The Eclipse participated in the Mt. Hood Challenge in August 2009.  They played well and matched up very evenly with the other teams in the Gold/Silver bracket, but came up a little short in the Semi-Final of the Diamond playoffs.

The Eclipse first faced off against the Clackamas United Elite.  A handful of our girls have quite a bit of history with this team.  A physical battle ensued that resulted in a lone goal for CUSC, and at least two uncalled fouls in the box against our Eclipse.  After a mad flurry at the end that saw a couple of opportunities slide by inches outside the post, the Eclipse succumbed to a 0-1, hard fought loss.

The Friday evening game was a battle against the FC Mukilteo Storm.  This was a back and forth game that provided opportunities to both teams.  In another physical matchup (a theme common in this tournament, even at the GU10 level), the Storm were able to capitalize on a lucky bounce to get a goal.  An aggressive play by Keeper Hannah O. resulted in a great kick of a ball about 16 yards out.  An unlucky bounce off an attacking forward from Mukilteo sent the ball floating back into the goal for the only score of the game.  It is unfortunate to lose on an unlucky bounce, but our girls can feel good about playing them straight up for the entire game.  Mukilteo would go on to beat the FC Salmon Creek Nemesis in the Diamond playoff semifinals (breaking the arm of one of the Nemesis defenders in the process), and eventually won the Diamond championship over the WUSC Juventus.

Saturday morning brought our girls back to Hillboro High School to take on the Woodburn Vipers.  This game started out like the first two, with a battle to a 0-0 tie at halftime.  The second half of the game was dominated by the Eclipse, and resulted in many scoring opportunities.  We finally got our first goal of the tournament when Olivia connected after a melee in front of the goal.  The ball squirted out to Olivia, who knew exactly what to do with it.  The Eclipse parents finally had reason to celebrate (see the picture of Wendy celebrating her daughter’s goal above).  The scoring trend continued minutes later when Kaitlyn broke away from the defenders and turned the half-step lead into a goal.  The game ended in a 2-1 victory for the Eclipse, which sent them to the Diamond semifinals against the above mentioned WUSC Juventus.

After playing the first three games on the thick, lush, long and slow grass at Hillsboro High School, a last minute adjustment to the schedule sent us to the Liberty High School turf to play WUSC in the semifinals.  The speed of the turf caught our girls off guard as the Juventus took the opening kick straight down the field and scored within the first minute.  This seemed to wake up the Eclipse in a hurry.  We definitely controlled the rest of the game, despite having some timing issues adjusting to the speed of turf.  A well played game unfortunately did not result in any goals, and our team was forced to swallow the tough pill of a 0-1 loss yet again.

The strength of this team can be seen by reviewing the results of the three tournaments this summer.  In 12 games this summer, the Eclipse had a record of 5-6-1.  More telling is the fact that each of the six losses were by one goal, with only 8 goals allowed in those 12 games.  The loss of Alexis is sure to be felt this fall, but the coaches are working hard to shore up the roster before league play begins in about 3 weeks (I think).

I have also added photos from the Mt. Hood Challenge to my Smugmug site (see the link to the left).  At the request of some parents (mothers) I have added some "Fluff" pictures that are not centered on the action.  Of particular interest is the celebration of the girls, the high-fives on the sidelines, and a picture which demonstrates the frustration of the coaches after a bad referree call (see the picture of Dave Bourland holding his head).