Junior Varsity - Bellevue vs Hazen 9-21-2023

Bellevue (JV) 5-0 Hazen

7th min Mac
9th Kasia (Tara)
13th Morgan (Kasia)
50th Mac (Morgan)
57th Anna (Morgan)

Back to our winning ways.

After a tough loss on Tuesday vs Skyline, the JV girls were back in action Thursday hosting Hazen High School.

They only thing I wanted the team to remember from the Skyline game was the crappy feeling they had walking off the pitch. It was a game we should have won, or at least tied. But luckily the feelings after a loss don’t happen a lot in this program. We are fortunate. We have a strong program. But that loss is in the past.

With Tuesday behind us, we focused our hurt and anger on Hazen. The game started a little sloppy as we got used to some players in new positions as we once again had to deal with injuries, sickness and absences. But Mackenzie came to our rescue and righted the ship. In the 7th minute she intercepted a poor Hazen goal kick, dribbled around a couple of flailing defenders and ripped a beautiful shot from about 20 yards out. Nothing but net.

The goal seemed to calm us down a bit and we started to connect passes and find teammates. Kasai took a great pass from Tara and used her speed to slot home our second goal of the game. Shortly after, in what Coach Peter described as ‘one of the best goals in recent program history’, we put this game away. Kasia, again, drove hard down the right flank, beat her defender and sent in a rocket cross. Waiting in the penalty area was Morgan who timed her run perfectly and with one touch, volleyed the cross into the net. The goalkeeper had no chance.

From there we put the brakes on a bit to focus our attention on possessing the ball and moving up and down the field as a team. Tuesday we had trouble keeping our team shape which caused big gaps to form in the middle for our opponents to take advantage. Last night, we did a much better job of keeping our formation tight.

At halftime, with goals no longer a priority, we talked about cleaning up our touches and continuing to move off the ball and create more space for our passing game.

The second half was much improved. There was better ball movement and better possession. It’s amazing how much more calm we are on the ball when goals are not our top priority. Of course we want to be dangerous, but when we are moving the ball in the correct ways, the goals come. Again, a work in progress.

We finished off the game with two more nice goals and cruised to our 4th win of the season. It was a great effort and everyone on the bench contributed. We had two visiting JVC players (Ella Hansen and Elaina Hannon) who both put in great minutes and really helped us out. Thank you.

We anticipate a tough match on another Saturday game against an undefeated Bainbridge Island High School JV team. They’ve blown out every team they have faced this season so we’ll have to bring our best effort. Hope to see you at the game.