So, right after the Standley Lake and Centaurus soccer game I walked over to the football stadium at the North Area Athletic Complex for the Golden and Thompson Valley football game. Thompson Valley is about 50 miles away near Fort Collins.
So, for the earlier soccer game, I forgot my remote trigger for my camera. When I got over to the football game, while it was still light out, I knew prior to the game I was going to need to use flash, so I packed my monopod flash kit, which consists of a super clamp, a flash bracket, and my Vivitar 285HV strobe. But, I forgot my batteries, so I was struggling in the second half with old AA batteries. Not my day. Also, I am not use to shooting football with a flash. Unlike Alaska, it gets dark here pretty early, and while the stadium is well lit for watching the game, for photographing the game, forget it…You need flash.
Not really being familiar with the teams here in Colorado, I was really unsure of how this game would go. Listening to people around the sidelines, it sounded like people were expecting quite a bit out of Golden. When the game started, Golden looked horrible. In the first half, they just could not put anything together offensively, but lucky for them, they were able to hold Thompson Valley scoreless in the first quarter.
Both teams had a really good run game, but unfortunately it was really windy in the stadium, and a pass game was a toss up every time the ball went to the air. The Thompson Valley running back, number 21, was really fun to watch. Kind of reminded me of a little Jerome Bettis.
Thompson Valley would get on the scoreboard with a run into the end zone and a made PAT, taking a 7-0 lead into halftime.
When the second half started, I had to pull out my flash to help light the field. Unfortunately, while you can control the flash, it really limits the range and speed of shooting. Too close, your subject gets blown out, to far away they can not get enough flash… It can be very frustrating, especially for someone who is use to shooting football in Alaska where the sun is out real late at this time of year…
The second half went scoreless, but Golden started to look a little better than they did in the first half, but you could tell, they just did not come to play. It would look like Golden would threaten to tie the game up, and then either a turnover, penalty or the Thompson Valley defense would stop any chance of scoring.
In the fourth quarter, Thompson Valley tacked on another 7 points, taking a 14-0 lead over Golden. That would end the scoring for the game. It was really too bad that the entire Golden team was not ready to play because the few that did show some positive aspects on the field looked really good. It would have been fun to see the entire team giving 100%
On a separate note, for a multi school use stadium, this is a very nice football stadium. Easily seat a couple thousand people, real nice grass surface, such a nice change from the Anchorage Football Stadium. And I am very impressed with the officials. They missed a couple calls, but caught just about everything that was right in front of them, and it was obvious that player safety was a #1 priority.
I hope to have my blog post from the Broomfield/Pomona game up tomorrow.
