Sir!

I'm not saying that THIS picture is definitive, but at least in this one it appears the GK has her hand on top of the ball (which may or may not constitute control -- all the non-refs can give your two cents here). Also, the AR in this frame would NOT appear to be shielded by the GK's body to have a view, but the Center MAY BE shielded by the #20's body at this point. I'm not saying it should or should not have been a goal. The officials were there and made the call. I'm just saying we don't always have the full (or best) picture from the stands or monitors on BGP.

Maher Rankings (9/14) for nky comparison: 1... CCH (11) 2 - 3... Ryle (16) and Scott (18) 4... Cooper (26) 5-8... NCC (36), HHS (37), Boone (38), St Henry (40) 9... Brossart (48) 10... Simon Kenton (73) Others... Campbell County (77) and Conner (78) At this point in the season Maher predicts about 4/5 games right based on rankings. Last year Maher was correct an impressive 15 of 15 games from elite 8 through finals).

Charlie Wend is a very nice player for Conner. Shear numbers in the Junior class leaves it a possibility that a few more may step up this fall or (more likely) develop during the club soccer season and help Conner next year.

It's a variation of St Henry's soccerama strategy -- they're hiding players under the bench. But seriously... JOAT you're a Birds guy and consider yourself soccer knowledgeable, why not catch a game and give us all your analysis.

If there was any doubt, and if the set-up doesn't comply with the rules, it would be easy to see the refs resolving any real doubt in favor of the visiting team... especially if disallowing the goal doesn't change the outcome of the game. Hopefully it doesn't happen in a tied or one-goal game. I agree it makes it harder on the refs, who already have a difficult (and often thankless) job.

I think Scott and Cooper are very comparable. Logan Williams in goal for Cooper is outstanding. He may be the best GK I've seen this year. Cooper's defense does a nice job clogging things up from about 25 on in.

I only qualified my statement so that someone wouldn't jump down NY throat for saying the refs did a good job... thanks for jumping down my throat anyway!

Last year Conner and Cooper went out in first game of Districts to Boone and Ryle, 5-1 and 6-1 respectively. This year looks to be a WHOLE lot more competitive. Cooper and Conner are 2 of the 4 remaining undefeated teams in Northern KY. Ryle's 3 losses come to pretty good teams (Dunbar, Moeller and Scott). Boone is having a rough start, but can you count them out? Who ends up the top seed in District 33 and who are they hoping to be paired with?

Up 2-0 at half, I thought Cooper did a nice job defending to preserve the lead while keeping a very credible threat in counterattack. Moescher was not in too bad shape and it is wider than I thought (70 wide). But after a couple of other games there this week, it was a hard surface for NCC to develop a patient attack to unlock Cooper's D. Exciting game to watch. Very physical but I thought the officials did a good -- not perfect, but good -- job keeping it from getting out of hand.

Nice job CCH... represented Northern KY well.

So in this case, I'd say the score is a fair result/reflection of the game. I'd guess possession was fairly even... maybe 40-40-20, Cooper-HHS-ball boys. OK maybe that's an exaggeration, but you get the point. It's a really narrow, grass-ish field... a string of 4 or 5 passes is good possession on this field. Its not an excuse... just the reality of playing on that particular field. I'd say chances were fairly even over the course of the whole game and both keepers did a nice job. O'Brien and Ross (and young Mr. Snow) are as good as advertised, but that's no big secret at this point. If you like your football with lots of buildup snd possession, I'd skip the Cooper/NCC game at Moescher on Saturday as I'd guess field conditions will be similar.

No need to wait... I'm wrong. Striking not in-and-of itself a red card. I guess that's why I try to let the refs do the reffing.

Possession on Cooper's 54 yard wide grass football field that is also used for soccer probably isn't the best metric for measuring success. I'd look o the score line as a good indicator of how the game went. BTW... the Jags don't have another home (soccer) game until early October.

"Striking" I believe, is the red-card offense... it doesn't have to be a punch. Refs will correct me if I'm mistaken.

Next up... Trinity.

Nice win CCH. McNick is a nice team so a 3-1 win is impressive. They only have 4 seniors on their roster and their best player (IMO... #2) is only a Junior, so they should be good again next year as well.

Exactly... sunny with a chance of football... iffy weather at Cooper.

NCC wins 2-0, both assists to Patrick Louis.

Looks like the game is at Cooper, so who knows if it'll even get played with the iffy weather today.

While Cooper's offense gets a lot of deserved attention, I think Cooper also has one of the best keepers in northern KY.

NKU has a nice Freshman forward from Mexico (Diego Martinez)... his home town is listed on the roster. How do you tell where the Boone County boys hail from?

South Oldham (#9 Maher rankings) beats St X (#4 Maher takings) 2-0. I like South Oldham for Region 8 champs. Region 8, I think matches up with Region 10 winner (Scott or MoCo?) for post-season.

Its like a game of Clue... my money is on Colonel Mustard.

... whoops... 4-0-0... at least for the time being.

Cooper wins 3-1 and ups their perfect record to 5-0-0.