Much unlike our first match against the first year Clearwater Galactics, which was a monsoon to say the least, today’s game was in the blistering central Florida sun with little to no breeze! It was the kind of heat that makes you start sweating right when you open your car door. The girls shirts after 5 minutes of warm up were sweat-drenched as if they had already played the entire match! The kickoff was on time at 5:00pm and about ten minutes into the match the ref called out that we would be taking mandatory water breaks each half…agreed quickly by both coaches – did I say it was hot out there?
Still unsure of what to expect out of Clearwater with our first game being the Tsunami it was, we knew that today’s match would show a full force Clearwater. The pitch was nice and wide, this was their home venue, and there was no rain in sight, like not even a drop of moisture other than what was dripping off your face at speeds that would give Nascar a run for their money!
Our first goal came 12 minutes in when their GK made an error and kicked it right to our forward Yvonne George who turned it into a quick break-away and scored easily into the lower right corner. Both teams battled it out the rest of the half and we went into half-time 1-0. That 15 minutes was so welcomed by the players as they started chugging Gatorade’s and waters as we found a shady spot to talk. A couple of the girls had already started to dehydrate, goose-bumps, stomach aches, nausea, awesome! Put a cold, wet towel around your head and suck it up ladies, 45 minutes to go! THANK GOD we went to unlimited subs!
First part of the second half was sluggish and tired, it looked painful, until Clearwater scored in the 67th minute by Kaitlin Bolinsky tying the game! All of a sudden both teams sparked up, they both start battling it out again, the coaches were yelling, the ref was yelling back…now we had a game! Second half of scorching heat and sun and now everyone is pacing, subbing, shouting…”GET ON A BODY!”
The game had turned into quite the nail-bighter for the latter half of it until the 82nd minute when the Surge put one in off a cross from Chantelle Goodson that was connected with on a diving header by Lindsey DeLorenze…ok it kind of looked more like a falling header to me, but everyone yelled diving header ;) The nail-bighter quickly became nails in the coffin when the third goal was scored in the 85th minute by Elise Larrett when she blasted past several players and slotted it right under the keeper.
Kudos to the Surge’s defense who has gone every game with little to no direction. This game we had Claire Brown, Meagan Zusi, and Heather Havron in the back with Ellen Kimbrough in goal and they all played like a machine! GO SURGE 3-1
SHOUT OUT TO KELSEY MITCHELL FOR MAKING TEAM OF THE WEEK LAST WEEK!! Great job Kelsey, your extra days on the field, dedicated work ethic, and versatility have earned you this spot! We’re proud of you! You can find the rest of the TOTW finalists and results on the WPSL website HERE!