ports concludes his blog
A lot of thoughts
come to mind when writing this blog and thinking about the last
game I was in. It’s a disappointment when your college career
comes to an end and you have no more blogs to write and no more
practices and games. This will be my final blog and I know the
faithful readers will have to hold back their tears, but it will be
alright.
We awoke early on Saturday morning to go to the
Grumbacher and have a nice team breakfast together before we played
Williams at 11 a.m. in the Sweet 16. We had a nice assortment of
bagels, muffins, fruit, and Gatorades to have a healthy breakfast.
People were anxious in the locker room to get out there and get
ready to play. I know I was nervous because ever since we entered
the tournament you know that this could very well be your last game
on that field wearing the York jersey.
I was very confident in the beginning of the
game because Justin Suchoski played me a great ball in which I was
able to convert into an early goal. I was hoping we could keep
rolling from their but they played some good defense throughout the
game. Just before half, they were able to neutralize the score at
1-1. From there on out, it was a battle between two good teams and
no one was able to get a goal although we did have some good
opportunities. The game ended up going into penalty kicks which is
an awful way to end a game. We lost in penalty kicks and as soon as
the last kid on their team made there kick, I knew my season had
ended.
Emotions rushed heavily into my body and I
didn’t know what to think. My amateur career was over. From
the time I could walk I was playing soccer. Thousands of hours had
been put into my life playing soccer from youth to club to high
school to college. And that all ended in that very moment. I love
the game of soccer and when I’m out there on that field in
practice or games, nothing else matters. You’re out there
with your friends kicking it around and not worrying about anything
outside those lines. I’ve had a fantastic three years here
(after transferring in as a sophomore) and appreciate the
opportunity to come here and play. I’ve made some great
friends on this team and I know we will all keep in touch
throughout the years.
I would like to thank my parents for coming to
about every game I’ve ever played in and always supporting
me. My grandparents and aunt, uncle, cousins, and my brother and
sister for the support. I want to thank the coaching staff for
making me a better player and the trainers for always helping out,
especially Allison. And I just noticed I could keep this list going
and going for a while. But, everyone knows if they would have been
mentioned. Thanks for reading this year and have a good life. Root
for the Ravens baby, and O’s in the Spring!
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2009 - 12:30 PM
It was another
spectacular weekend with two wins for our squad and even a victory
for the Ravens squad. Yet, I do admit it was a terribly boring game
to watch.
If you guys didn’t know, we are hosting
the Sweet 16 and Elite 8 here at YORK! Also, I would like to inform
you all that I received an “A” in my soccer class,
which my mom was very proud of. I would have stayed true to my
promise in the first or second blog that I would have quit soccer
if I had not received an “A” in a sports class that
I’ve been playing since I could walk. Thank you all for the
support the student body, friends, family, alumni, and faculty gave
us this weekend in our first and second round games.
The night before we were able to go to a local
Italian Restaurant called Sam and Tony’s, which had some
fabulous meatballs. It was good for the team to get together and
have a nice meal before our game on Saturday morning. In our first
round game, we played Cazenovia College from NY. We didn’t
know much about them but figured they would play a defensive game.
Yet, we got on the board early with a head ball from Antonio Bua to
put us up 1-0. After that, Lucas Emil hit a bomb in which the
keeper couldn’t handle and it was an easy rebound for me to
put away. A lot of the alumni have been complaining about the lack
of celebrations present after goals. They’re tired of seeing
the running around with your arms up until someone tackles you
approach. So after my goal, Mike Gill decided to knight me with the
corner flag. Hopefully, it was to the liking of the alumni, but I
know the referees did not like it and told us to not let it happen
again. Shortly after that Antonio and I were able to team up again
for a give and go pass in which he netted to make it 3-0. A lot of
the starters were able to rest up in the second half and the
reserves got valuable minutes and they played really well. Mike
Lansing was able to score two goals and Matt Swiderski was able to
net one for a final score of 6-0.
