Coach Flip Naumburg's Journal

Tuesday, March 29, 2005

CSU 7 – SONOMA STATE 6   (2  OVERTIMES)

Tim Farquhar (M #13) scored the game winner with not very much time left in the second overtime to give the CSU Rams a hard fought 7-6 victory over a very determined Sonoma State Sea Wolf team today in Fort Collins at CSU.  They (SSU) had a long pole on him, and Long Pole was not going to let Sir Timmy go to his right hand.  Well he (Timmy) ducked inside the guy with his left hand, and then #13 switched back to his right in spite of the objections from the defense, and he just punched one in top shelf that the goalie had no chance on. 

Both teams had ample opportunity in overtime play to end the sudden death struggle.

I'LL TAKE 'THEM ANY WAY I CAN GET THEM

The day was cold, but the intensity of the game rose as it progressed, and it was almost as if the temperature outside went up along with it, until the overtime sessions when the game was like "on fire", at which time the sun came all the way out, and it got nice and warm there for a minute.

We are so beat up, injured, and sick with nasty little viruses and stuff that I feel extremely fortunate and grateful for this W.  We fought, scrapped, and clawed all the way, though, and I do think we ultimately gave ourselves enough chances to win in order to get it done.  Neither team gave an inch in this one.

OH, KALE

Assistant Coach Kale Nelson asked me this morning if I was concerned about today, because he was.  I had been a bit nervous before BYU, but for some reason I figured we had come far as a team now, and far enough to get through today.  I told him I wasn't.  In retrospect that (not being worried) was dumb.

An hour later Kale informed me that Ryan Price (D - #33 Captain) had been throwing up, etc. all night.  This shook me.  The defense had been our lone (in my mind) safe bastion for business as usual, but that (Price puking) signaled to me that it wasn't going to be our reliable usual safety net today after all.  Crap! What else could go wrong?  According to Kale that answer was still very much up in the air, the day was yet young.  Is this why I have Assistants?  Me thinks he doth mock me. 

I began to worry as fast as I could.  I guess I was now trying to make up for that time I should have already spent worrying about the game earlier but had not.

DEATH DOESN'T BECOME YOU

Oh well, "Calling on Bam Bam".  Bam Bam is Dylan Prebile (as in Prebble, as in prebbles and Bam Bam) (#28? D), a freshman, who was called upon to step up to the "big time" today, and other than that first Brontosaurus penalty (Push from behind) that he incurred, the boy did real fine filling in for Capt. Price, who stood in sweats on the sidelines watching the game until the sudden end finally came.  Meanwhile he (Price) was sweating, shivering, and looking himself a lot like "death warmed over".

FLINTSTONE FAMILY

I always enjoy seeing a young one make the most of his moment, and Dylan (Bam Bam from Washington state) did that today.

I HATE PLAYING SONOMA

With many teams I have no problem motivating myself from the basest of places (hate, for example).  Mixing it up with so many top caliber rivals is a big part of what makes coaching lacrosse here at CSU so great and so much fun.  I firmly believe that we are one of the two teams involved in many of the fiercest of all the current MDIA rivalries.

I like the competition between SSU and CSU, of course, as it is an awesome and intensely fought game every time, but the truth is that I also do not like coaching and playing against Sonoma State in some ways, because the ugly fact is that I like and respect their players, coaches, and program so much.  One of our players scolded me today because I had said something nice to one of their players during the battle.  You know, I had said, "Nice play", or something meaningful like that.  He (our guy) is right, though, I was totally out of line, and I promised him that I would never do this (be nice to an opponent during the game) again.

THE FIRST HALF

The first half was sort of like one endless quarter.  If scoring goals were the equivalent of taking long, cool drinks of water, then we spent the entire first half wandering aimlessly in the Sahara Desert in a sand storm without a canteen.  The score at the half was 3-1 for Sonoma. 

SSU scored first midway through the first, as one of their talented middies broke clear to the inside and banged one home.  The Wolves were playing tough defense on us, and their goalie was up to his many tests.

