Tuesday evening at the North Area Athletic Complex Arvada West High School soccer hosted Chatfield for a match. It was clear from the start that their is no love loss between the two teams. Everything from yellow cards, to warnings given to the coaches to fans being asked to move from the field level up to the stands. It was a very rough and wild game that would go into extra time.
It was a brisk day at NAAC. I am still getting use to the high school rules for Soccer in Colorado. 40 minute clocks that stop for fouls, cards, and injuries instead of a 45 minute running clock with injury time is just weird. But, you work with what you have.
The above photo is the beginning of a play that I wish I would have shot horizontal instead of vertical. As you will see in the next photo, I could not get the whole goalie in the shot.
I really enjoyed this game. With my 7D focusing correctly, and a lot of action right in front of me I was able to grab quite a few nice images. Arvada West jumped on the board first and would take a 1-0 lead into halftime.
Like I said, this was a rough game, and what struck me as funny was the A-West player pictured above, with the mask on protecting a broken nose, was one of the most physical players on the field. It impressed me because in the past, high schoolers I have seen who break their nose play a little more pulled back, like they are afraid of re-injuring their nose. Not this kid. He was giving 110% the whole time.
As you can see in the photo above, the play was rough at times. Frustration showed its face on both sides of the field as a couple players would delay a free kick by kicking the ball away from the free kick location prior to the kick.
Another example of the tough play as a Chatfield photographer stops the ball in the goal box with his knees as the A-West player with the ball runs into him. A-West had a lot of chances to take a 2-0 lead but were unable to convert any of these chances.
The hard play kept going in the second half. I was very impressed with the Chatfield passing the whole game. They were able to find open players for touch passes for most of the game. A-West had the advantage on ball handling in my opinion though.
Finally, Chatfield converted on one of the many openings they had and sent a ball past the outstretched hands of the A-West Goalie.
The game would finish regulation time in a 1-1 tie. That meant sudden death overtime. First team to score would win the game.
Arvada West got a huge advantage in the first overtime, one that should have ended the game. They earned a penalty kick but hit the cross bar and the goalie was able to get his hands on it to save the game for a few seconds.
As the goalies sent the ball down field, it was intercepted by Arvada West and rocketed right back at the goal for a game winning score. What a way to end the game.
To see more photos from this game, please check out MaxPreps.