Once again we went to Sam and Tony’s
because it was so good the first time and got another quality meal
in Saturday night. We knew we had a strong opponent to face on
Sunday in Amherst and we knew that they wanted some revenge because
we knocked them out of the tournament two years ago. I was really
upset at the fact that all of their players were tall. Most of them
were easily six-foot and above. I’m barely pushing 5’
8” and even saying that is a stretch. I was frustrated during
the Amherst game because they had someone follow me around
everywhere! Even if they were on offense, this kid was following me
around. I was trying every juke move in the middle of the field to
try to get away from him. Not fun! Luckily, Kemal and Antonio were
able to link up and Antonio slotted one into the back of the net to
take a 1-0 lead before half. Very early in the second half I was
able to win a head ball (Yes, I won it fair and square) and Kemal
was able to rush past their defense to put away the ball for a 2-0
lead. For the rest of the half we were able to maintain possession
and run out the clock to get the win and advance to the Sweet
16!
Please come out again and support our squad as
we take on Williams College, the rivals of Amherst College. The
game is on Saturday at 11 AM I presume. If we’re lucky enough
to win, we play on Sunday. Thanks for reading.
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2009 - 2:20 PM
It was a great week
this week with the CAC tourney that went underway along with the
NCAA tournament schedule coming out. Although the Ravens did lose
again which I was really upset about, yet the CAC title made up for
that.
I was very happy with the fan support this
weekend for the championship game against Stevenson. Thanks to
everyone that was out their supporting and I’m sure if you
weren’t there, you wanted to be. We knew going into the
game that it was going to be a physical battle because of our
previous match with them. Also, we saw the amount of fouls that
Stevenson had against Salisbury and knew they were going to do
anything possible to try to get us off our game. Luckily, our team
kept our cool and were able to walk away from several fouls that
took place. We hopped on the board in the first half with a goal
from Mike O’Connell who blasted it into the back of the net.
It was 1-0 at half and we knew we needed more goals to finish the
game off. We didn’t want to come out lightly and let them
back into it. In the second half, Brett Sauerberger was able to
connect on a corner kick from Lucas Emil to make it 2-0. With about
three minutes left they got a goal and after that we knew we had to
hold the ball and not give up any stupid goals. When that final
whistle blew, I couldn’t have been more happy. My first and
last CAC in my senior year… You can’t explain it. A
good way to go out on top and finish the CAC’s.
Our parents decided to take many pictures and
we were able to talk to many of the alumni about the victory. Brian
Carr and Kyle Brooten brought us crowns from Burger King to
solidify our team's spot as “Kings of the CAC”.
On Monday, I was checking my computer and phone
in class the whole time just refreshing the website waiting for it
to be posted and finally the official bracket came out for the NCAA
tournament and we drew Cazenovia from NY. I hadn’t heard much
about them but I was able to check their website and they seem to
be a solid squad. Anyone who makes it into the tournament is going
to test you, so were going to have to bring our “A”
game no matter what everyday.
We’ve been practicing hard for Saturday
and hopefully the hard work will pay off. The game is on Saturday
at 11:00 AM against Cazenovia! Please make it out and support us
since its our first round NCAA tournament game. Thanks!
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 2009 - 11:05 PM
I’m glad I
can blog about the Ravens again after they had lost three straight.
Now they’re back on track by smashing the undefeated Broncos.
And on a more serious note with the World Series, there
couldn’t be two worse teams in it. Half my teammates are
Philly fans and no one likes the Yankees. I wish it could end in a
tie or replace one of the teams with the O’s. Next year is
the O’s year, which is our slogan every year about 30 games
in.
Also, I attended Midnight Madness along with
some of the other soccer players to see the basketball teams do
work on the court. I can’t wait to see their season start
because I’d like to see both of those teams play and do well.
It’s good to have other sports teams support each other. I
know I see a lot of the other teams at our games and hopefully we
can show the same support for them.
