Highlands scores 2 late to come out victorious

Well Mother Nature treated us to a beautiful evening for some soccer, the rain cells redirected themselves for us to stay dry the whole night.  Both the Birds and Colonels looked ready and excited for this epic battle between 2 great programs.  The Birds seemed to really settle in during the 1st half controlling the possession time most of the half, getting a few runs that were denied by the Dixie backline/keeper.  Dixie on the other hand seemed to have a tough time getting anything that really challenged Sam Lang in the box with great shots.  Then we get to probably the most talked about play that Dixie parents/coaches/players are discussing at the water cooler this morning, regarding the "What if" game.  It was roughly 4 minutes left in the 1st half chip shot into the far left side of the box (it might have been off a free kick), Bird defender runs after the ball with his arms extended out maybe trying to shield the Dixie attacker away from the bouncing ball.  The ball popped up off the ground and hit the Bird defender in the arm (maybe).  Here is the problem Dixie is bent out of shape about, NO CALL was made, and I can see why, the Center ref being in the middle of the field between the football hash marks (the arm it hit was the outside arm not the inside arm that the Center ref would have a better view of), the AR on the side of this potential play was all the way at midfield since it wasn't on his side to be down by the corner flag, which means the AR on the half of this play was on the other side of the football field near the opposite corner flag.  You can see how everyone in the stands had a front row seat of this issue but the 3 sets of eyes that mean the most weren't in ideal position (rightfully so) to be able to validate that this actually occurred to reward Dixie with a PK, therefore guess what we move on to Dixie's dismay.

Well that's the end of the 1st half, with both teams scoreless which means its 0-0....

The 2nd half was much of the same, with Birds getting a few nice runs that just kept on falling short of perfect execution and Dixie trying to get something put together to try to break the scoreless tie.  Well Dixie finally got their break they were looking for.  with 26 minutes left in the game, Dixie fired a nice upper left 90 corner shot that Sam leaped to try to get a hand on it but instead the ball BANGED off the cross bar, landed back into the box where a charging Dixie attacker found it on their foot to bang it perfectly past Sam to take the lead, Colonels 1 Birds 0.

Luckily the Birds didn't panic and kept doing what they have done all game, trying to keep possession and find that opportunity to get a thru ball to Harrison Gamble for the shot.  I was a little distracted with remembering the time left in the game but I would guess it was roughly maybe 10 minutes left the Birds finally found that thru ball to Gamble they were hoping for, Gamble took a few Messi touches to get around Dixie's center back to find a shot lane he liked and he executed perfectly for the equalizer to make the game tied Birds 1 Colonels 1.

I thought that might do it for the scoring on each team since ties seem to be the thing that the Birds do, but Gamble had a different thought.  with 1:32 to go in the game it was like drawing up the same exact play.  I think it was Nick Wilson out on the wing who delivered a nice cross to Gamble right in the middle right outside of the 18 box and he once again just like his 1st goal was able to make some really nice touches to get around Dixie's center back, to find a shooting lane that he was able to deliver for the game winning goal.

WOW!  This was a very nice win to walk away with.  

I hope everyone enjoyed themselves, I apologize to @kyag that I wasn't able to hook you up with your Mt Dew and popcorn, maybe at region :)

Birds get to host Simon Kenton on Thursday and celebrate our many Seniors on the team on "Senior Night"

Dixie will play host to the Conner Cougars on Thursday for @kyag Game of the Day!

Good luck to everyone in these last week and a half set of games before the important part of the season starts PLAYOFFS!

Frank

Personnel update:  Unfortunately, the Birds took another blow on the injury list losing Freshman Ethan Lang who I praised after the Cov Cath game last week.  Apparently, he broke his collar bone (not in the game), probably done for the season with that injury.  We did see Senior Joe Subach finally enter the game last night after missing a few games due to an injury.

Wasn't at the game but the missed handball is a mystery to me.  You accounted for the ref and one AR but the other AR should have been even with the ball, especially if the alleged touch came off a corner kick. You didn't mention where he was.  No idea what really happened but your account doesn't makes sense to me.

2 hours ago, Pop said:

Wasn't at the game but the missed handball is a mystery to me.  You accounted for the ref and one AR but the other AR should have been even with the ball, especially if the alleged touch came off a corner kick. You didn't mention where he was.  No idea what really happened but your account doesn't makes sense to me.

Maybe this will help explain it…..

 

 

Boy wouldn’t it be nice to pay even more money for kids to be able to play High School sports so we can install technology like VAR to help refs call extremely hard calls like this one.

Thanks for the video @kyag, in my opinion this validates my statement that this was in a very difficult spot for any of the 3 refs to CLEARLY see what exactly happened.

Luckily this wasn’t a game to decide a District seed, this wasn’t an elimination game in Post Season, it was a normal regular season game between 2 good programs that had only “bragging rights” really on the line.

At the end of the day I thought it was a fun spirited game, well officiated for the most part, no cards given/needed and BOTH coaching staffs stayed composed the whole game.

If Dixie wants to sleep better at night that they missed the opportunity of a PK, I can totally support your mindset that sure maybe you should have gotten that call and buried the PK and the score might have been a 2-2 tie….. I’m cool with that thought logic if you wanna go there, won’t hurt my feelings.