KUA wins a close one -

American Transcendentalist philosopher Yogi Berra was proven right again today – the JV 2 game against Proctor was definitely not over until it was over. The coaches went all out to help the team win as both were wearing brand new KUA Athletics coats that had never lost a JV game. Coach Beaupre took over the task of deciding which players would play where and when to bring substitutes in from the bench, but, as always, it was the players who made the game. KUA dominated most of the first half with Kyle Young and Ben Weisse confidently moving the ball in the defensive end, and Nick Wilder moving up the field to play in the aggressive center midfield spot. Jon Li took a beautiful shot in the first minute that the Proctor goalie just got his hands on, Ollie Cozzi sent several great passes up the right sideline, and Trong Phan and Yohan Do connected on two impressive give-and-go passes. In the 33rd minute the Wildcats were awarded a corner kick. Jon Li lofted the ball perfectly through the box about 10 yards from the goal, and Josh Wang jumped up to head the ball into the upper right corner. Jon had another strong scoring chance late in the half after a perfect pass from Will Haynes, Cam Barton continued the strong defensive play he had showed at NMH (although he did accidently hit a dog on the sideline with one of his passes,) and Trong was hustling all over the field, but the half ended with the score just 1 – 0. Proctor started the second half with renewed energy, and Nick Wilder (now back playing in the center of the defense), Kien Tran and Fintan Trimble each stepped up to make some big defensive stops. Mid-way through the half Jon Li scored from in close with a perfect assist from Will Haynes, and all seemed good. But KUA was called for a foul about twenty yards from their goal and the Proctor forward knocked the ball straight to the right of the defensive wall where it then seemed to bend left and it went into the goal between Max and the left-hand goal post. A bit disconcerting but all was well until 50 seconds later when Proctor brought the ball down to KUA’s end again and was awarded a penalty kick. They convert on the kick and the score is suddenly tied. Each team had some great opportunities in the waning minutes, but Kyle Young cleared the ball out of the KUA end with his traditional blast and it transitioned through the midfield and into the Proctor goalie box. Chaos ensued as the goalkeeper came out and initially missed the ball. Will and Jon were both in fighting for the ball and bouncing off Proctor defenders who were equally determined to clear it out. The Proctor goalkeeper came close again to grabbing it, but the ball squirted out to Jack Lavallee who calmly knocked it in for KUA’s third goal. Proctor took the ensuing kick-off and the whistle blew to end the game 10 seconds later. Now the game was over.