Announcement
Lightning packed their bags and took their show on the road this weekend to the beautiful Michigan North. With great determination and heart, Lightning’97 fought and battled against their bigger, older opponents and in the process claimed runner-up standing in a talented u-10 pool.
Round-Robin Play:
GRASA Magic'96 (Grand Rapids) 8 - RSSC Lightning'97 0
Lightning opened up at 7:30 Saturday morning against an incredibly strong team from Grand Rapids. Magic were to take the championship for the age group. They were a big strong and fast team. To play such a high quality u1-0 team was a very good experience for Lightning so as to see how much we can raise our own level in just the next year.
SCOR'96 (Rockford, MI) 2 - RSSC Lightning'97 4
Saturday evening, Lightning played a strong match against Soccer Club Of Rockford and walked off with a convincing 4-2 voctory.
RSSC Lightning'97 5 - NSA'96 (Northville) 4
Heading into Sunday’s match against Northville both teams knew that this was a must win either team to advance to the finals. Northville came out strong and scored 2 early goals. This team, however, is learning very quickly all about character and determination. In the second half, Lightning scored 3 unanswered goals to take the lead. Down the stretch, the game was a nailbiter as Northville drew level once, and then again after we scored our 4th goal. Finally, with only about 2 minutes left, Lightning put home the game-winner and claimed a huge upset win against a u-10 Northville team that had assured the Grand Rapids coach that they would see them in the finals.
Autumn Blast Championship Game
GRASA Magic'96 10 - RSSC Lightning'97 0
Well, what can you say about playing an extremely good team? We walked into a buzz-saw for the Championship. Grand Rapids had only gotten better as the weekend went along, winning their other two round-robin matches 9-0 and 10-0. And they did not lose their focus against us in the least. Magic continued their strong play and rightly won the match.
But that is not the story. WE PLAYED GREAT! Against 3 older, bigger and stronger teams we played fantastic all weekend long – even those matches we lost. The Grand Rapids coach had wonderful things to say about you girls. And so do I. I love everything about this team so far. You are playing with great passion. You are putting your growing skills and knowledge to work. You are improving with each outing.
And for your efforts look what you’ve accomplished so far:
A semi-final showing at Dearborn, being eliminated by the eventual champion.
A first place showing at Troy. Even though Troy doesn’t hand out trophies at your age group, yours was still the best performance among 10 teams with a 4-0 record, and 22 goals-for and only 3 goals-against – that’s pretty amazing.
And a Runner-Up standing here at Petoskey to claim your first-ever piece of hardware (and outstandingly well-earned at that!).
I couldn’t be more proud of you, girls. And the reason I’m so happy for you about this weekend’s result is that you’ve truly earned it. Every player will get to keep the trophy at home for a week (taking a cue from the NHL). After that, we’ll have it placed in the RSSC trophy case.
So now we turn our focus to league play. We have Global tourney in two weeks, but before that we have league matches this weekend against Lobos and Star. The tournament have been fun. But let do remember what tournaments are for. They are tools we use to prepare us for the league season. So, yes, we’ve done well. But let’s make sure we put all that good work to use by putting it all together now when it matters.
Great job everybody. Let’s keep it up.
Round-Robin Play:
GRASA Magic'96 (Grand Rapids) 8 - RSSC Lightning'97 0
Lightning opened up at 7:30 Saturday morning against an incredibly strong team from Grand Rapids. Magic were to take the championship for the age group. They were a big strong and fast team. To play such a high quality u1-0 team was a very good experience for Lightning so as to see how much we can raise our own level in just the next year.
SCOR'96 (Rockford, MI) 2 - RSSC Lightning'97 4
Saturday evening, Lightning played a strong match against Soccer Club Of Rockford and walked off with a convincing 4-2 voctory.
RSSC Lightning'97 5 - NSA'96 (Northville) 4
Heading into Sunday’s match against Northville both teams knew that this was a must win either team to advance to the finals. Northville came out strong and scored 2 early goals. This team, however, is learning very quickly all about character and determination. In the second half, Lightning scored 3 unanswered goals to take the lead. Down the stretch, the game was a nailbiter as Northville drew level once, and then again after we scored our 4th goal. Finally, with only about 2 minutes left, Lightning put home the game-winner and claimed a huge upset win against a u-10 Northville team that had assured the Grand Rapids coach that they would see them in the finals.
Autumn Blast Championship Game
GRASA Magic'96 10 - RSSC Lightning'97 0
Well, what can you say about playing an extremely good team? We walked into a buzz-saw for the Championship. Grand Rapids had only gotten better as the weekend went along, winning their other two round-robin matches 9-0 and 10-0. And they did not lose their focus against us in the least. Magic continued their strong play and rightly won the match.
But that is not the story. WE PLAYED GREAT! Against 3 older, bigger and stronger teams we played fantastic all weekend long – even those matches we lost. The Grand Rapids coach had wonderful things to say about you girls. And so do I. I love everything about this team so far. You are playing with great passion. You are putting your growing skills and knowledge to work. You are improving with each outing.
And for your efforts look what you’ve accomplished so far:
A semi-final showing at Dearborn, being eliminated by the eventual champion.
A first place showing at Troy. Even though Troy doesn’t hand out trophies at your age group, yours was still the best performance among 10 teams with a 4-0 record, and 22 goals-for and only 3 goals-against – that’s pretty amazing.
And a Runner-Up standing here at Petoskey to claim your first-ever piece of hardware (and outstandingly well-earned at that!).
I couldn’t be more proud of you, girls. And the reason I’m so happy for you about this weekend’s result is that you’ve truly earned it. Every player will get to keep the trophy at home for a week (taking a cue from the NHL). After that, we’ll have it placed in the RSSC trophy case.
So now we turn our focus to league play. We have Global tourney in two weeks, but before that we have league matches this weekend against Lobos and Star. The tournament have been fun. But let do remember what tournaments are for. They are tools we use to prepare us for the league season. So, yes, we’ve done well. But let’s make sure we put all that good work to use by putting it all together now when it matters.
Great job everybody. Let’s keep it up.
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