JV Cougars bitten by Bulldogs, 7-1

For the last game of the season everyone, the coach, players and parents, had high hopes for a great game. The Cougars have fought hard all season through adversity and injuries to get to this point and expectations were high. Unfortunately, the Cougars ran into an extremely good Bulldogs team and left the Churchill stadium with a 7-1 loss.

The Bulldogs jumped to an early lead with their first score less than 3 minutes into the game. The Churchill speedy right forward (they had at least 4 speedy forwards) dribbled down the right side of the field and sent a hard shot over our keepers head from about 20 yards out. At the 13 minute mark, Churchill sent another shot into the upper left corner of the net resulting from a breakaway for a 2-0 lead.

The one offensive play that the Cougars were able to finish resulted when Abbie Moran chased down a ball in the penalty area and won the 50-50 with the Bulldog keeper. Abbie sent in a strong shot into the empty net for her aggressive effort against the keeper. The Cougars had life in them yet and the fans were extremely hopeful that we could turn the game around.

A minute later, the Bulldogs blew by our defense on the left side and sent a smash into the net and reasserted themselves as the big dogs on the field. Two more scores from long range increased the Bulldogs lead to 5-1 by the end of the first half.

"With injuries to Julia Jones, Taylor Corydon and Julie Neveleff, I had to juggle my lineup throughout the game to find an answer to the Bulldogs relentless attack on our goal," stated Coach Alison. "I had to ask players to play in positions that they normally do not play in and at the same time find a way to get our girls to play more aggressively in the second half."

The second half was more of the same. The Bulldogs continued to play aggressively and sent multiple shots on the Cougars' goal. Sabrina Szymczak played keeper in the second half and was able to stop a number of shots that came her way. She had some beautiful saves. The only way the Bulldogs could score was to shoot from long range and send the ball high above the keepers' head, much like what they did in the first half. They scored twice this way in the second half.

"I certainly did not want to end the season this way," noted Coach Alison, "but I still feel that there were some positive lessons we can learn from this game. First of all, we fought to the end and never gave up. Secondly, many of the girls learned how important it is to play multiple positions when we have injuries to players on the team. We all have to be prepared to contribute in any position on the field for the good of the team. And finally, work ethic and practice discipline comes to mind. I think the girls learned a valuable lesson in that game preparation and execution begins with quality effort at our practices. Our girls need to reflect on this game and remember that hard work and preparation will result in good things for them in the future. I am honored to be the Cougars coach and look forward to next year where we can build upon the positive lessons we learned from this year."