On one of the more memorable goals of these finals, Danielle Foxhoven's leaping header redirected a beautiful cross from Amy Steiner to send Colorado Rush into the Under-18 Girls finals.

 

The game between Sting and Colorado Rush had all the making of a chess match:  Sting had already qualified for the championship game while Rush still had to do so, and the only way to do it was to defeat Sting before facing them in the finals once more. The coaches had quite different tasks.  Rush's Eric Bushley needed a win; Sting's Kenny Medina did not wish to reveal too much of his strategy for the final, and neither man wanted to risk injury or the possibility of an exhausted team.

 

Despite Sting's advantage in ball control and a veritable spray of shots against Krissy Tribbett in the first half hour of the game, the score remained knotted until the 31st minute when Steiner collected a relatively harmless looking pass, crossed it quickly and found Foxhoven at the top of her leap.  Courtney Smith could do little to prevent the score. The coaches of Portland University and University of Arizona, the respective future soccer homes of Foxhoven and Steiner should grin ear-to-ear when they see this professionally executed goal.

 

As the game wore on, the temperature increased and the intensity decreased. A neat combination of passes among Christine Clark, Kate Russell and Emmalie Pfankush threatened Sting's goal in the 70th minute, but Sting's second half goalkeeper Chandler Follett was up to the task.

 

As the game ended the coaches had to hurry to other games but managed to reflect on both today's game and the more important one on Sunday.

 

Rush's Bushley confessed that he was very pleased with the outcome while realizing that the Championship game would be played in quite different circumstances: ""I would have been happy with a close loss if it meant we were getting into the finals. Our opponent knew they were in, so they were not overly aggressive in gaining the ball back.  I was pleased with our maturity not forcing any issues.  I could not have written it up any better.""

 

Reminded that it is very difficult to beat the same team twice in any 48 hour period, Bushley kept his eyes on the prize, ""We're here again for one reason.  I think ultimately that is going to remain our motivation.  Sunday I would expect a different side.  I don't think it's going to be 90 minutes of energy by any means even at 7:45 in the morning, but I expect several more moments of explosions, and those are the moments we're going to be prepared for.""

 

Sting's Medina kept his cards close to his chest but pointed out it's ""the way they [Rush] play and the players themselves that will be all my girls need to get motivated.""  He added that the tactics for the Sunday game will produce some different on field looks. ""We'll probably put together a few that we think we'd like to see and then try to be ready to adjust them in the course of the game if we need to.  I hope it becomes more of a chess match than a horse race.  But with the cooler weather you never know.""