Kate’s on a championship run these days, following up her basketball championship with a soccer tournament championship this weekend.  I wasn’t there since I was with Ben at his soccer tournament 90 minutes away (Ben’s team also made it to the finals, but lost 0-1 in the championship) but I got frequent updates from Ted .

Kate’s team won the first game handily, 5-0.  Kate played goal in the first half and didn’t even touch the ball.  They lost the second game 2-1, to a cross-town rival, and a team with a girl that Kate goes to school with.  They then won the third game 1-0, to put them in the championship.  And who were they playing?   Why the team they lost to in Game 2.

It was a tightly contested match, with Kate’s team falling down by a goal at the half.  It continued this way until the very last minute of the game, when Kate’s team scored an equalizer.  The game then went on to overtime.  With 2 minutes left in OT, the other team scored and Ted, who thought it was sudden death, sent me a text saying that the girls had lost.  I read the text, and sent a quick reply.  As soon as I hit the send button, however, I got another text from Ted, which said that Kate’s team had tied the game!!!

Now it was on to penalty kicks.  Kate took the first one, and buried it in the net “with emphasis” as they say.  It stayed 1-0 for Kate’s team through the third round of kickers and then the other team tied it up with their 4th kicker.  Our last kicker made her kick, and their 5th kicker missed. After a brief moment of shock, the girls erupted in celebration!!!

One of the other moms was kind enough to send me a video of Kate’s penalty kick, as well as some pictures of the girls with their trophies.  The video is a little jumpy at the beginning, but if you watch closely, you’ll see Kate doing a funny little arm punching thing just before she takes the kick.  She does this when she’s nervous and she says it helps calm her down.

With that, here in bullet form is what we’ve been up to since Halloween.

• Ben finished football season with two games in November.  Highlights of the season:  starting at wide receiver in the last few games, ending the season with four catches for almost 100 yards and  1 touchdown.
• The regular soccer season for both kids ended in early November.
• We celebrated Zeny’s birthday.
• A weekend trip to Chicago where we saw Ted’s mom, caught up with some old college friends,  went to the very exciting Northwestern v. Iowa game, and where Ben met up with the director of the Integrated Science Program, the honors science program that Ted majored in.  Ben was able to find out a lot about the program, and chat with some professors and students about the academics and student life at NU.
  
• 

• Ben’s team won their post-season soccer tournament.

• Thanksgiving with Ted’s brother and his wife, but without Ted’s mom this year, who was recovering from surgery and unable to travel.
• A weekend trip to Philadelphia to visit the Franklin Institute, to make up for a field trip that Kate missed because we were on our way to Chicago the day her class went.  We also saw the Liberty Bell, Constitution Hall, and other notable Philadelphia sites.
  
• Basketball season started for both kids.
• Kate had her school chorus concert
• Christmas!

Both games ended in a 1-1 tie.  Ben’s was a conventional score, with each time scoring 1 goal each.  Kate’s however, featured the most bizarre own goal I’ve ever seen.   Usually an own goal results from a misplayed ball by the defense.  They shank it or it caroms off their head as they are trying to clear and ends up in their own net instead.  Not the own goal in Kate’s game.  The other team was attacking, and had the ball in our defensive third.  One of their girls got the ball but there was pressure so she turned away from it.  Or so I thought.  But after turning away from the pressure, she kept dribbling the ball, all the way down the other end.  She was off on a breakaway and then shot on her own goal!!  But the weird thing was their keeper didn’t try to yell at her to turn around, or even try to make a play on the ball.  She just sort of let it roll in.  Very bizarre!

On another note, I hate shooting at the field where Kate played.  There’s just something about the way the light is there that makes skin tones pasty and gives my camera and lenses fits when focusing.  I’ve hated it since Ben played there and it is always the same experience.

Next, we have pictures from Kate’s game on April 18, which was very exciting!  Down 0-3 in the waning minutes of the game, the Real came back with three quick goals to tie it up!  What made it even more fun for Kate was the fact that Kate had a couple of friends of the opposing team, since it’s the club where Kate played recreational soccer.  It was quite a finish!

Third, I’ve got pictures from Ben’s game later that day.  The game started at 6:30 under cloudy skies and finished under the lights, so there aren’t very many pictures.  I just couldn’t get enough light.  This game also ended in a tie, but unlike Kate’s excitement at the end of her game, Ben was grumpy.  They were up 1-0 throughout much of the game and controlling much of the tempo when they had a second goal called back on a dubious offside call, and then the other team scored to tie it up.  Cranky, cranky.

And finally, pictures from Ben’s game on April 25.  These were also taken under overcast conditions, but at 8 a.m. so I had more light.  Even though there was more light I still had to push the ISO.  I think I need to recalibrate my monitor since although these look fine on my computer, they are much darker on my work monitor.

I still have pictures from Kate’s game on April 25, and also pictures from Spring Break that I have to put up, but at least I’ve made a dent in my pile!

I was only able to go to the first half of Ben’s game since I had to take Kate to swim practice.  The Titans lost 0-1 on a corner kick but at least it was a good game!  I had a hard time getting into a rhythm for a couple of reasons.  I was on the half with the AR running in front of me but couldn’t switch because then I would be shooting into the sun.  Kate kept a running conversation the whole time I was there.  And there were two moms from the other team directly to my left who were quite enthusiastic in their support.  Plus the game started off with about 5 throw-ins in the first few minutes so there was no flow.

One final note — Kate nearly scored!  She usually plays defense so her scoring opportunities are few and far between.  However, there was a free kick at the top of the box so everyone was pushed way up.  The kick ricocheted off the wall and in Kate’s direction, who stepped up and took a shot with her LEFT foot that just sailed wide.  Now that would have been exciting!