Northern Elite A Handles Shores C, NE B Shocks Newport A in First Half

Northern Elite A In a game against a home team in a distant pool, you dont typically like seeing the last ref who nearly ejected your entire team in the last tournament show up. However, regardless of who the referee was, the Northern Elite Lions played a maturing first quarter as they were not at their sharpest. Yielding 1 goal to Shores C in the first was enough to put them behind 1-0 at the end of the quarter. However, once the team settled down, found their rhythm and got into their flow in the second quarter, the game quickly turned from 1-0 to 3-1, Northern Elite leading at half. As the game continued to come together, so did their continuity. While Peter Berquist found numerous counter attackers at the far end with perfect passes, a somewhat contrast to the first quarter, the team found ways to finish. Fortunately, Northern Elite proved to be too fast and too much for Shores C and the final rounded out to be 13-3 as the Lions found a way to win. Their next match will be against Shores A, a team that watched the entire game, at 11:20am. Northern Elite B While underdogs would mildy describe what the Lions B team is viewed as, Newport A found them to be grittier than expected. Matt Suever pocketed two early goals to put the Lions on top and Cade Curry added a pair of his own. Logan Whalen played stellar defense in the goal in the first half and the Northern Elite team found a way to play tremendous team defense and put themselves ahead of Newport A 6-4 at halftime. This not only shocked the Newport coach, but the Newport parents as well. As the sun began to set and the night began to creep in, the switch for the lights were nowhere to be found. And, instead of sending a search committee to find them, the referees asked that play continue in the pitch dark. While it was nearly impossible to see the other end of the pool, no less which team each player was on, the players fought valiantly against a continued counter attack and physical defense by the Newport Sailors. Without being able to see the ball, players had trouble finding the open man which ultimately led to a number of strong counter attacks by Newport. In the first instance, Alec Berquist now in goal, came out and stuffed a 1 on Nobody attack and set a strong tone for the rest of the Newport team to keep away from his cage. And they did just that. Newport began taking shots from nearly half and putting them away, using the darkness to their advantage and ultimately taking over the game in deciding fashion. While this game may have been a loss in the score books, the amount of courage and desire the Northern Elite Gold team displayed was truly tremendous to watch and be a part of. The coach of the Newport squad gave a very sincere compliment to the players saying that they were one heck of a team for being mostly younger players. Northern Elite Gold plays tomorrow morning at 10:30am. Take care and Go Lions!