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NHB Black GU-14 Reach Final of West Coast Tournament
08/23/2011, 12:00am PDT
By Francisco Flores
For the second time this summer, the NHB Black BU-17 and GU-14 squads reached the finals of the same tournament. The first instance occurred in the Huntington Beach Sand Soccer tournament, where both squads earned the top spot in their respective flights.
The GU-14 squad began the West Coast tournament facing an old nemesis, Fram. In two previous encounters between the two squads the matches ended in ties, and in both matches NHB had to come back from early deficits to achieve the ties. This time around NHB decided to score first. A scrappy goal by Juliana (whose sister has given her a nickname) Hernandez opened the scoring in the first half. A nice freekick by Jasmine (Jaz) Ramirez put the finishing touch on a 2-0 victory. The late afternoon match pitted NHB against tournament host West Coast FC United Blue. The notetaker must have been so dazzled by the stellar NHB play because he didn’t take his usual notes. No matter, the NHB families left the field with a 3-0 victory. The Sunday morning match against Claremont was played on one of the worst soccer fields ever to be marked. That’s the only explanation for why the NHB gwirls (intentional) found themselves down 2-0 in the first 5 minutes of the match! But, another scrappy goal by Juliana in the 26th minute motivated the girls to play with some composure. The attitude change was rewarded with a penalty kick that was finished with authority by Keek (everybody knows who that looney toon is!). Fortunately the match ended in a 2-2 tie, no broken ankles from all the gopher holes, and a spot in the semifinal. The 4:00 pm semifinal was against Coronado Nado. As far as soccer matches go, it was not the best quality, but it was a battle. The notetaker couldn’t take the stress and decided to leave before penalty kicks were needed to decide the winner. So, although the notetaker wasn’t able to witness the action, NHB came out victorious, thanks in part to two saves by new keeper Amber (ok) Hadfield. In an eerie similarity to the BU-17 final, the GU-14 final pitted NHB against an opponent from group play. The final between NHB and Claremont was a back and forth affair, one that saw near misses, that is until the ball found the back of the net with two minutes left in regulation…..Nevertheless, the girls put forth an excellent all around effort for the tournament, playing 5 matches in two days, with only one sub for the entire weekend.
The GU-14 squad began the West Coast tournament facing an old nemesis, Fram. In two previous encounters between the two squads the matches ended in ties, and in both matches NHB had to come back from early deficits to achieve the ties. This time around NHB decided to score first. A scrappy goal by Juliana (whose sister has given her a nickname) Hernandez opened the scoring in the first half. A nice freekick by Jasmine (Jaz) Ramirez put the finishing touch on a 2-0 victory. The late afternoon match pitted NHB against tournament host West Coast FC United Blue. The notetaker must have been so dazzled by the stellar NHB play because he didn’t take his usual notes. No matter, the NHB families left the field with a 3-0 victory. The Sunday morning match against Claremont was played on one of the worst soccer fields ever to be marked. That’s the only explanation for why the NHB gwirls (intentional) found themselves down 2-0 in the first 5 minutes of the match! But, another scrappy goal by Juliana in the 26th minute motivated the girls to play with some composure. The attitude change was rewarded with a penalty kick that was finished with authority by Keek (everybody knows who that looney toon is!). Fortunately the match ended in a 2-2 tie, no broken ankles from all the gopher holes, and a spot in the semifinal. The 4:00 pm semifinal was against Coronado Nado. As far as soccer matches go, it was not the best quality, but it was a battle. The notetaker couldn’t take the stress and decided to leave before penalty kicks were needed to decide the winner. So, although the notetaker wasn’t able to witness the action, NHB came out victorious, thanks in part to two saves by new keeper Amber (ok) Hadfield. In an eerie similarity to the BU-17 final, the GU-14 final pitted NHB against an opponent from group play. The final between NHB and Claremont was a back and forth affair, one that saw near misses, that is until the ball found the back of the net with two minutes left in regulation…..Nevertheless, the girls put forth an excellent all around effort for the tournament, playing 5 matches in two days, with only one sub for the entire weekend.
