Sonoma State 8, UCSB 6 FINAL (Wed, 3/29/06)

[Timbalaned]

I thought the goalies played really well considering the situations, but the place was a mess as you can see from the pictures. It was so bad at multiple points that they stopped the game because they could not find the ball in the mud.

[CATLAX MAN]

Sorry about the miscommunication from the field. I thought someone else was calling in updates so I didn't call any more. Looks like no one else did. It was a close game throughout. 1-1 after 1, 3-3 at the half, 5-5 after 3 and 6-6 late. I think Sonoma scored the go ahead goal with about 3:00 minutes to go on an absolute laser from Brian Johnson from the top of the box.

The game was a reasonable facsimile of lacrosse. Because of the field conditions pictured above, it was impossible to dodge as whenever a player tried to change direction, down they went. Players were having difficulties passing & shooting due to the amount of mud on their sticks and the ball. Groud balls were quite an adventure. A few times, play had to be stopped because the ball had sunk so far into the mud that it could not be scooped up. One time, they actually had to dig the ball out of the ground with their hands after conducting a brief search for it.

Despite all the obstacles, it was pretty good game. Pretty closely contested game all the way thorugh. Two pretty good teams out there today.

[Bluevelvet]

Another amusing aspect to the muddy conditions was that the players shorts got so heavy from the mud and water that they were sliding down. A few times players had to stop and pull their shorts up.

[CATLAX MAN]

True. A couple of times I remember seeing #16 from Sonoma catch the ball in the back corner, stop and hitch up his shorts, and then take off on his drive.

[Bluevelvet]

Oh, yes. If mud and water wasn't bad enough, the mud smelled like sewage. Doug Carl (SSU coach) told me it is just a typical Sonoma county agricultural smell that occurs went the farmers till the fields around this time.
It still stunk.

[lil lady lax fan]

CATLAX MAN,

There was no mis-communication. I tried the whole game to bring up the USLIA website but no go. From what I could tell the site was out of commission for most of the evening as well (tried intermittently throughout the evening, still no luck).

Sorry I couldn't key in Timbalaned's updates for y'all. He was doing a really go job at it too!! Maybe we'll have better luck next time. Thanks to both of you.

[CATLAX MAN]

OK, it's too bad because, despite the playing conditions, it was a pretty good game, as it always is between these two teams. If the WCLL playoffs play out according to seedings, these 2 teams will meet again in the semi-finals at Santa Barbara. That will be a good one.

[Bluevelvet]

Catlaxman-
I just remembered another odd/funny incident (but in retrospect it turned out to be important).
One of the SSU goals came when a player fell, head first, while going for a lose ball in the mud. There was a scrum in front of the crease with a couple of players going down. Apparently, the Sonoma player either hit the ball with his helmet, or arm or part of his stick but it lazered into the goal about 1 inch off the ground.