Last away trip a.k.a best trip everrr

This was one of the best away trips I have been on and I am so happy that my last trip on the Burghy bus ever was such a great time. We left Thursday and stopped at Moe’s and Panera and it was delicious (duh). And for the next four hours we watched The Proposal and The Blind Side, yes both Sandra Bullock movies. The six hour trip, which everyone was dreading immensely, went by surprisingly fast and we got to the hotel around midnight.

Everyone got to sleep in on Friday which was a huge treat and at 11:30 we were up taking laps around the hotel. Wiley’s idea obviously but with subs and coffee in hand we walked around the hotel six times. It must have done the trick though because we did in fact come out with a win that afternoon vs. Geneseo.

 

 

 

 

I think the reason we actually won was because at half time Maddie got pooped on by a bird, right on the side of her face. It took us a little while to get back on topic because we were laughing so hard but you know what they say, it’s supposed to be good luck. We scored three goals in the second half sooo way to take one for the team Madds. Devon put a perfect ball on Em LaLone’s head off a corner for the first goal and Kristie got the next two. Even though it doesn’t change our SUNYAC fate it was still nice to get a win in before the end of the season.

After the game we got a real treat and went to Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner. Most of the girls got wings-obvi-and instead of bread they give you chips and salsa, in which my table had four orders of. B-Mikes tried to get some free dessert out of it too, but they don’t give you ice cream if it’s your birthday, so we just tricked Kristen instead.
 

 

After dinner we had fresh warm cookies waiting for us in the lobby. I’m betting the hotel staff was wishing they put the cookies out five minutes later than they did because we took them all. The rest of the night turned into prank calls, painting our nails, stealing Taylor’s giraffe repeatedly and stacking furniture in front of Pat and B-Mike’s door.

 



Now, if I was to sit here and give each team we play a different award, Brockport would win hands down for best warm up CD. My favorite part of traveling is listening to what other teams put together and Brockport hit the nail on the head for pump up songs. I don’t know why we didn’t ask for a copy before we left, but I intend on emailing someone about that. The Brockport game was a great game, one of the best we’ve played all season and really enjoyable to watch. The crowd was super involved and pegged Ashley Pagano as public enemy #1. Our bench was loud and supportive and Grandma had a really nice goal. We played physical, smart and I think most importantly we had fun.

On the way home we watched Miss Congeniality and Two Weeks Notice, yep two more Sandra Bullock movies. And on Sunday the Gonyea’s had everyone over for a pasta party, it was delicious. Overall it was a great weekend with surprisingly beautiful weather unlike the torrential rain and hail that ripped through Plattsburgh. Luckily, my window stayed up while I was gone which was a fantastic surprise.

Wednesday (October 24) the men’s and women’s soccer teams are having cystic fibrosis games. The games are to promote awareness and raise money for the cause. The women’s game is at 4 and the men’s game is at 7 both at the field house. There will be raffles and food and games so please come down for a bit and support an awesome cause.

 

 

When you leave here, don't forget why you came.

I’m sorry if today’s post is a tad sappy, but I am a senior and I am allowed to have one sappy post in the midst of all of my team hilariousness.

I feel old. I feel like an old lady. I had my senior game for college this weekend and that means I am old. Below is a picture from my senior game of high school. I felt old then and look how little I was. What made the senior game this time around a little more special was the fact that I was actually able to play in it. (See below the knee brace due to an acl tear) But what made it more sad is that I’m not going anywhere to play for another four years. I had this realization as I was listening to B-Mikes talk in the locker room and it made me realize how important it was to enjoy these last two weeks and be thankful for all of these years I was able to play.  

My girls did a beautiful job of decorating the locker room and making the four seniors feel like it was, in fact, our birthdays. It turned out to actually be a pretty nice day and being announced with the starting line-up along with hearing my stats over the last four years read over the loud speaker made it very real. I didn’t feel sad though because it wasn’t our last game. I think that it was better we did it that way because we were able to just enjoy it and have fun, not be sad it was the last time we were going to hear our names announced or run out of the tunnel. Fun fact, we learned Liv has played over 3800 minutes of soccer since she’s been here - we did the math, that’s almost three days of her life she has spent in a cardinal uniform. (I know looking at it in days makes it seem less but that’s a ton.)

Buffalo was a solid game which went into a shootout and even though it goes in as a tie we really needed the win to stay in the running for SUNYACs. I will tell you there is not much that sucks more than your team having such a bad season not only your last year, but under your leadership. I cannot change how this season has gone. My girls can learn from it for next year and I know they will thrive because they will never want to feel like this again.

