Rough loss

If the 'Dogs had won yesterday's game against UCM, it would've been the best soccer game I've ever watched. Easily.

Cannon said Monday that this game was kind of like a playoff game already. That'd probably be the best way to describe the atmosphere. Playing in a fairly steady drizzle/snow, players were falling down all over the place, bumping into each other - and yelling at each other about it.

With 20 minutes left in the second half and the 'Dogs down 1-0, Newsham got tangled up with a UCM player. Both fell down, and as she stood up, Newsham stepped on the UCM player's chest. UCM's head coach had to come out onto the field and scream at the refs for a while before a couple players practically carried the injured one off the field. "Sounds like an NFL game," my roommate observed when I told her the story. Sounds like one of the greatest moments of the game, too.

Newsham wasn't the only one facing down UCM, either. It didn't look like Gaeta was afraid to bump into opposing players, and it didn't look like one was particularly happy about it, either.

Ironically, the closer the 'Dogs came to officially losing the game, the more they looked like the postseason-bound team. The last 10 or so minutes of the second half were spent exclusively near the UCM goal. UCM barely touched the ball, except to make a save, and the 'Dogs were passing more fluidly than I'd seen so far this season. Too bad their shots didn't seem to click.