Redemption Song

It’s been quite a week for the Wildcats – two long bus rides (we are undefeated at bus Karaoke) and one deeply unsatisfactory home game played in rainy and sloppy conditions. But finally, on the road at Cushing, the boys put it all together. In the opening minutes, the Penguins put on a ball control clinic but KUA held on (and Henry Steffen made a big save early) and sixteen minutes in Devon LeBlanc played a long diagonal pass to Adi Lesbec who fired it past the keeper to put KUA ahead 1 – 0. Cushing pushed back and scored four minutes later on a well-placed free kick from about 20 yards out. Aiden Bean was a force in the midfield, Mikey Winham had several perfect throw-ins, and Sebastian Keen and Theo Korhonen consistently stopped the Penguin’s attempts to move the ball in KUA’s defensive end. Lucas Mandel and Harry Hutton were both able to clear the ball more than half-way up the field, and Matt Fussteig and Bryson Tucker were tenacious as midfielders. Michael Jung and Jordan Garafat came in as strikers, and in the 35th minute Michael took advantage of a loose ball in front of the Cushing goal to put the Wildcats ahead again. 

Being ahead at half time was a new experience, albeit a pleasant one, for the Wildcats this season, but it did not last long. Five minutes into the second half, a Cushing player got the ball just over the midfield line and blasted a long shot over Henry’s fingers and into the net. This was a critical moment. The team has played well for most of the season, but had failed to finish. How would they respond? Minutes later, Mikey Winham jumped up to head a corner kick. The shot sailed inches over the crossbar, but the Wildcats were still fighting. In the 54th minute Aiden Bean put a direct kick just to the right of the Cushing goal and Devon LeBlanc knocked it in to put KUA ahead again, and then minutes later Adi scored his second of the day. 

Back at school, I was asked “who played well?” My first thought was Henry Steffen who was outstanding as a goalkeeper, but the reality is that every boy on the team played well and contributed. Coach Beaupre was ill and not able to be at Cushing. I am sorry, both because he deserved to watch the team redeem themselves after some tough games, but especially because his lyrical game write-up would have given better recognition to each of our players than I have done.