October 20

[Have you ever gone into a casino, placed your entire life’s saving on red on the roulette wheel, and then just as the ball was dropping into the ‘red’ slot have someone come along and dump over the wheel?  Yeah, well me neither. But it happened to the Cardinal girls’ soccer team last night.]

[Orin Schueler was named Minnesota girls’ soccer class A assistant coach of the year. Orin’s coaching and teaching career has spanned a mere 55 years.]

Before we begin, a set up . . .

[Should you ever see this chap wandering aimlessly about the city of Alexandria, please alert the local constabulary. It seems likely that in the near future he will be not be allowed to venture out unchaperoned. Monday, to make up for 2 missed senior college classes last week, due to his well documented nerve problem, he decided to leave early just to make sure. But on the way a stop at the dry cleaners for a drop-off. You are in their system by your phone number. Of course, he had no idea what his phone number is? By use of a retinal scan and finger printing, he was ultimately able to deposit his laundry. Now, in more of a rush, he sped off to college. When he got there, he saw no other students. It was the wrong day! It turns out Monday is community education day (at 5:00) and Tuesday is senior college day (at 3:15). He now has less than an hour to make it to the community education class . . . wherever it is?]

[Addendum to previous missive: I eventually made it to the correct class, but sans my watch and pocket money which I had put back in a drawer after my first errant trip to “school” and forgot to take out again. After class, some of the “students” decided to go out to dinner together. Fortunately, I stash some cash in the car for those occasions, such as this, when I forget to bring some from home. My bill came to $15.00, I put two 20’s in the sleeve and said I’m good. Nevertheless, she returned the sleeve with 5 ones and a 20 in it – I thought, well she forgot to take the $20. It finally dawned on me . . . Then I needed a doggy bag. I said before we left that I know I’ll forget said bag. And I did, by starting to leave by taking the bill sleeve and leaving the doggy bag. I made it home.]

[I am happy to report I did make it to senior college on this day – “Obama v. Putin: The New Cold War,” with History Professor Nick Hayes, St. John’s/St. Ben’s, who was excellent – and then made it to section 8A semi-final game v. the Sartell Sabres.  We were the No. 1 seed and were playing very well in the section so far with wins over Crookston and E. Grand Forks.]

[The anthem and the kick-off . . . ]

Somebody’s going to win this game on a flukey play.  ~  Knowledgeable fans in the stands

[In the first half, the Cardinals would be going from South to North at Viking Savings Bank Field.  And here we have junior defense Kendall Kohler (3), whose mom and basketball coach was sitting adjacent to us, and senior defense Laura Dahlquist (19).]

[Senior midfielder Sonja Johnson (17), who had a strong game, pooching it over to freshman Kaye Paschka (2).]

[Kaye turns on her speedy jets.]

[Senior forward Hayley Berns (13), our leading scorer, who has been getting goals at a Gretzky like pace lately.]

[Kaye again.]

[Sonja had some of our best rushes, particularly early in the game.]

Somebody’s going to win this game on a flukey play.  ~  Knowledgeable fans in the stands

[Attack, attack, attack – but in a polite kind of way.]

[OMG, Hayley’s out in front . . . well, that’s what we kinda said.]

[Defend, defend, defend!  L-r, senior forward Hanah Hanson (15), junior midfielder McKenna Smith (16), senior midfielder Karsen Granning (9), and Kaye.]

[L-r: junior midfielder Tessa Knoblauch (5), senior midfielder Katie Desautels (14), and junior defense Anna Jensen (4).]

[Kendall and Anna patrol midfield.]

[Hayley, always marked, with senior midfielder Liza Knoblauch (6).]

[The Sabres find Karsen and Kaye offensive.]

[Oooooh, we kept trying to hit Hayley with a long bomb.]

[Sorry Sabre, you’re not getting by that hockey player – junior defense McKenzie Revering (20) blocking the way along with fellow hockey star Hanah.]

Somebody’s going to win this game on a flukey play.  ~  Knowledgeable fans in the stands

[Ooooh, we were in on goal . . . now looking back.]

[Two 19’s go at it – ours is Laura – both in positions that would send me shrieking for my pain meds!]

[No mas!  No mas!  Hayley was never unescorted.]

[Where’d it go?]

[What’s that ball doing there?]

[Maybe . . . MAYBE . . . Nooooooo.]

[Hayley with the ball sneaking just out of range again.]

[Obviously a free or corner kick.]

[We’ve switched goals – must be in the 2nd half.  Did you see how I picked up on that?  The first half was 0 – 0, though I thought we really dominated the last 5 minutes of the half. The above is an early corner kick in the 2nd half.    ]

Somebody’s going to win this game on a flukey play.  ~  Knowledgeable fans in the stands

[Close, but . . . ]

[We’re attacking again . . . ]

[And then another corner kick.]

[Sonja flagged for being offside – she and Hayley were oh so close so many times.]

[Laura kicks it into the offensive zone.]

[Hayley . . . ball . . . goalie.  Uffda!]

[A lot of in zone pressure again . . . ]

[And again.]

[Kaye tries to keep it in . . . ]

[And then finally it happened.  Very late in the game Hayley got the ball behind the defense and was on side.  The crowd rose in anticipation, my camera was shaking . . . oooohhh, but it was not to be.  From that we knew bad things were in store.]

[And then the unthinkable happened, with 13 seconds left in the game.  Sartell took a long shot toward the goal – likely just a run out the clock clearance – no Sabres around, just four Cardinal defenders.  An attempted Cardinal header just to knock the ball off line deflected it just enough to for the goalie not to be able to make a play on it and into the net!   Arrgghhhh! I’m glad I shot the scoreboard before they were able to put the goal up.  Too bad such a terrific season had to end thusly.  😦   ]

Somebody won this game on a flukey play.  ~  Knowledgeable fans in the stands

[In better news, Megan was back and finished 2nd to Bethany at the conference cross country meet on this day.  Photo from Doug Hasz, a close personal relative.]

I like girls’ sports because, well . . . they’re played by girls!  ~  Cub Reporter

Up next:  The Cub Reporter finds his meds.  Apparently we’re playing a team from Moorhead for the section 8-5A football championship on Friday, and the Howell family will have will have divided loyalties as grandson Carter plays for the Spuds.