Tournament Games

1. El Dorado Hills 2-0
2. Novato 3-1
3. Santa Rosa Poison 0-1
4. Fair Oaks 1-3

The Novato Classic III

The second game of the tournament was Saturday afternoon. The Stars started with the first goal. Novato equalizes about half way through the first half to tie the game. Then Rebecca Eustace scored about 3 minutes later. After that the game got rough. Both my mid fielders where injured. One with a bloody nose and the other with a busted up ankle. They didn't return to the game. The rough play escalated. The referee just could not get any control of the game and that's the key. You can't blame the kids on ether team when a game turns nasty. Cause it's the referee that must control the game. This game was out of control. Rebecca Eustace finished off the game with a fast break and scored her second goal of the game.

The third game was Sunday morning at 8am. We played the Santa Rosa Poison, the 1995 state champs. It was a very good game. With 10 minutes left in the game, the game was tied 0-0. We were making runs at Santa Rosa and then the mid fielders(one with bad ankles and the other breathing through her mouth cause her nose was busted), just ran out of gas. Santa Rosa started chipping the ball in from about 25 yards out, over our defense that they had a hard time penetrating. After we let them take about 6 of those shots, one went in under the bar and Santa Rosa won 1-0. We almost equalized with about 30 seconds left when Ashly Smith recieved the ball in front of the goal and shot. But it went off a defender and that was the game. My hats off to Santa Rosa, a very nice team, my goalie(Kathy Schaefer) that stopped more shots than I could count and my team that played their hearts out.

We played the consolation game on Sunday afternoon at 12:45. Oh well, we gave it our best shot, but as the game went on it was obvious that the girls had nothing left to give. Fair Oaks scored in the first half. We kept making runs, defending and tring to slow down the game cause the girls where very tried. It was 103 degree during the game. My hat is off to the Fair Oaks girls. They cranked it up in the heat and played tough it much better than we did. My girls just didn't have much left after playing Santa Rosa(they put everything on the field in that early game). Fair Oaks scored 2 more in the last 15 minutes. Then with nothing to loose now, I pushed my stopper up to attacking mid fielder. She made a run and was taken out just outside the box. She(Crystal Garton) took the free kick and it bounced off the bar and into the goal. The goalie grabed it, kicked it and play started again. But the lines men called it a goal. Down 0-3 and not much left to give, they never gave up and scored in the last 30 seconds.

Summary

1. I rate this a "A" tournament
2. Fields 8.5, 3 out of 4 where perfect, only Hill leaves a little to desire.
3. Referees, 8.63
   1. 1st referee(9.5), tight but good.
   2. 2nd referee(5.0), just a body on the field.
   3. 3rd referee(11.0), best referee I've had in 12 years of coaching.
   4. 4th referee(9.0), not bad, called a good game.
4. Tournament coordination a 10, most organized tournament I've ever been in.
5. Quality of teams where very good, state champs and some great teams from Sacramento.
6. Environment was hot and stressful, good to see what you have and what you need to work on.
7. Santa Rosa won the finals 3-0. A very nice, skilled team. We wish you the best this season.
8. Thank you to Rod Shugarman and the people from Novato, you put on a good show for the kids.

Many thanks to GeoCities Colosseum for giving me the opportunity to create this page.