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Tonight's game was our most important of the season. Lose and our season ends this Saturday with an all-day tournament in Neenah. Win and our season is extended by one week so that we can have a rematch with the only team to beat us so far this year.

Before the game, however, the drama of coaching middle school sports resurfaced. Of our 19 player roster, two players have not been to a practice or a game in several weeks now. 5 more players were in after-school study hall (mandatory after missing enough assignments). This left us with 12 players and needing to start another new player in goal.

To add to this, 24 minutes before the start of the game I remembered that my ref for the game told me last week that he would not be able to ref tonight's game. I'd like to say that this is one of the reasons I keep my whistle and stopwatch in my car and an extra uniform and shorts at every game, but it just ended up being fortunate I had these things. So- for the second time in three years- I was referee for my own team's game.

This opponent, much like several of our opponents this year, had to dip all the way down to 4th graders to field a team. But they had several girls who looked like they have played before and, probably, the best individual player we have played against this season.

Our opponent came out in a very odd formation of goalie + 4 defenders back, a huge empty space, and then 6 forwards. This lead to us getting several attacks early with a lot of momentum behind them, but our shots were off target or their keeper made some nice saves. Eventually, though, we broke through with a couple goals near the 5 and 10 minute mark of the first half. We held off their two strongest attacks to lead 2-0 at half time.

We started the second half off scoring in the first minute and then again a few minutes later on a beautiful upper-90 goal from our 8th grade forward. Then we switched up our lines to give our girls another shot at some offensive action. While they got a couple good looks, it was a 6th grade boy who knocked in our 5th and final goal. The last 5 or so minutes was back and forth in the middle until the clock ran out and we won, 5-0. This secures our second place finish and a place in the conference championship game for the second straight year.

Based on our first encounter with regular season champ, we will have to prepare better than we have so far this year and play our best soccer - which I do not feel we have done yet. Hopefully, three games in one day on Saturday will better prepare us for the rematch.