We had reached the semi final, an amazing achievement and it was against our friends Webster Thomas on the same field we had been beaten by the, on the first day, time for some sweet revenge!
As the game was straight after the first one I was getting worri d about food especially if we got through to the final (fingers crossed) as again the final was scheduled for 10:15 straight after this game. We knew about W.Thomas from our first game and knew we had let it slip and if we put in a solid performance we could win.
Their Number 7-Travis Ford was a great shooter and powerful middie who had also played in 2013 for them, their Defense was well organised and really put pressure on us when clearing.
We traded goals for a while and then started to stretch our lead, they made adjustments and we did too, this is the real difference between US and English Lacrosse to be honest in the UK teams play the same way and win or lose playing that way, it really makes it a coaches game, the other difference is that you never have much time on the ball and have to handle the pressure. Our lads did an amazing job in this game of handling the pressure, listening to the coaches, handling the referees terrible calls and putting their players under as much pressure as possible.
The Defense had a great game making last ditch checks, covering up for each other and communicating well, we wanted to squeeze them into bad areas when shooting to protect Hal and Jack, both keepers made key stops including a great reaction save from Hal tipping the ball around the post.
We pushed the players on and didn't want Thomad to come back into the game and every time they scored we seemed to add another to our total. Will Cornwell has scored some important goals for us and this game was no different until he received a viscous check to the shoulder. James "Pom Pom" Pomfret was strong and scored twice. Oli Loveland has been one of our players of the tour and they cleverly started to shut him off, we asked the middies to dodge to score and they did but Oli scored a great goal moving off ball making a hard cut at GLE, he received a great feed from Jake Parker to score. Joe Cheetham is a force this kids going to be a special player, at 15 he is fearless and isn't scared of taking chances as a friend of mine from Syracuse said "he's never seen a shot he doesn't like".
Joe Baythorpe scored a fantastic goal towards the end of the game dodging from GLE turning and then rolling back to shoot low around his defender. We knew it was over and they forced out defensively even more, the rules dictated that we had to keep the ball in the offensive box and Oli and Joe Baythorpe passed behind the goal to run down time.
I was numb after the game, a lot of memories came back from past tours and people that aren't with us any longer, it was very emotional for me and I let the lads start to walk to the stadium for the final, this has been my dream for a long time, we had already achieved so much and to be in a final with the possibility of winning the Championship was just amazing. I didn't want to effect them in anyway so kept my distance a little (Cheetham noticed and asked if I was ok), when I got to the stadium Zac was warming up the goalies and the lads where sat on the bench........................
Goals:
Matt Smith
Oli Loveland 2
Will Cornwell 3
Joe Baythorpe
Joe Cheetham
James Pomfret 2
Assists:
Oliver Loveland
Jake Parker 2
Ben Page-Laycock
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