Last trip to Burlington


Game 10 (8-0-2)
29 September at RecPlex in Burlington vs. Peoria Notre Dame at 3:30 (3-2, Shootout (5-4))



What a match the opening round created. Peoria Notre Dame, who last Tuesday was 12-0 and ranked 3rd in the country, had dropped a match and tied a match the rest of the week—but they were quality.

We came out pretty fired up and had some great early attacks, but after a couple of posts and a couple of soft shots, we still stood at nil after 7 minutes. And then our defensive center midfielder, Gabe Garcia, just got rocked. The Notre Dame kid received a yellow card and Gabe received a concussion. He will miss the rest of the tournament, maybe more.

We thought our heads dropped a bit after losing Gabe, and it took us the rest of the half to really work out how we would adjust the lineup. 

We started second half with Murray at the "6" and Hulla wide right. And we set out to get to 1 before they got to "3." And we did. And shortly thereafter we got it all netted up at 2. 

This match was as physical as any we have had this year, and the refs let us play. We had challenged the boys at half to be a lot stronger on the ball second half, to challenge more balls, win second more second balls—just be more physical. 

And my did the boys respond. Fleming also gave us some big minutes sharing some time with Kellen at right back.

All that hard work got us to a shootout (we are not really known for having a lot of success with them). We nailed 5 out of 6 kicks, and Seger got his hands on 3 of their kicks, and thus, we won a tough, tough match, and as tradition holds, headed to Pizza Ranch to rope some pizza, a chicken and a couple of soft-serves.

Things will not get any easier tomorrow as we take on Cicero Morton out of Chicago, another top 25 team.


STATS:

First Half:

Saints: Shots: 5 (3) Corners: 3 (Muck, Ryan, Kitts)

Irish: Shots: 5 (3) Corners: 2

19:00 LaHood (the out-swing the left-footed corner for a weak back-post head pop-up and in)

31:00 Hudson (PND counters our ground shot as we lose a header at midfield before Stickelmaeir finds Hudson on a ground through-ball)

Second Half and OT:

Saints: Shots: 10 (9) Corners: 3 (Muck, Kitts, Swags)

14:00 Young PK (Swags taken down in box)

18:00 Kitts (Murray pushes it forward for the banger)

Saints PK's (Kitts, Consuegra, Muckerman, X, Young, Bjorseth)

Irish (Make, X, Make, Make, Make, X)





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