Playoff Championship

Morgan's soccer team played in the championship game on Thursday night. Eight of the ten girls on their team were out because it coincided with the 8th grade graduation. So, they picked up three girls from the younger team to play with them.

The game started out rough. The girls got down 3-0 and it looked pretty unlikely for a win. But right before halftime, Lynnea had a great corner kick and one of the girls subbing on our team headed the ball in the goal. After halftime, the girls played hard. Morgan had an awesome cross to Lynnea at the goal and they scored again! They were playing really well in the second half and had a lot of attempts at goal. Mina scored the equalizing goal and the girls were so excited! No other goals were scored, so they went into PKs. (Oh, don't mind the different jerseys - the other team was neon green and we were bright yellow and the refs made our team change, but not all of the girls brought their away jersey so we had a mismatch of uniforms for the game!)

Lining up for the penalty kicks

Morgan was the fourth to go on our team and scored! Then after her, the other team missed and there was no way they could win. So, the fifth girl didn't even have to go. They won!

It was a great season for these girls! Most of the girls will be back next year, so we can't wait to see what they do next! :)

Game 1 of the NPL Playoffs

Morgan's soccer league has a post-season playoff and the first game was Thursday night. They were short four players because they had their 8th grade graduation. They were up against the LG Celtics, who they had just beaten 2-1 in the Wheaton tournament. It's usually a pretty tough game with the Celtics. Morgan's team played great and won 6-3. Morgan had some great passes.

They play next Thursday night, but most of their team will be at the 8th grade graduation for Herrick and O'Neill. So, they are going to have to pull some players from the 2013 team so they will have enough players.

Tournament Champs!

Morgan's travel soccer team is on a roll! They played in the Wheaton United Invitational tournament over the weekend and won 1st place! I managed to take no good pictures. I did get a couple of videos - one where Sydney got totally trucked by a girl from the other team and another where Morgan shot at the goal, but missed. :)

My parents were in town for the weekend, so they were able to join us for a couple of the games. The first one was bright and early Saturday morning vs Lisle FC. The girls won 4-0! Morgan had an awesome assist! We came home, grabbed lunch at Olive Garden and relaxed until the next game. They played at 5:40 vs Wheaton United Premier. Morgan had an awesome goal this game! They won 4-0 again!

We grilled out at home with my parents for dinner and went to bed early! Morgan played on Sunday at 11:40 AM vs the LG Celtics for the championship. We have played against the LG Celtics quite a few times and it's always a tough game. This time was no different. It was a physical game. Morgan played very aggressively... she ended up getting a yellow card after getting a couple of fouls called on her. She didn't get subbed out once during the game (and it was a hot day!) At one point, she took a ball straight to her face - hard! I thought for sure she would get a bloody nose, but luckily she didn't. It took her a second to recover, but she kept playing! They ended up winning 2-1! :)

Avery and I had to bolt right at the end of the game to get to the church for her piano recital, so this was the only pic we got! :)

NPL Champs!

Morgan's travel soccer team finished up their regular season on Thursday night with a tie against Wheaton United, which secured them 1st place in the league for their level! They played great this season!

It looks like she's about to set the ball when she's getting ready to do this header!

They had a little medal ceremony afterwards and the girls got to take pictures with the trophy!

Congrats Roadrunners! They still have playoffs in a couple weeks to finish out this league. The two games for the playoffs are both on nights that girls on their team have 8th grade graduation, so those games are going to be short-staffed. Morgan and three other girls are still in 7th grade, so they'll be at both playoff games! :)

The coach has already said they may be moving the team up to the higher level in the league. When they originally started in the NPL last spring, there was just one level and they lost all but one game and finished last in the league out of 10 teams. It was a rough season! Then, more teams joined the league and they split it into two levels of 7 teams each. This coming year will be different because we won't be playing in the spring. The older girls aren't allowed to play high school and travel soccer at the same time.

Congrats Morgan!

