Day 4- Winter Showcase

Day 4: Tuesday, December 8th, 2009

The day began even earlier than the day before with both teams waking up at 6:30, before the sun graced the sky. Weary from the day before, we all stumbled our way down to breakfast with the chef who actually got our orders correct and on time, unlike the chef who was “too cool” the days earlier. As we were finishing cleaning our rooms and packing, about to put on our new non-worn white jerseys, Decker sent an inspiring text message informing us that we are wearing our dirty, smelly, wet jerseys from the day before. He also let us know we were going to play the Westin Fury, a team from Miami, Florida, instead of PA Classics. What a fantastic way to wake up thought Zac Walters. . . Baggins… as he complained the whole time about wearing dirty socks. We arrived at the field and went through our pre-game and scouting reports. The 16s game started with a quick goal by Chris Pearson inside the first couple of minutes off of a through ball to Chris who ran behind the defense. The other team seemed to be asleep as we celebrated the early goal. The first half continued with pure SLSG domination. After halftime, they seemed to wake up and start to play. We started to take on water in our ship, but we didn’t sink for a while. With 15 minutes left in the game, they scored the equalizer off of a cross inside the box from the end line. The game ended disappointingly with a score of 1-1. The 18’s game was not as unfortunate. We started the game with a weak scouting report due to the unexpected schedule change, but the unexpected was nothing we couldn’t handle because the first 15-minutes was dominated by the mighty . . . Blues. Even though we had most of the chances, the evil Fury popped one in the back of the net off of a perfect free kick which found a Furious head. This was how the first half ended. The second half brought new energy and a few fresh legs. This new energy brought about a fantastic run by Sean Kuster who roofed one far post. What a Beauty. Only 5 minutes had past and SLSG had closed the gap. About 15 minutes later, Vince Cicciarelli made a great individual run with the ball and placed it past the goalie making the score 2-1. It was a great come from behind win. Once the games were over, both teams headed back to the hotel to shower up and throw any last minute things together. Blake and Dale’s car happened to see an academy ball unattended sitting for us to take. They sent Faik out to retrieve the ball because they can always use more balls. Faik got the ball and put it under his jacket when a field marshal came driving up in his Gator. We quickly closed the door and sped off. As we took off, the field marshal began to follow us in the van. Blake then had to stop the van and make Faik go and return the lost ball. After this little adventure we cleaned up and met in the lobby for departure. Once in the vans, the 45-minute drive to the airport was the least of our worries. Everybody was starving and couldn’t wait to eat. It was 1:45 before we made our way through security and finally found food establishments. Once the plane and the players were fueled up for the trip, the very pleasant flight crew announced we would be having a full flight. This was met with some groans and complaints, but these were short lived because the first group was already boarding the plane. Once on the plane, Black Friday struck again. People were crowding the hallway and throwing bags every which way. It was a sight to see. After everyone was seated, the effects of the weekend set in. People are sawing logs now, even before take off. The flight crew has been warning to turn off the electronics, so I better end this with a quick summation of the trip. I think grandpa Bettger’s words are most fitting, “This was a freakin’ awesome weekend.” Peace.

Logan North, Jason Coon, Alex Zuerlein