In the soccer world though, we just had a
nice victory over Mary Washington in the CAC semifinal. We knew
going into this game that Mary Washington was a solid team. We tied
them 0-0 earlier, about two weeks ago at their place where it was
rainy and cold. Last year we were upset by Wesley in PK’s and
we didn’t want to make the same mistake last year. Taking
into consideration that I haven’t won a CAC title since
I’ve been here, I definitely wanted to give 110% to try and
win this one. Early on Kemal has a nice ball played into him and
then he gave me a nice through ball which I was able to run on to
and place in the net for the 1-0 lead. Later in the half, a great
individual effort by Antonio Bua with a toe-poke into the goal gave
us the 2-0 lead going into halftime. Early into the second half, a
PK was given to Mary Washington in which they converted to make it
2-1. Shortly after, a throw in by Andy Stromberg into the box left
Mike Gill slashing through to head it past the keeper for a 3-1
lead. Right after that, Kemal was able to draw a PK in which he
then converted to make it a final score of 4-1. Overall, a pretty
good game for us in which I thought we played up to our standard
for a good part of the game.
When I came off the field, I had heard that
Stevenson had upset the #1 seed Salisbury at their place. I
didn’t believe it until it had been confirmed between many
people. Stevenson is a good team in which they can upset many teams
and can’t be taken lightly. They almost upset us at their
field, but we came out on top 2-1. And I know with the CAC title on
the line, they’ll be ready for us. Were practicing hard this
week and getting ready for Saturday.
The CAC CHAMPIONSHIP is here at YORK at 2 PM on
SATURDAY. Be there! Please come out and support us in the CAC title
match against Stevenson. It could quite possibly be our last home
game. Thanks!
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2009 - 11:35 PM
I’m sorry I
haven’t had a blog in about ten days or so, but I have a good
reason for it, I promise; read on. You see, I am a student-athlete.
Actually let me rephrase that in purpose for this blog. I am a
student-athlete-blogger. As some of you may know who attend this
school, all of the teachers decided to pile as many tests and
papers on us as possible right before break! Last week I had a
presentation on Monday, a five page paper due on Tuesday, a test on
Wednesday, a group 12 page paper due and THREE tests on Thursday. I
was pretty busy that week and as a student-athlete-blogger, school
comes before soccer, and soccer before blogging. I’m sorry. I
know many of you were anxiously waiting for my next blog, just like
how a little kid on Christmas Eve waits for Christmas morning.
On a serious note though, being a
student-athlete really teaches you how to manage your time between
school, sports, work, friends, family, and etc. You have to
prioritize what you do and when you do it. As much as I want to
watch new episodes of The Office and South Park, sometimes I must
buckle down and get some work done. And now I make a proposal for
the school board, which I hope they take into consideration. I know
the student-athletes will agree with me on this one. Why do
student-athletes have to take Physical Education classes????? It
doesn’t make sense to me! We already put in at least fourteen
hours of our sports a week, if not more. Our athletic director,
Sean Sullivan and the Dean/President should meet and discuss this
possibly. Good idea?
And now to soccer! I’ll touch on each
game shortly with a slight synopsis. We traveled to Wesley on a
cold/rainy day and came out with a 4-1 win. Good win for us, since
they upset us in the CAC semifinals last year on PK’s. We had
Rutgers-Camden the next game and it was a nail-biter in the end
because they tied it up with less then 3 minutes left. But, Travis
Williams came to the rescue and netted the go-ahead goal to win
3-2. We traveled to Mary Washington this past weekend on their
homecoming and it was freezing and raining. Those two combinations
are never good. Their fans were pretty intense and probably
intoxicated because I heard about every cuss word, diss, and mother
insults possible. We ended up tying 0-0, which was a disappointing
result and we could have done better.
