Thursdays of late have been focused on teaching the players to challenge their marks, and to move the ball up the field to their teammates. On this Sunday, the U11s took to the field stoked to be featured in the mid-day time slot so their ever-growing skills could be seen by all. And, as a testament to their improvement, both the Comfort Keeper Ravens and the Swick Tech Terrors were even fiercer in their pursuit of the play.
Hovering around the midfield, Raven Brodie “Frogger” Conklyn was grabbing every sliotar that came near him like he had glue on his hands. Just as swift as he was plucking them out of the air, Frogger was finding his outlet, Aiden “Bones” Chojnacki to keep the Comfort Keepers moving. Powerful forward play by Gabe “Angel” Meller allowed the Ravens to poke holes in the Terrors’ defense and netted a goal to get the scoring started.
The rest of the half became a crazy defensive dash as time after time, players were swarming to the ball and smothering the attackers. The hardest fought match-ups seemed to be between brother and sister combo Anna “Straight Shot” and Anthony “Toes” Wozniak, though. Neither sibling was giving an inch! The Comfort Keepers were tenacious though and after a long scoring drought, the Ravens were able to roll another over the line to go up by two goals at the half.
After some much needed hydration, the two teams were right back at it. For Swick Tech, Calvin “Hobbes” McKee was like a wall, allowing nothing to slip by his protective pocket. His puck-outs were something to be seen as well, covering nearly three quarters of the field. The Comfort Keepers were locking down their end with Killian “Red” Mosur and Tiernan “Toothless” Moloney working the back line. None of the typical pointing that is common for this group was allowed, as both teams were forcing each other to do it the hard way up close.
A Game of Goals and Guts
by Jason Kirkpatrick
photo credit: Kerry Leonard