Another amazing weekend of Hawks soccer...this time in Carlsbad. Most tournaments are 2 days, but this one was spread out over 3 so we only had 1 game @ 8:00am on Saturday. The girls played La Costa Matrix (a team we lost to 3-2 last weekend in Oceanside). We were hoping for some redemption and we got it with a 3-0 victory! Since we had the rest of the day free, we all celebrated with a family/team day at Moonlight Beach in Encinitas.
The girls have become good friends both on and off the field. They loved burying each other, playing in the waves and just hanging out.
Isabelle's Dad, Frankie, even taught Taylor how to surf.
After 5 or 6 tries, she was able to stand briefly before making it to shore. She loved it!
Allison had fun playing with Sophie, Tyan, Lindsey and Amanda. The siblings spend quite a bit of time together at practice and at games, so they have become good friends.
Lauren's team played at 9 and then joined us at the beach. Madison, Taylor and Lauren playing in the sand.
Sunday we were back at the field for another 8:00 am game. Allison took a while to wake up before playing on the playground with her buddies and running around the field. In this game, we played Scripps Ranch. We anticipated a tough match up after playing some of their players in an All-Star tournament. Taylor played left mid most of the game, but did play a little on the right and up front. We won 4-1 and then had a few hours before our 12:40 game.We set up our EZ up and most of the team stuck around to eat and relax.
Love this cute photo of the Schreck's...They could all smell victory!! At 12:40, we matched up against Rancho Santa Fe. We had 19 tournament points going into this game, but knew we needed a victory or several goals to seal a spot in the Monday semifinal. Our Hawks sealed a semifinal spot with another convincing 4-0 win! We even won our 4-team bracket with 29 out of a possible 30 points!This meant another early wake up call for our third 8:00am game. The girls were pumped up for our game against Encinitas Express, a team we think we will see in Presidio League. It was a tough match up because they had a solid sweeper and several girls with big kicks. We played a lot of ping-pong style play instead of staying composed and playing the ball on the ground, but we did squeak out a 1-0 victory to advance to the finals!!
The final game wasn't until 1:20, so there was lots of down time. The girls watched some of the other games being played, lounged on the blankets and ate some lunch.
They had fun turning on the IPOD speakers and dancing to California Girlz. I guess the pressure of the big game wasn't getting to them much. It's just the poor parents whose stomachs were in knots and unable to relax.As 1:00 approached, we got the girls ready for the championship...stretching, jogging and mentally preparing. They saw the big trophy they would be playing for and were pumped. The final game was against Menifee. After about 6 offsides calls on us in the first 10 minutes and lots of missed opportunities on goal, we were tied 0-0 at half. Charlie stressed the importance of the 2nd half... staying composed, controlling the ball and putting one in the net. Unfortunately, Menifee scored first and we fought hard to get one in for the tie. Emily was in the right place at the right time and tied us up!! We had lots of other chances and Ashley played the game of her life, saving some amazing shots by Menifee so the score remained tied at the end of the second half.
It was on to penalty kicks. Taylor finished the game on the bench because of a sore knee, so she was unable to be selected as one of our 5 shooters. It was up to Delaney, Madison, Jenna, Maylie and Reese to score for us and up to Ashley to defend the other team. We felt very confident about our chances, remembering our penalty kick battle in Scripps Ranch that ended with us taking home the championship. The tension and emotion was over the top, but we fell 1 goal short of victory. A heartbreaking end to a hard fought, wonderful weekend of soccer. There were lots of tears and "what ifs", but it just wasn't meant to be :(
The Medal Ceremony
Taylor finished the weekend a little bruised up with a bad knee and sore foot. I think we will be making a trip to the doctor next week, but she played great. She had some great assists, a beautiful goal and lots of athletic play to be proud of. However, for some reason, she struggled with her throw ins this weekend. We will have to practice those before our next tournament! She was very emotional in this last game. Crying under pressure and crying tears of joy, but lots of crying nonetheless. She is often so hard on herself, although we explain over and over, that it is just a game and we encourage her to play for all the fun she will have and memories she will make. She must take after her mother. I am glad this weekend is over. 3 days of waking up at 5:00am, making the drive to Carlsbad and having my stomach in knots was exhausting and I didn't even play. 
This team has so much promise, heart and support for each other. Looking forward to a quiet few weeks and then on to the Encinitas tournament August 7th and 8th... 