Hopefully, we can learn from our mistakes in
these games and carry them into the upcoming games to get better
results. We have Johns Hopkins (who the Spartans ended up tying
0-0) and St. Mary’s on Saturday at home, which is our senior
game. I hope you can make it out for the senior game to support the
seniors and I. Sorry for the late blog again, come out to the game,
wish us luck, and have a good week!
Sincerely,
Your
student-athlete-blogger
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2009 - 3:30 PM
It was a pretty
packed week this week with three matches and several practices. On
Tuesday, we had to travel to Marymount which is in the D.C. area I
believe. Traffic of course was awful going up and back, but its
D.C., what do you expect. The game started off well with Mike Gill
notching his first goal of the season early in the first half. It
was a pretty physical match which had a lot of fouls called but we
were able to put in two more goals before the game ended. Trey Good
went down in the first half with a knee problem and he ended up
tearing his ACL. You never want to see anyone on any team get any
kind of injury, especially one that puts you out for six months.
Mike O’Connell did that last year and my brother went through
that twice in years before. It’s just unlucky and it’s
a shame to see such good players sidelined for a prolonged period
of time.
The very next day we had to play Gallaudet. If
you guys don’t know, Gallaudet is a school for the deaf and
if a foul is called during a game, everyone puts up there hands to
signal to them to stop the play. Their bus broke down and arrived
late to the field. I was able to score a minute and thirty seconds
into this game and came out right after that. We ended up netting
six more and the game was stopped 20 minutes early due to darkness.
This was a good game for us because everyone got to play a
substantial amount of minutes.
It was alumni weekend this past weekend and I
was able to see a bunch of my old soccer buddies such as, Matt
Beale (I’m the godfather of his son), Mike Nantais, Evan
Scheffy, Chris Ports (not biologically related), Jason Mancuso,
Rudy, Duffy, and several others. We watched the odd year vs even
year alumni play each other early on Saturday and it was fun to see
some of the old alumni from the 90’s and 2000’s play
with each other.
We played CNU on Saturday and before the game
we were walked out by the FC York kids. It was cool since I was
able to walk out with my cousin Colton Mumley who dons his locks
just like me. We ended up suffering a 1-0 loss, our first of the
season. They converted on a corner kick and we were unable to rally
back and tie it up. We had some good opportunities, but our final
passes weren’t connecting. Their organized defense certainly
helped them keep the clean sheet. At halftime, the 1998 team who
won the first CAC championship for York College soccer was honored.
They were able to come in and talk to us before the game and gave
us some insight on what they thought. They were very appreciative
and happy with the team’s success over the years and
it’s nice to know that they follow us and are checking up on
how we are doing.
The 1998 team left there legacy by winning the
first CAC championship and my brother and his class left a legacy
of probably becoming one of the classes to have the most wins in
there career in four years. What legacy will my class and the
classes after me leave for the future teams? And better yet,
individually, what legacies will we leave in life for our family,
friends, and workers? Everyone wants to be remembered, but for
what? Got a little philosophical, but I felt it was the right
time.
Come out Wednesday and support us against
MESSIAH! Always a classic game. Then on Saturday we travel to
Wesley to hopefully resurrect some revenge from the CAC semifinal
last year.
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2009 - 2:15 PM
Once again, it was
another good week for football because the Ravens absolutely killed
the Browns. Also, the Steelers lost to…the BENGALS?? Nice.
And Mike Lansing’s, Ryan Hock’s, and Mike
O’Connell’s Redskins lost to the worst team in
football, Detroit. So now the Redskins could be the worst team in
the league. Yes!
We had two good days of practice on Monday and
Tuesday and headed into our game with Stevenson on Wednesday. It
was about an hour drive to the Maryland-based school, which I may
add is a great state to live in and be a part of. Not that I am
biased or anything. We started off the game slow and somewhat
underestimated our opponents and they tucked an early one in to
take a very early lead. We then battered their goal with about a
dozen shots in the first half and couldn’t net one. Early in
the second half I was able to hit a shot that the keeper deflected
right to Travis Williams that he easily netted to tie the game.
