As the last long seconds of the championship game have finally ticked off the clock, we can reflect on the season which has just ended. The Fall Fusion tournament clearly capped a successful three months of playing. A 1-0 finals victory against a premier team from Illinois on a Tori Stevens’ PK after Cassie had been dragged down from behind, was a testament to how hard these girls work and never give up. The same team had defeated us early Saturday morning 2-1 using tremendous ball skills and teamwork. We knew we had to win our next two games to play in the finals and we did, defeating a premier level team Saturday afternoon on Cassie’s two goals in the last four minutes of the game, and then coming out to beat the host team 2-1 on Sunday which set the stage for the hard fought win in the finals against a superior team.

The season had started in Muncie as we came home with not only a second place tournament trophy, but more importantly with an idea of how we needed to compete at this next level on the big field.

Between the bookend tournaments, we swept the competition at the AA level finishing with a record of 10-0-0, and giving up but three goals. A highlight was playing a Friday night game under the lights at McCutcheon. Several games were close to the end, however, and at least two were decided in the last minute of the game, again showing that you need to play hard until the referee blows the final whistle.

(click to enlarge)