Back in the locker room, the juniors put together a wonderful slideshow which depicted the seniors last four years. And by that I mean, the worst pictures they could find of us from the last four years. Then, each junior gave a little speech about a senior, and Mon’s speech to Liv made everyone cry – it was precious. We then went up to the field house and had a delicious cookout put on by all the parents. It was an almost perfect senior day (would have been perfect if we had won) but I am so thankful for everything that my team, the school and the parents did to make us feel special. It truly was an awesome day.

This week at practice we are planning on working as hard as we can in order to have a blast this weekend on our last away trip as a team. We're even eating dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings so you know stuffs gonna get crazy. We are working on everything from fundamentals to shooting to combinations all week and plan on leaving this season as a solid starting point for next season. Below is a time lapse video of each senior, yes that is a brunette Olivia Hopeck.

Kizoa slideshow: soccer - Slideshow

Road Trip Video Blog

This is just a little inside look at what goes on when we are on the road and how we rely far too much on good luck charms and stuffed animals. Enjoy.

Almost everyone on the team has a nickname or goes by something other than their normal first name, M. Rod, Ashole, Schmitty, Willis, B. Mikes, Kady, Lalo, K. Rab, Livvy Love; well, this is why Lauren Gonyea’s nickname is grandma.

and this...

 

Schmitt wanted to give a shout out to her mom.

 

 

 

 

Picking the movie is always a pretty intense thing once we get on the road. Everyone fights about when to put it on, what we’re watching, whether we want a funny movie or not-and we always end up putting the same thing on.

When we drive through Saratoga on away trips we are allowed to pick between Moe’s and Panera for dinner. Half the team goes to Panera and the better half goes to Moe’s, and it’s the highlight of our trip. Expect for that one time Liv got sick off the queso, but she was fine.

My team is 12.

 

The next morning on our way to the New Paltz game (which was moved to Mount Saint Mary’s College because New Paltz’s field was too muddy to play on from all the rain) with no movie on, Mon and I felt like entertaining the bus.  

Em LaLone in a nutshell.

Pregame locker room nonsense, and oh yeah K. Rab was our backup goalie.

 

The next moring on the way to Oneonta, the bus smelt kinda bad. And by kinda bad I mean unbearably bad.

 

And then this happened..

 

 

And finally, a little locker room dancing to keep you entertained until the next post.

 



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Cortland

Oneonta

Brockport

New Paltz

Oswego

Fredonia

Plattsburgh

Buff State

Geneseo

Potsdam

       These are the current SUNYAC standings. This has us in seventh place, a.k.a not in a fabulous position. The only real positive thing I have to say about this weekend, besides how well the team came together and played, is how proud I am of Em LaLone for scoring on that free kick and not kicking it over the net. Ashley Pagano told me to have some faith and yell, “play with swagger Em!” because Mr. LaLone sent her an email that said we need to run with swagger or something, whatever it said it worked and she bombed the ball into the back of the net so keep those up LaLo. Otherwise we played some kick ass soccer on Friday and in my opinion should have come out of that with a win. Saturday, my feelings are the same and even though I, along with the rest of the team, am devastated about these losses we are dedicating our time this week to figuring out how to get the ball in the goal, period.

       It was baby Cassidy’s 18^th birthday on Friday, little guy won $5 on a scratch ticket. We did secret psycher in the locker room so it was festive and beautiful and a mess. We basically buy out the dollar store and get everyone candy, Gatorade and little gifts to celebrate our first home weekend. I gave myself a stomach ache before both games due to my lack of self control and now all my candy is gone. This weekend is our second away trip, last time I got bunked with Em LaLone and Danielle Schmitt, and because Schmitty physically is too tall to sleep on a futon I let her snuggle with me. This is going to be a tough weekend game wise but we are excited and ready to take on New Paltz and Oneonta. I’m also excited because its Columbus Day weekend and we all get to go home for a few days. I’m flying back to Plattsburgh from Boston on Tuesday so everyone say a little prayer for me and the only four people that fit on my plane.

       Sunday night was the annual SAAC event and all the teams got together for photos and activities. The activities I thought were a bit biased as I got killed by the baseball boys in dodge ball and run down by the track guys in duck duck goose, I think they need to add kickball next year for the soccer players. This year each team was asked to come with a theme prepared, the only teams that did something creative, in my opinion, were men’s hockey who dressed in head to toe neon and women’s basketball who dressed up in camouflage. I thought our idea was pretty cute, maybe because it was my idea, but we each taped a letter to our shirts and spelt out our motto, one team one heartbeat. For all of you that caught on to the fact that that is only 19 letters and our roster is 27 deep, I applaud you. With the remaining letters we spelt out, Buddha. Yes Buddha, and baby Buddha was present for the picture as well. (Yes I know that that is still only 25 letters, but we were missing two players, and they would have been exclamation points) And as a great way to end the event, after bringing shame upon herself and the rest of the team last year, Macee Maddock redeemed herself and only took one piece of pizza this year. Well done Mace, Bruce would be proud.