United
Quest Blue
'85 Athena (U-14)
- Spring 2000 Game 9 -
Lost 2-1 vs. Tophat 04 Navy
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United
Quest Blue |
This page was last updated on May 24, 2000.
Game 9 vs. Tophat 04 Navy:
This is the Quest's first game against Tophat 04 Navy. The Navy team is the #2 U-14 Athena team from Tophat Soccer Club.
The Quest had a full and healthy team for the first time in weeks. It showed as the Quest got off to a strong start and had most of the possession in the early stages. Quest players won the 50-50 balls, and the Quest defense stopped Tophat as soon as they got into the Quest end of the field.
The Quest weren't able to create any goal-scoring chances until late in the half. In the 26th minute, Tophat had a goal kick. The keeper took the kick and hit a nice ball about 30 yards up the field to one of her defenders. Meagan came in to pressure the defender, and she was able to steal the ball.
Meagan then took a touch toward goal. The Tophat keeper had not yet gotten back into position after taking the goal kick. Meagan saw this and unleashed a rocket shot on her next touch (from a good 25 yards out). Her high shot easily beat the keeper, but it hit the crossbar! The ball bounced lazily away from the goal. The Tophat defenders had not yet reacted to the play. But Amanda had alertly followed the shot and she was first to the loose ball to knock it past the bewildered keeper. Goal Quest and a 1-0 lead.
Tophat came alive in the last few minutes of the half and put some good pressure on the Quest. Quest defenders hung tough, though, blocking a few shots and clearing other balls away from danger.
Halftime came with the Quest ahead 1-0.
The Quest came out flat in the second half. This cost the Quest dearly, as Tophat scored two goals in a 1-minute span to take the lead. In both cases, Tophat worked the ball up the right side, then switched the ball to an open player on the other side of the field for wide-open shots.
Tophat continued to pressure the Quest. The Quest had created a bunch of attacks in the first half, but the attacks came few and far between in the second half. Rachael created some excitement when she blocked a clearance from the Tophat sweeper with her face, then ignored the pain and took off on a good dribbling run up the right side. But she didn't have enough support, and the Tophat defense was able to force her to the sideline.
Tophat came close to a 3rd goal on a nice individual effort. A player on the left side won a loose ball, then she cut inside and froze the Quest defender. She blasted a shot toward the far post upper 90, and it looked like a goal, but the ball barely cleared the corner and landed on the top of the net. Whew!
The Quest never really got another quality scoring chance, and the game ended with Tophat winning 2-1. The Quest had most of the play in the first half, but Tophat turned it around and controlled most of the second half.
Goalies: Big J (full game). Jessica was active and came out strongly to stop several through balls. She didn't have much chance on the two goals.
With today's loss, the Quest finished the spring regular season with a record of 2 wins, 2 ties and 5 losses, which puts the Quest in 8th place in the Athena "B" division.
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Created: 09/11/99 Revised: 05/24/00 |