Junior Varsity - Bellevue vs Lake Washington 10-21-2023

Bellevue 0-1 LW

36th min LW goal (corner kick)

“Set your goals high and don’t stop until you get there.” – Bo Jackson

Even though many of our girls probably don’t know who Bo Jackson is, I really like this quote. (BTW – he was one the greatest athletes ever and he played both NFL football and Major League Baseball).

Each season we have the same goals as the year before: win every game, win the league, play with joy and most importantly, have fun.  I have seen the girls play with lots of joy this season and I hope they are having fun. With the amount of dancing and laughter I’ve seen, I think we are. And although our first goal of winning every game was dashed by 4A powerhouse Skyline last month, our biggest goal, winning the league title, is still within our grasp.

Despite a hard-fought loss last night to our rival Lake Washington, if we take care of business and win our last two league games, the title is ours. Lake Washington has tied us in the standings but we have one more league game then they do so six more points gives us the league. So we still have lots of work to do.

Last night, even with a great effort, we just couldn’t put the final touch on the ball to find a goal. That last pass, that last touch or last shot was just out of reach, wide or over the top. We just needed one moment of calm and focus but unfortunately, it never came.

Once again the Kangaroos broke our hearts on a corner kick. With just four minutes until halftime a LW shot from distanced skipped off the slick turf and caught Sophia by surprise and bounced off her leg and out of bounds for a corner kick. The only LW corner of the night. Ugh. And just like in our last meeting, a great delivery from the corner eluded our heads and found a Kangroo player instead for the game winner.

At halftime we talked about stepping up our work rate and continuing to fight in this brawl of a game. We knew we had the skill to create chances, we just needed to finish. Even though we outshot LW 18-9 and had more corner kicks (6-1), the saving goal just never came.

So our season comes down to our last two games: Tuesday (MI) and Thursday (Liberty). We handled both teams in our first meeting but as we’ve seen this year, what happened the first time around just doesn’t matter. Please come out on Tuesday to root us on and stay and celebrate our varsity seniors on Senior Night. It should be fun.