With 2 minutes left, Travis rewarded me with a nice pass that I was
able to chip over one of the defenders with the goalie out to take
the 2-1 lead to win it. I was so happy I was finally able to score
because I had been in a little drought! Decent game for us but not
our best and we knew we had to do better.
Sore from the game before, most of the starters
didn’t practice a lot and watched some video from the
Stevenson game and examined our mistakes and good opportunities.
And then most of us got in the freezing cold whirlpool. So cold!
First couple minutes of that is terrorizing and when you finally
get out, your legs feel like they’re crumbling. Fridays
practice we talked about the upcoming game against Salisbury and
what we had to do to be successful.
Saturday came and we were up against our
rivals, Salisbury. Some of the people from Sport Management were
able to get a big student section together to march down to the
field which was very nice and I hope they continue that. Salisbury
got on the board first with goal and took a 1-0 lead into halftime.
We fought back in the second half and were able to get goals from
Scott Becker and Kemal to take the 2-1 lead. From then on out, we
tried to defend a little bit and keep them from scoring the tying
goal. But, in the last two minutes they were able to squeeze a goal
in to make it 2-2. Then after two overtimes it still remained
scoreless and the game ended in a tie. It was a bummer to tie our
rivals, but we have to move on and get prepared for the next game.
Some of the parents after the game had a nice setup of foods for us
under the pavilion even though it was raining, but it was still
very nice.
I felt like I didn’t have my best
performance on Saturday and was upset with myself. Its typical to
hear from my family or someone after a game, “Good
game.” But, I knew I didn’t have my best and I
haven’t had my best season yet. I am my harshest critic and
if I have a bad game, I get on myself and try to find out how to
get better and improve. Hopefully, I find my way and start netting
some goals soon! We have three games this week: Tuesday is away at
Marymount, Wednesday is home vs. Gallaudet, and Saturday is Alumni
weekend and we play St. Mary’s. Wish us luck!
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2009 - 8:15 PM
Hi again and as you guys may know, we
had a pretty good week. Not only in soccer though. The Ravens
football team won their game on both Sundays that they played and
are 2-0. Yes, I am a loyal Ravens fans and you can try to talk all
the trash you want. I don’t care! And I’m guessing the
Philly and Pittsburg fans won’t be reading this anymore!
I’m a Baltimore boy and gotta root for the home team. Yes,
even the O’s. Yet, I’ll probably never see them make
the playoffs in my lifetime.
So after two good practices on Monday and
Tuesday, we were prepared for our game against Kean on Wednesday.
We started our warm-up and as the clock was ticking down to the
start of the game, but the other team still wasn’t at the
field. Finally, they arrived about 10-15 minutes late and had
little time to warm-up. We came out and netted two in the first
half. Then in the second half we scored one late in the game to end
the game at 3-0. It wasn’t our best performance of the
season, but we did enough to get the result.
I was upset after the game because I took
a tackle to the knee, which put me out for most of the second half.
And I hate sitting out on the sidelines. I’m too competitive
to watch from the side. My new patella contusion as Allison Kunkel
classified it, put me out of practice for the most part for the
next two days. I had to do some rehab, ice, bike, and stretch it
out for those two days to get it better for the game on Saturday.
And the knee injury really made me mad because it made it hard to
put socks and shoes on in the morning.
School decided to hit me hard this week.
My teachers decided to give me an eight page paper, a presentation,
and a test all on Friday. I pretty much had to spend all my time
working on one of these things and it made me miserable. Saturday
finally came and my knee was feeling fairly better then it did
before. We were playing Stevens Tech, a team that had lost [on
penalty kicks] in the national finals the year before. I thought we
held a good bit of the play and Antonio Bua was able to net a
deflected ball to take a 1-0 lead. We were able to keep this lead
for the second half to get the win. Overall, a solid win for the
team which took our record to 5-0-1.
