Victoria!

Well, we had quite an epic showdown with the rival bilingual school on wednesday in soccer. Our team took the field at around 9:30 am. The field is located adjacent to the school, so it's a short 2 minute walk to get there. Cofradia Bilingual (CBS) was already on the field warming up. They had 4 or 5 boys on the team who were pretty big boys. So, Tim and I had just gotten our team in a huddle when we hear yelling coming down the street. The rest of our school is stampeding down dirt road to the field, first graders, sixth graders, all. It was awesome.

The first half didn't go so well. CBS scored 2 goals in the first half and put us behind. I could tell our players were feeling pretty dejected at half. But what happened next was nothing short of a miracle. If we had solid film of the game I'd submit it for sportscenter and possibly one of the greatest comebacks of all time. To be honest, CBS whipped us pretty good in the first half. We were having some trouble moving the ball downfield and clearing it from in front of our goal. lOn top of that we were having some trouble keeping the rest of the school kids off the field. So at half, gave the team a little pep talk and put them back out there.

We caught a break something like 5 or 6 minutes in. One of their players passed the ball back to their goalie and he picked it up with his hands, which isn't allowed. Penalty Kick! We put Clint in there and he pulled the trigger and put one through. SJBS (our school) went nuts. Game resumed (score now 1-2, CBS). Then, Glenin was rushing down the field as another kid was catching up to him. At the last moment he stretched out his foot and put another one into the tall grass behind the goal (the phrase "in the back of the net" doesn't work, perhaps in Cofradia the phrase could be "hit the loitering cow" as there is more likely to be a cow behind the goal than a net).

We went to penalty kicks. To make it even more intense all the kids gathered around the goalie box as every kid stepped up. I can't express the emotion that was in the kids. Some of our players were obviously really nervous as they prepared to kick. We ended up winning 3-2 in penalty kicks. When CBS's last player missed his shot, the kids went absolutely nuts and dog piled. Quite possibly one of the more exciting sports moments of the last couple years... in the world.

Two weeks and then home.