I think both teams will agree on this- it was an OVER-officiated game. The center-ref in particular seemed intent to bring the early minutes of the game to a standstill by calling every last little bump. He was calling it that way on both teams the whole game. We've all seen similarly-played games that had maybe 1 yellow card a team. This crew made it clear from the opening minute that this wasn't going to be one of those games. It got to the point where I think both teams played overly cautious soccer not knowing what might be called next.
As to the PKs, 2 of them (CNs and one of PWs)could have been ignored in a more loosely officiated game. They appeared to be the result of more or less incidental contact in the box where there was no pending shot on goal. But that last Pinewood PK came about because of pure desperation on the part of a Cardinal Newman defender who got burned and reached out and pulled the Pinewood forward down in the box. That one was a no-brainer and of course it sealed the victory for Pinewood.
Cardinal Newman has some very strong players and its easy to see how they would have physically dominated the other Columbia schools this year. But as impressed as I was with CN's strong legs, I didn't really see any crisp passes from them nor did I see much in the way of defense pressure on the ball. To be fair, Pinewood was not on their A game in those areas either. Add to the mix an over-active referee who apparently wanted to be the star, and the game was kind of ugly. The real star of the game, the ref's efforts notwithstanding, was Pinewood keeper JD Spearman. He was the difference-maker no doubt.
Congratulations to BOTH teams - who clearly played soccer at a level high above the rest of SCISA this year.