After the game we had a nice little
buffet meal of sandwiches and desserts to eat. I got to speak with
a lot of the alumni afterwards including Kyle Brooten, Evan
Scheffey, Kurt Lane, my brother, and even Mike Nantais who drove
all the way from Christiana Mall in Delaware to watch.
Later that night, a bunch of us were able to
watch the Mayweather vs. Marquez boxing fight which was pretty
entertaining even though Mayweather never knocks anyone out.
Anyway, we have a game at Stevenson on
Wednesday, and a home game against SALISBURY on SATURDAY! Always a
big rival game and be sure to heckle my friends Justin McGrath,
Kyle Sterling, and the goalie Greg Wellinghoff. Should be a good
one, hope to see you out!
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2009 - 1:45 PM
This whole week at
practice most of the team focus was on finishing, movement in the
offensive end of the field and our defensive shape. Every single
day after practice, a couple others and I stayed after practice to
work on some shooting with the keepers. I know one day we had
practice at 2 pm and I didn’t get back to my house until 6
pm. Long hours were spent this week on shooting and trying to get
better. I was just hoping that it would payoff in the games in
Greensboro this past weekend. And it did.
After classes and a practice on Friday, we left
York around 4 pm on a coach bus headed for North Carolina. Once
again, it was hard to get comfortable, but I made it work by
switching up laying on the floor and the chair with a pillow and
comforter. Yes, some of you may be thinking that’s gross
lying on the floor and you may judge me, but don’t knock it
until you try it! It was extremely comfortable and the vibration
from the road was like a mini back rub. We watched some Family
Guy episodes as well as Saving Silverman, which I
hadn’t seen in like five years. Jack Black makes the movie
pure class. We ended up arriving to our hotel probably around
midnight, I guess.
The room had two nice beds and a sweet 50 inch
flat screen TV. We woke up early the next morning and were able to
eat the continental breakfast, which was real good. I love the
waffle makers personally. We then went back to the rooms and got
ready to leave for our first game against NC Wesleyan.
We came out strong early and drew two penalty
kicks off of myself and Kemal being tackled in the box. We missed
one and had Travis Williams convert the other for the 1-0 lead. It
came to halftime and we knew we had to put another goal in soon to
diminish the other teams spirits. Yet, halfway through the second
half, they converted on a ball that we cleared to the top of the
box and the kid had a nice finish. 1-1. With about 3 minutes left a
ball was played overtop where Kemal flicked it on through the
defense to me. I was one-on-one with the keeper and was able to
tuck it passed him. I was happy because it was my first tally on
the season and I was glad that staying after everyday to work on
shooting paid off. The game ended up with a 2-1 victory.
Later that day we went to Olive Garden where
the coaches set up a nice meal with never ending pasta bowls. I ate
way too much. But, it was too good to stop eating!
The next day we played Greensboro College in
which we scored four goals by O’Connell, Brummitt, Lucas, and
Travis again. It was a good game for us because our offense started
to click more and we were able to convert our opportunities. We won
the tournament and decided to dump coach with the water cooler.
On the way back we got to stop at Arby’s,
Bojangles, or McDonalds. Considering that I haven’t been to
Bojangles before I decided to try it out and was fairly impressed.
B+. We watched Orange County and Slumdog
Millionaire on the way back. I was really upset at Slumdog
Millionaire because you can’t read captions on a
twelve-inch tv from four seats back! We ended up getting back at 1
am and I went straight to bed. It was a lonnggggg trip.
AND WE FINALLY HAVE A HOME GAME!!!! Come out on
Wednesday and Saturday when we play Kean and Stevens Tech. Bring
some friends, paint your bodies, heckle the opposing team to an
extent, and cheer us on!
Thanks for reading.
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2009 - 3:00 PM
We had our first
game on Tuesday night against Susquehanna at Millville High School
where Coach Ludwig graduated from. Everyone was amped for the game
and ready to come out flying. Even with that mentality we came off
to a slow start in the first half, but still had the edge in shots.
