By Robert Rainier Spaulding, Journal contributor
It was Friday Oct. 25, Halloween creeping up, and it felt like it. The game didn’t start until 4:30 p.m., and by half time it was nearly dark. Friday was a lot cooler than Thursday when the girls team played. It had almost a glum feeling with the shift in weather. That didn’t stop the fans from coming out in droves to see the Wolverines play!
The game started pretty slow (at least in terms of goal scoring), but it was a lot of back and forth mostly in the middle of the field. At one point we broke away and took a shot but Cedar Park’s goalie blocked it with ease. For a good ten minutes after that it was pure passing back and forth, amazing foot work by both teams and it was quickly becoming a very defensive game.
Then, the Wolverines broke away towards their goal again but the kick is missed by about two feet and the score was still 0-0. Right after that Cedar Park did the same, they made it past your defense and took a shot but nothing! the Wolverines goalie saved it. This went on until it was twenty minutes left in the half and still 0-0.
That’s when things changed. Cedar Park offense seemed to come alive a little more and the Wolverines were holding them down by their goal until Friday Harbor finally got one in. Making the score 1-0 Wolverines. Then shortly afterwards Friday Harbor got another goal making it 2-0.
Unfortunately, following that there was a foul on a Cedar Park player resulting in a kick and score. Bringing the score to 1-1. At this point. there were only 18 minutes left in the half. It was around this time that everyone had a collective scare, as a Wolverine player went down hard in what looked like a head-to-head collision. Luckily he was ok after a few minutes and the game continued.
The first half ended with the Wolverines leading somewhat comfortably with a 2-0 scor. At half-time that Wolverines lost some fans as it was getting dark and cold quickly and honestly it looked like a safe bet that Friday Harbor would win.
Then, the whole attitude of this game changed again, but all of a sudden Cedar Park got hyped up and started making some pretty great plays. They scored their first goal by simply using one player to get the ball and run down an empty field and score on the goalie. The score now is 2-1. Not long after that goal, the Wolverines got the ball worked all the down and scored one more goal! 3-1 Wolverines. However, something had changed in the beginning of the second half. Almost like deja vu, just one player from Cedar Park takes took ball from one side of the field all the way down and scores. 3-2 Wolverines still up but there are twenty-one minutes left.
The rest of the half was very evenly matched, running up and down the field, Cedar Park hoping for overtime, while the Wolverines were looking to put this game away. With Three minutes left in the game Cedar Park scores and it is a tie game. It’s 3-3 with three minutes to go. Nothing happens with those remaining minutes, and overtime it is!
Overtime in soccer is very simple for those that don’t know, it’s two, five-minute halves and whoever scores first wins. Well On this dark cold Friday evening, Cedar Park took the ball away from us and scored pretty quickly in overtime, leaving them the winning team.
Although this ended as a loss for the Wolverines, they played so hard and are definitely not a team to be taken lightly. They are warriors.
The next game takes place in Mount Vernon when they take on the Mount Vernon Christians Nov. 2 at 3 p.m.
