Coach Pat's U10 Boys Open With a Win!

     With Joe, Luke and Drew taking the lead, the U10 boys opened with an impressive nine goal performance.  They faced a Blessed Sacrament squad that was no push-over in terms of their aggressiveness and basic competence and yet the determination of our boys to maintain possession of the ball, even in defense, made it difficult for their opponents to find any shooting opportunities for most of the game.  Here is the rundown of our scoring:

Joe put in three by my count.
Drew had three.
Luke had two, one of which was a solid left-footer.
Kaleb put one in on a free kick.

     The referee thought we had ten total but my notes only show nine.  I may have missed one near the end.  The other team did manage a bit of a run towards the end when we altered our line-up a bit and I'm glad they did.  It was a fun game with both teams maintaining a very up-beat attitude throughout despite plenty of very physical play.

     The big highlight of the game has to be Braden's performance in keeper during the first half.  He was totally engaged the whole twenty two minutes and played brilliantly.  Most impressive were his outlet passes which were thoughtful and accurate and were mostly leading his teammates right into scoring drives.

     I saw lots of great skill work from everyone and we'll keep encouraging that.  On the small field the "three lines" rule applies to all players, not just the keeper, so clearing kicks from defense have to land in the mid-field area to avoid a penalty.  The consistent result is that clearing kicks are just turn-overs.  Our team's style of defense, to trap the ball and try to dribble out into the mid, is much more effective on that field.  Next weekend we play on the big field so we'll probably see the boys adapt by passing more often and over greater distances with some clearing of the ball being a necessity.  That will be interesting.

     See you next Sunday at 2:40 PM on the Large field.  The turf on that field is good for turf shoes or cleats.