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How was your tournament weekend?

The Kelme Tournament of Champions ran from Thursday March 25 through Saturday March 27, 2003. It was held at a variety of venues at and near Jekyll Island, GA.

Thursday night, the Eastside (Greenville, SC)Lady Eagles played Stratford (GA) under the lights of North Glynn field. Stratford struck first and early with a high, spinning ball that bounced out of the Eagles keeper's hands over her head and off the post into the goal. The Eagles gave up a well struck goal about 10 minutes later and held the score 0-2 into half time. Rejuvenated, the Lady Eagles came out and dominated play for about 15 minutes but without success. Stratord finally relieved the pressure by scoring a 3rd goal on a counter-attack and that is how the game ended.

On Friday afternoon under beautiful skies, the Lady Eagles faced No. 6 nationally ranked St. Pius. St. Pius was quick, pushing the ball around, taking shots. Eastside held off the for 20 minutes until another unusual, spinning, looping ball bounced into the goal. Then a defensive breakdown allowed an open shot to be taken and score. Halftime came and went and yet the Lady Eagles did not give up. A St. Pius foul about 40 yards out allowed a direct kick to be batted around into the goal for Eastside's favor; score now 2-1. Excited by the potential to even the score against an excellent team, Eastside hustled to the ball, not backing down from the physical play, but unfortunately, there was not enough time in the game and it ended 1-2 in St. Pius' favor.

The Saturday game was under sunny and breezy skies. Eastside was facing Duluth (GA). For each game in the tournament, Eastside was improving, gaining confidence, and were not going to back down from this much larger team. Back and forth the action went, shoulder to shoulder (and sometimes more). Duluth broke the tension and scored first on a well struck shot. Eastside played with renewed fervor. A Duluth foul about 30 yards from their goal was capitalized on by Eastside tieing the game 1-1. The play grew more physical and wide open as fatigue took its toll under the hot sun. And to the Lady Eagles credit, held on to a 1-1 tie against another great opponent.

I also watched the Saturday Stratford and Bishop England girls game. I was certainly pulling for our South Carolina team to do well against those Georgians but to no avail. Bishop England had more chances than Eastside Lady Eagles did the day before but were unable to capitalize. The final score was 2-1 Stratford's favor. Stratford ended the tournament with 3 wins.

Not having enough soccer, I stayed and watched a 3rd game on Saturday, Chattahoochee (5A #9)versus St. Pius (4A #5) [both teams are from Atlanta, GA]. It was the warmest part of the day and the play reflected the energy sapping power of the sun. I also developed the theory that yellow cards are proportional to temperature; the warmer, the more physical the play and the more yellow cards. Anyway, St. Pius defeated Chattahoochee 1-0. I felt the run of play was in St. Pius' favor though Chattahoochee had some quick counter-attacks that were not capitalized on. The last pass or quick shot seemed to fail them. St. Pius ended the tournament with 2 wins and 1 tie.