The Kyyote's Howl

She’s as cute as a bug’s ear, not much bigger than that, but tougher than a two dollar steak.  In addition to shin guards, she should wear boxing gloves, because make no mistake, behind the big, disarming smile, is a warrior.  She isn’t the girl you see blasting the ball past the opposing goalie.  She’s the girl who mugged the opposing player, took the ball, and the player’s lunch money, and passed the ball to the girl who blasted the shot past the opposing girl.  If you see a mob or just two or three girls pushing, scratching, clawing, and kicking, she will be the one that comes out with the ball.  If there is a loose ball in her area, she has already filed a claim on it, and you better not get in her way if you value you health.  Like I said, she’s as cute as a bug’s ear.

When I told her she looked like a body puncher out there, she chuckled sweetly, and said. “I’ll do whatever I can for my teammates.  Like slide, and make a tackle, if that’s what it takes, I’ll do it.  Everybody pitches in.  Everyone does their part.  So, it makes it a lot easier.  Everyone has their role.  It’s fun.”

Everytime you talk to the girls on the soccer team, two things stand out.  First, they are humble, and are very good at deflecting praise to others, and two, they deflect the praise to others, because they are a team.  They think in terms of the team.  Goals are almost always scored by the one who, after all of the other girls had done all of the work, was just lucky enough to have had the last touch.

I pressed Azia about her role as a hub in the center of the wheel.  Again, she laughed, softly, when I said that she was such a battler out there, and wasn’t one getting a lot of glory, but was the one who was feeding the ball to those who do.

“I am fine with that!”, she said, emphatically.  “To be honest, I am totally fine with just passing it off to the forwards and letting them get the glory.  That’s fine with me.  Anything that I can do to help the team.  They always help me.  So, it works out.”

As I said, it is all about the team, with these girls.

“Yep.  Exactly.  It’s a team effort,” said Azia.

The girls from Northern Colorado had no intention of getting into a shootout.  In their six games, they had only scored three times, and had only given up 8 goals.

The Miners  hadn’t been having any trouble generating offense, but have had some trouble getting their shots into the net.

The Northern Colorado girls came wheeling out in their war wagon with their muzzleloaders sticking out of tiny shooting windows, looking for easy targets to take pot shots at.

The Miners came out on ponies, packing shotguns, circling the wagon, looking to blast their way in.

Well, OK, that’s not the truth.  There wasn’t any war wagon, ponies, muzzle loaders, or shotguns.  There were pot shots and blasts, though.

The Bears came out firing, and sent a long ball that bounced off of the crossbar in the first minute of play, and then another ball sailed wide of the Miners’ goal.

The play moved back and forth from one end to the other, early on.  Then, Brittany Kindzierski went on a long run down the right side before sending the ball to a waiting Katie Dorman who eased the ball into the left side of the net.  With five and a half minutes gone, the Miners had the 1-0 lead.

Tori Martyn dumped a great pass down to Tess Hall and her shot just missed.

But, the Bears didn’t have any quit in them.  They kept coming back to the Miners’ end of the pitch.  They only took 3 shots, that first half, but two of those were saves by Sarah Dilling, and they forced four corner kicks.

In that first half, the Miners took eight shots, and forced two corner kicks.  The Bears’ Kirsten Salimen made two saves, and allowed the one goal.

The second half saw the teams move into each other’s end of the field, with shots and corner kicks being traded back and forth.

At one point, the ball emerged from a tangle of players just in front of the Miners’ goal, headed for the net.  Quick feet, and solid defense on the part of Kenah Linger kept if from going in, and Kenah sent it safely out of the area.

Lauren Katada sent a perfect pass to a waiting Tess Hall, who blasted it toward the Northern Colorado goal.  A diving save by Salimen kept it from getting through.

A long kick from Kenah Linger was sent deep into the box, and Tess Hall headed it just to the right of the goal.

The Bears kept fighting back, though.  Like a fighter who is being out boxed, they kept throwing haymakers of their own.  The team was under assault, but was still dangerous.

But, with 19 minutes left, Tori Martyn sent a long pass ahead to a streaking Mackenzie German.  German touched it two or three times, setting up the goalkeeper, and then drilled at the ball into the right corner.

That second goal only increased the urgency in the Northern Colorado attack.

The Bears sent their girls at the goal, and a ball rolled into the back of the net.  The Northern Colorado girls were still celebrating when the referee signal that there had been a foul called, and the goal was erased.

Down at the other end of the pitch Lauren Katada was fouled, and before anyone could set their defense, she sent her free kick at the goal, bouncing it hard off of the crossbar.

In the second half, the Bears took 6 shots and forced three more corner kicks.  The Miners took another 9 shots in the second half, and forced two corner kicks.

Katie Dorman said, after the match, “They were strong!  They were feisty.  They came out hard.  It took us a while to put them away, and get that second goal.  Props to them for working hard the whole game.”

Well, as long as we’re handing out props, the Miners have some coming.  The Miners are now 5-2.  They are perfect at home.  When I say perfect, I mean perfect.  They haven’t lost, but more impressive than that, they haven’t allowed a ball to touch the back of their net.  The Miners are 14-0 in goals scored and goals scored against at University Field, this season.