The second quarter opened with another quick Sonoma goal and it was 2-0.  We finally broke into the scoring column with a goal from Tim (#13), and I think it was on an EMO opportunity.  After we scored I was screaming at us to not let Noma answer our goal with one of their own, but as I heard my shouts batted down by the wind, I also saw them take the face off and score within 10 seconds, a dunk no less.  Hello!  Our goal had certainly been answered.  As stated, that was it, and there were no goals for the rest of the half, 3-1 for Sonoma at the break.

I had exactly ten seconds to enjoy one lousy goal for the entire 30 minute half.

There were several hundred people over there on the far sidelines, great fan support for such a day, but I'm sure they were all wondering why we weren't winning easily.  Isn't that what we are supposed to do?  That's what I heard.  Actually, no, this isn't as easy as one might think. 

You could feel the nervousness from across the field.  I felt exhilarated.

COACH, HOW DID YOU FEEL AT HALFTIME?

Was I mad? No.  The last thing I wanted to do was to beat a "three-legged" dog or whatever.  We were hurting on many fronts.  Stars were not starring.  Other stars were not even dressed.  All I wanted to do was to turn a little of the tide and to encourage the future.  If we kept our wits and we kept banging away, things would begin to fall, at least that's how the theory goes.  We talked about what we needed to do better, and we made a few adjustments, but we all knew the real game was inside.  I ripped no one, but I also did not blink.  I tried to make them aware of the task at hand, which I now saw as a major one.

THE THIRD QUARTER RISE OF THE PHOENIX

At some point very early in the third we threw caution to the wind and mixed some things up, and our prehistoric mythological attacking "Bird" for the moment became Tim Chorey (#16 M), who promptly scored two goals, one unassisted and one fed from Harper (A #2 Capt.), and we had tied it before the quarter was half way done.  Our team energy level was lifted from the ashes on the wings of a Chorey.

Harper (#2) scored one a few minutes later to give us our first lead at 4-3 with 4:30 left in that eventful third quarter, but Noma again tied it with their only assisted goal of the game with just over a minute left.  The quarter would end at 4-4.

THE FOURTH QUARTER RABBIT

We scored, they answered, we scored, they answered, and the four goals in the quarter were spread nicely over the entire period.  There was lots of good action. 

Michael Murphy (M #9 Capt. Rabbit) created both of our converted chances.  The Sonoma goal that tied the game that sent it to the first overtime came with only1:44 left in the game.  That goal came about when we failed to clear, the Nomas intercepted the pass, and then tossed the ball into our lonely, empty goal for the tying "touchdown".

FIRST OVERTIME – CHEATING SUDDEN DEATH

Sonoma was winning all the face offs by now.  We need to shore up that whole flank, that's for sure.  I may not have made enough good adjustments on that today.  I didn't use certain people enough.  Make a note, will ya? We must do better with facing off or we will be in trouble again sometime not too far off from now.

We were able to force Sonoma to turn the ball over quite a bit all day, and we continued to get probably more good scoring chances because of this than were the Seawolves, but they might have had the best chance in the first overtime when Chris Esposito (Sonoma #8 M, whom I coached on the USA West team in Japan and China last summer) almost slit our throats when he and his quick little butt picked up a loose ball near the crease and sailed a shot just high of the mark.  I think everyone's heart did a flip on that one, except for maybe Pete Jokisch (#3 G) who stood tall and firm in the mouth of our goal, daring Chris to be perfect.  He almost was, but somehow we would live to write a different finish.

SECOND OVERTIME – CREATING SUDDEN DEATH

The second overtime almost reached its four-minutes and a conclusion as well, but we were getting chances.  The truth is that the game was from painful all the way to excruciating to watch at times, and the overtimes were as exciting as they could possibly be with the back and forth of it.

Finally, a fresh Timmy took it upon himself to put an end to the proceedings as the sun set not so slowly in the west, and that was that. This was de ja vu all over again, wasn't it Yogi?

GO ON, TAKE THE MONEY AND RUN

There are no winners in sudden death, only survivors.  Today we emerged one more time and for one more day.  I guess we just wipe our brow and get on to the next thing.

In a few ways perhaps there are no losers in overtime either.  It is an epic sort of a struggle by its very nature, and today bore that truth out once again.  How can overtimes not be thrilling?

WHERE ELSE WOULD YOU RATHER BE?

Each time we play a game we seem to find another new team very capable of beating us.  It's a Hell of a way to be #1 isn't it?  Where else would you rather be?

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