And the season begins...

Just got back from Agoura and the first game of the junior varsity tournament... gone are the days of scrimmages (just two days ago, where RM fought Pacifica to an 8-8 tie)... now we're in real games... these don't count toward the league standings, but they tell us where we stand, er, tread water.

And where are we?

Sinking nowhere fast.

Westlake kicked our ass, 2-9. They outshot us 5-2 in the first quarter, and despite Kyle's three saves and a steal that period, we were down 0-1 at the first break. The second quarter was no better: outshot 7-2... Kyle had four saves and two steals that quarter, but we were down 0-4 at the half [in this quarter, Kyle made his only bad mistake of the game: he wasn't watching the shot clock, so he didn't call out to his team to dump the ball at the end, and the other team took the ball, drove to a breakaway 1-on-1 goal on Kyle... {two of the other goals that quarter came on another breakaway that left Kyle stranded and a lucky rebounded shot after a great save by Kyle}]. Even though the third quarter saw us shooting finally, matching them shot for shot, Kyle let four goals in (two of which came with the shooter unguarded, one on YET ANOTHER breakaway, and one in a man-down situation [outnumbered 6-5])... but he also had four saves and a steal in that quarter. The fourth quarter saw them outshooting us again, but at least we scored two goals... one on an assist from Kyle (a beautiful long bomb of a pass to an open Brenden, who without having to reach, took the ball off water, lifted it up, and shot it past the goalie). Kyle let in one last goal, but had another two saves.

At the end of the game, two moms came by and told me, "Thank God Kyle was playing... or they would have killed us." Nice praise. Then again, great game: 13 saves, four steals, and an assist. And while he gave up nine goals, one was extra-man, three were breakaways on a stranded Kyle and two more were with the shooter unguarded. A damn good game.

Our field needs to shoot more. They also need to pass better. And move. And play defense.

But it's not all their fault. The varsity coach has been assuming many of the duties while our JV coach works. Today was the first time the team saw him since school started. He doesn't know them as a team (as individuals, yes, but as a team, not so much)... and more importantly, the players don't know him as their coach. As another mom said, "We've got too many Indians (since we have enough players for both a frosh/soph AND a JV team, but we're only playing JV games), and no Chief." And one of the other moms said, "Yeah, and our Indians are teenage boys." And we know how well they listen.

Have to head off to Jack's back to school night... from what I hear all went well at school... Jack's with Grandma B... and I'll probably pick up Kyle later tonight after he returns to Rio after the second game.

The only plus side is that after this loss, we get to sleep in on Saturday (our games will be in the afternoon).