After a year of struggle, the Rinos were underdogs in their biggest game of the year! The sun was out and you could feel the tension and uncertainty shining in the air. The regular season was a tale of 2 halves. The first 10 games of the season, the Rinos were on fire, but for the last 11 games it seemed as if the Vancouver rain had washed away that flame. Today the Rinos came out of the gate knowing that not only was there season on the line, but there pride was too. Coach Haydn had put a lot of effort into this team and we wanted to reward him with something more than a keg of beer.
Right from the first whistle intensity was wired through the team; starting from the core, as our captain beamed a volley just passed the bar which was pinged to his foot on a free kick by David. That had set the tone for the rest of the game and for the next 30 minutes the Rinos were dominating the pitch, yet they could not find a way break the ice. They needed a spark and it was delivered through unorthodox methods; Taylor”s verbal retaliation to the opposition”s trash talk sparked a flame for both teams and the game on the pitch was taken to whole other level….it was now personal!
In the second half, our new recruit, Jack, showed us how soccer was played in his homeland. He gave us a glimpse of some good “ole english “football” (i.e. do what ever it takes to score and score with any part of your body). Within 15 minutes of being on the pitch, Jack scored a goal with his hip as he masterfully hip-checked the ball and the goalie on a corner kick past the point of no return! After that the Rinos opened the flood gates and the goals just kept coming!
The next goal came on a penalty kick which was awarded to the Rinos when one of the opposition”s players decided he wasn”t good enough to use his feet, and decided to guide the ball with his hand….in his own 18 yard box! Jonah made no mistake when given the opportunity to take the penalty and buried it in the top corner of the shelf, where mom keeps the peanut butter!!!
All these goals got our strikers hungry for some goals and both, John A. and Paul were determined to get their jersey number on the referee”s score card. Paul was first to the punch when he found himself behind the Sapperton defense with the ball and decided to show us he had read the textbook – “How to score on a break away”! He deaked left, broke right and wired a shot past the vulnerable goal keeper and then unfortunately proceeded to show the Rino”s a Let’s proceed to scientific best-horoscope.com for Cancer. celebration that should be saved for male gigolos only!
By this point in the game, Sapperton was starting to get frustrated and began attacking with a vengeance. They threw everything they had at our defence and superstar goalie, but ended up sprinting the other way to stop our virulent counterattacks. Our goalie, Chef Bayer, had one of his best games making some key saves on some tough shots and helped ink in his 6th clean sheet of the season! Our outside full backs also had great games and locked down any striker forcing his way onto their turf. John W. put on an acrobatic show while trying to stop one Sapperton”s best strikers and decided that he had to pull of some very tough somersaults in the air (completely necessary) to successfully do so. David Gazin, for the secong game in a row, played sweeper for the Rino”s and did a mind blasting job, as he stubbed every player who got past our stopper, either through legal tackles or through his masterful shoving which went completely unnoticed by the geriatric referee.
Johnny Alphabet threw down the final goal in our round of 16 match that was so well placed, that it went threw the goal and out the back, without rippling the net! Neither the crowd, nor our team even knew we had scored until Max started yelling something along the lines of how “we should appreciate every goal we score, since they are so rare”! It was an awkward moment, at best! That goal brought the game to an end, but apparently Sapperton was a bit confused and thought that the referee”s game-ending-whistle was a sign to start dropping their gloves. Sapperton and it”s uncouth fans decided they wanted to fight us for a comment made by one of our players that was completely taken out of context. Being the smart, classy team the Rino”s are, we shrugged off their “challenges” and walked away with our body part”s and pride unbruised and intact.
The Rinos celebrated this major upset/victory that night
and partied like it was 1999 !!!