It is no secret that I value the ETIAC regular season league banner as the ultimate goal of the season. Going into this Galt match, your Spartans had a 4-1 win/loss record in league games. With three remaining games there were quite a few permutations: 

 More possibilities arise if we were to tie a game, but then the banner would depend on the Richmond game, and that was just too much for my brain to figure out!

 

So the task was clear. Our very own Odyssey. Go to Galt to try to beat a very good team – in their house – that knows they are only one win away from the banner. And then, with zero days’ rest, somehow beat a team that shellacked us 6-1 the first time we played them.

 

How would the Red & White respond to this challenge? Would they shrink? Or step up?

 

The first 10 minutes are a nervous slog – everyone knows the stakes – with both teams mired in the middle neutral zone of the field, no connected passes, poor touches, lots of throwins. But after Raf opens the scoring by jumping on a crossbar rebound from Hailey’s exquisite direct kick, both teams loosen up and play better soccer, with play running up and down the field, until…

 

The Goal Of The Year! Hailey wins the ball in midfield, sends a bouncy ball over the top, Raf sprints onto it, and from I swear 40 yards away from the keeper, right side of the field, Raf launches a right-footed howitzer that sledgehammers into the top left corner of the net! From 40 yards out how can a keeper have no chance?! It was insane. I looked at the Galt coach (a friend of mine) and we both couldn’t believe what we just saw.

 

That unbelievable strike seemed to take the air out of the Pipers’ sails, as Stanstead controlled play the rest of the game (despite several head-scratching calls). Miley jumped on a Raf rebound to make it 3-0, and we closed out the scoring when Esperanza provided the Pizza 55 Dish Of The Week with a beautifully feathered through ball that sent Raf in alone for a clinical breakaway finish.

 

Player Of The Game to Raf for a hat trick when her team needed it the most, Honourable Mention to Julia for superb coverage at centre back, and a shout-out to the entire team for such an impressive performance. A shutout? And 4 goals? In a must-win? You can’t be more clutch than that.

 

But this was only the first trial. The toughest test is still to come…