When they say time goes by quickly, the same goes for the Lady Bruins soccer team. It feels like just yesterday the girls were in their first weeks of season gearing up for their opening game.
Fast forward two months later and the Lady Bruins are looking very strong while they are 10-0, leading their league, and ranked #2 in the OSAA rankings. The girls were talking earlier this season about a motto they wanted to carry with them throughout the season. The one they thought fits them as a team was “Unfinished Business.” Last year, the Lady Bruins finished with a great season with a loss to the state champs Oregon Episcopal in the quarterfinals and the girls decided they aren’t done yet, even with three more games left on their regular season.
Tuesday, the lady Bruins beat South Umpqua 2-0 and they will play Sutherlin as well October 17. The girls have maintained their level of play while continuing to win games based on their team play. They are really starting to fit together as a group and come together making good decisions on the field.
We are also starting to get deeper into our bench and seeing great things from those players as well. It’s such a great feeling to make substitutions and know that the level of play is still going to remain high. The girls are working on playing smart while also playing at a fast tempo making it difficult to keep up with us. We realize we end up working harder when our touches are not sharp and passes are not crisp in the game so we have been stressing that in practices.
We are winding down the regular season with only a couple games left. Due to two teams dropping out in the league, the schedule was changed, but not in our favor. We have had to play each team in our league three times which was not on our original plan. The last week of regular season will consist of South Umpqua on Tuesday, October 22 being senior night and will end with Douglas on October 24 on the road.
We wanted to reach out to other schools and see other competition that would be new to us and more challenging than some of the games we have had this season. Playing St Bernard’s earlier this season was a great example of that. We want to keep the level of competition high and playing the same team three teams is not something I hope the league continues to repeat. With that being said, all three games against league opponents count as league games as well. Exciting however, the Lady Bruins were able to see Cascade Christian whom they beat 2-1 in a competitive game and will see Catlin Gabel on October 19 at a neutral site in Eugene. They are ranked #1 in the 3A/2A/1A OSAA rankings and are picked to be a team that finished at the top this year. I’m really excited to see how the girls match up to this level of play because they are a group who responds well. As the girls said, they have unfinished business. Catlin Gabel reached out to play us due to their leagues dropping a couple of games and they knew the success our program had last year and we welcomed that game wanting to see great competition.
We will keep focusing on one game at a time as the Lady Bruins continue to roll!