By Coach Tom Simpson

The Seals finished the most difficult weekend of the season and ended up on the short end of a 6 point stick.

We knew this weekend would be tough. Kellan Wilson, who accounted for our seven of our first nine goals and already named PDL player of the week once and member of team of the week two weeks later, was absent because of a planned trip to the European Championships, Rawley Masaniai is nuturing a groin strain, and Eric Conner was on a planned visit to Canada. That presented us with a challenge which we did not measure well against.

We played 180 minutes of football this weekend. Defensively, we were horrible for the first 20 and adequate enough to shut our opponents out for the next 160. That was one of the few bright spots for the weekend. Another was the concerted effort of our guys who mustered up a strong attack against a resilient Quakes team who benefited early in the game from our sloppy defense. However the attack wasn't strong enough to outdo the Quakes who managed, with some luck, to keep us out of the net. Some individual play worth recognition was Stephen Cordova's header goal at the 12th minute of the match off Josh Leon's long cross from the left flank. Rich Halvorsen was nails on defense. Substitute midfielder Jeff Cosgriff provided a surge in mid-field control and helped organize the attack. Tyler Barry also came off the bench and helped plug the holes created by the early Seals defensive sloppiness. In the end, it was a case of too little, too late, as the Seals walked away with their second loss of the season.

Sunday's game against the Southern California Seahorses ended in a 0-0 tie. Although the Seals managed a point in this game, there was a frightening statistic that told the story. The Seals managed only one shot on goal in 90 minutes and could not convert on multiple corners. The bright spot in this game was our resilience: even though we played the day before while our opponents rested, we didn't give up a goal. Team captain, Rich Halvorsen, once again provided his usual strong work. He paired well with Tyler Barry. Doug Carr played his second game at defensive mid and performed well in place of the sorely missed Rawley Masaniai, and Lewis Sweeney notched a shut-out with solid goalkeeper play.

The coming weekend the Seals play the Legends in Los Angeles on Friday night and the Seahorses, once again, on Saturday night.

Quakes Game Recap . . .
Quakes Game Photo's . . .
Seahorse's Game Recap . . .

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