September 2015 – The Payne Chronicles

Lots of soccer games since our last post so we have lots of photos below. Overall, Trinity has only lost 2 games on the year – the last two, both of which were played in the rain and at home. One game was non-conference and the other game was a conference game (yesterday) to the team that will be hosting the state tournament. Unfortunately the best player on the team, Zack was injured halfway through the game in their first loss and didn’t play at all yesterday. The good news is that they have a week off so he should be healed and ready to go when play resumes. The tournament is only a month away, so they need everyone back in form.
Sam has not been getting any playing time as keeper, but lots of playing time as defender, really only just coming off to catch a quick breather. Sam continues to improve every game and is now doing a much better job running through the ball instead of waiting for it to come to him (and potentially the other team as well). Sam did take a kick to the shin a couple of days ago and had to come off for some ice but got right back in there after a few minutes.
Alex has scored 2 goals off of corner kicks one in each of the last 2 games and had another couple of close calls. Being left footed has it’s advantages as he has been bending it the goal from the corner like David Beckham. A couple of attempts bounced off the goal posts as well… so close! Alex has several goals on the season, but 2 of them were from headers and now 2 from corner kicks… not very many people can say they have scored that way. Alex took a beating in the last game, since Zack wasn’t playing the other team was really keying in on him and at one point was hit so hard he did a somersault on the field. Of course no call was made by the officials. Alex did come off the field and sit for a few minutes after that one, but came back in after a just a short while later. Alex is also the assist leader on the team – generally setting Zack up for the goals. Unfortunately we don’t really have anyone else that can score like Zack, because Alex has been putting up some pretty passes from the wing, but nobody is finishing them. Alex has also become a leader on the field, playing all over the field when needed and showing some good mental toughness when the team was down. One of the coaches passed Alex and Zach’s name on to a local college soccer coach and someone is supposed to come out and take a look at them. We don’t know if anything will come of it, but it was nice to know they thought so highly of him.