After the other team received a red card in the second half Kemal
received a ball from Travis Williams and hit a nice shot above the
keeper to take the lead. After that I felt we dominated the game
and should have scored a lot more opportunities from close in. The
team ended up with a 1-0 victory. All in all the team got to play
with each other more and we could hopefully take some chemistry
into the next game.
Although I am glad that preseason is done for
us, taking six classes and having to wake up at 7 AM for 8 AM
classes on Tuesday and Thursday is upsetting. But, I guess having
my sixth class as soccer, I can’t complain. If I don’t
get an A in that class, I’ll hang up the boots for life.
As a minor side note, I would like to point out freshman newcomer
Michael Lansing donned a sick mullet for about a week. Then he got
embarrassed and tired of wearing a hood for the first two days of
classes and cut it. Yet, I think the look fit him quite well and
should have kept it. It would have helped his chances of finding a
girlfriend.
Our next game was against Medaille, which is in
Buffalo, NY. We left Saturday morning at 7:30 AM for a nice
seven-hour bus ride. The movie selections were “The
Hangover” and “Lord of War.” We got there early
and got to spend an hour at Niagara Falls taking pictures. I was
able to go back the next day with my family and go on the
“Maid of the Mist” boat ride where you ride down near
the falls. Needless to say, I got soaked!
(The team) drove back through Buffalo to the
field and got prepared for our game. It was a tough game and after
the first half, it was level at 0-0. Once again, we held the edge
in shots. In the second half, Aaron Good played a nice ball into
Mike O’Connell who neatly tucked it into the corner for the
1-0 lead. Later in the game the other team received a soft PK call
in which they converted to tie it 1-1. We bombarded the goal again
with shots, but couldn’t finish them. The game ended in a tie
and it was disappointing because it was a game we could have won
had we finished our opportunities. I think were going to work on a
lot of finishing this week since we could have easily had scored 8
goals in between the 2 games.
We leave Friday for two games against
Greensboro and NC Wesleyan, both of which were in the NCAA
tournament last year. Wish us luck if you happen to see us pass by
and I’ll have an update soon. Have fun in classes!
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 2009 - 1:45 PM
This is my first
time in the blogging world other than checking up on Andy Milonakis
and Chad Ochocinco on twitter, so don’t judge me! And I guess
blogging isn’t a word since it comes up on spell check,
unless I’m spelling it wrong.
The whole team minus the freshman just came
back from a relaxing and amazing trip to Italy in early August. We
vistited Chioggia, Venice, Florence, Pisa, and Rome. Whenever you
would walk to a main tourist attraction at each place your jaw
would drop in fascination. There is just so much beauty and history
there, it was crazy! Yet, I could have done without the gypsies
asking for money every second, the fake purse and sunglasses
sellers, and the guy that wanted me to buy his brass knuckles. The
food was amazing though, yet I could have done without eating ham
sandwiches for breakfast EVERY single morning. Gets kind of old and
it’s not breakfast food! Give me some Captain Crunch or a
S’mores Pop-Tart. All in all, it was the best trip of our
lives and a great team bonding experience.
Everyone had to report to preseason for the
fitness test on the first day. Bright and early we awoke to hit the
track. We had to run 1.5 miles on 9 minutes, 3 laps separately in
80 seconds each and 2 half laps separately in 40 seconds. Right
after the test we had practice in which no one could really move
too fluently. Not a fun morning. It was a sigh of relief for the
seniors and I afterwards because we knew that was the last fitness
test we had to do at York College! For about one and half weeks
we’ve had two practices a day. One at 8:30 am and the other
at 6:30 pm, all with pool sessions and eating at (Johnson Dinning
Hall) in between. (Johnson Dining Hall) was providing us with the
healthy food that we needed to re-energize our bodies for that next
practice…
Now we prepare for our first game against
Susquehanna on Tuesday night. Hopefully the team comes together and
meshes we'll to get the W. Wish us luck and I’ll have another
update soon!
