JCWP Black 5 - SLAP 4

Just wanted to spread out the blog posts a little bit, in the Hannukah style.

A matchup of dominating defenses or of mediocre offenses? Like the AFC North of past seasons, it was sometimes hard to tell. Both teams in this contest should be credited with a persistent press defense that forced offensive players to turn their backs on the goal for most of the shot clock. The referees were not giving away fouls on the perimeter, and few scoring opportunities were created by either team.

The JCWP defense should also be credited with excellent help from the weak side and from the goal (Dylan Jungles). Whenever the SLAP players would attempt to pass over the top of the defense, help arrived quickly and effectively. Our statisticians lost count of the number of passes stolen with good help defense, but estimates range in the low thousands.

Because yours truly cannot remember who scored the first two goals, we'll begin our scoring recap in the 3rd quarter, when Christian Bopp scored on the deep goal. Christian was handling the ball just inside the right wing, with a slight advantage toward the goal. Meanwhile, two of his teammates were driving to the goal - one to the far post and one to the near post. It appeared the perfect opportunity for a quick hole-set, and maybe even a double-post scenario. Christian recalled the situation: "I looked at the ball, and I swear it winked at me. So, since I knew the ball had eyes, I just closed mine. I gave the ball a heave towards the goal, and it guided itself the rest of the way, far side. Goal."

Entering the fourth, and shooting shallow, JCWP trailed 4-3. It was gonna take some big guns to rally, and Rob Golterman provided the initial firepower. On a late developing counter-attack, Rob found himself at the 8-meter mark and just outside the right post. Sensing that the defense was committed to players in front of him, Rob got the ball, stepped to the 6-meter and scored on a peculiar but effective shallow-end skip-halo.

Needing only a goal for the win, while maintaining a suffocating ball-side press, the Black Cats found their chance in a 6-5 situation. Coach Hayes considered calling a timeout, but then remembered his morning horoscope, which had read: "Relinquish control of a situation and allow others to find their own way. With increased freedom comes increased self-knowledge."
With the defense scrambling to protect the inside, Christian Bopp calmly stepped in from the five slot and put the ball in the upper corner. His eyes, this time, were open.

The defense shut down SLAP for the remainder of the game.

Fin.