Next year, soccer nationwide is going from birth year to school year for determining which team you are on. For most kids, there is no difference. But, for kids born in the fall, they could get shifted. Morgan has an October birthday (and three other kids on her current soccer team do as well). So, they made them tryout for both teams (next year would be 8th grade for her and the current team she's on will all be Freshman). We weren't sure what they would do with these four girls - would they let them stay on their current team and "play up" - or would they make them go with their grade level? Since these girls have been playing together for so many years, we assumed they would keep them together. But, then what happens in the Spring when the Freshman girls play high school soccer? There is no Spring season for travel teams because it's not allowed to play in both high school and travel soccer at the same time. It's still allowed to play in both middle school and travel soccer, though. Well, we finally got the answer... Morgan made the Freshman team and will play with them next Fall and Winter, then she will play with the 8th grade team during the 2027 Spring season. She's really excited that she got to stay with her same team!

Soccer tournament - 1st place!!!

It was a busy weekend for the Plothows! Matt and I had to divide and conquer because Morgan had a soccer tournament in St. Louis and Avery had a dance competition in Batavia. Just as Matt and Morgan were heading out of town, Matt realized there was a bolt in our tire. He tried to get it fixed real quick, but they weren't able to do it. So, we grabbed Ruth's car so Avery and I had a car for the weekend and Matt took the Subaru to St. Louis. They got out of town a bit after they wanted, but still made good time. They were staying at hotel near the airport.

There was a car fire in the parking lot during one of their games!

It was a hot and sunny weekend!

They were undefeated in the tournament!

Game #1: vs Salvo; they won 4-2, Morgan scored a goal. We got the video because the other team was live streaming the game and screen recorded it!

 

Game #2: vs Lou Fusz team; they won 5-0; Morgan scored a goal in this game, too.

Game #3: vs St. Louis Development Academy; they won 2-1; Morgan had an assist on one of the goals. Morgan got a bit beat up in this game. She has some bruises as a souvenir!

Game #4: The championship against Salvo again. They won 2-0; Morgan had an assist on one of the goals.

Morgan celebrated with Dairy Queen!

Sounds like the girls all had a fun time at the hotel hanging out, swimming and of course, winning the championship!

Lots of Soccer

Herrick played against Westview Hills on Tuesday and won 6-3. Morgan scored a goal!

Herrick played again on Thursday against Lakeview and won 4-2!

Roadrunners also played on Thursday night vs Palatine Celtics and won 7-0! In the second half of the game, the coach moved everyone around into different positions. Morgan (and Sydney) played defense. And then, with about four minutes left in the game, our goalie caught the ball outside of the box and ended up getting a red card! The ref said it was DOGSO, but our goalie didn't think she stepped outside the box and it didn't really look like the girl had an obvious goal, but nevertheless the ref called it and kicked our goalie out of the game. So, Morgan then got to play goalie for a little bit.

This was a good way to kick off the weekend as the girls were heading to St. Louis for the Lou Fusz tournament!

Sporty

The girls both had a busy sports week with lots of practices - soccer, dance, track!

Avery had her first (and second) track meets this week. She ran the 400M on Wednesday and the 200M on Thursday. She was really nervous!

On Thursday night, the track meet was in Lisle. Another beautiful night for a track meet!

Then, we went to Morgan's soccer game in Schaumburg. They ended up losing 5-2, which was disappointing. At the end of the game, Morgan made a great play, but got trucked by the defense and twisted her back when she landed on the ground. The ref apologized to her for not seeing it and calling a foul.

More Herrick Soccer vs Eisenhower

Herrick had another game on Thursday night against Eisenhower (Lynnea's team). It was a big win for the girls - 10 to 2!

Then, we had to head out to Schaumburg for a Roadrunners game at 8:30PM vs LG Celtics. Morgan's team won 2-1 in that game, so it was a good night overall!

Official Roadrunners Picture

 

Spring Soccer (starting early this year!)

Morgan's spring soccer league had their first outdoor game on Thursday night (at 8:30 PM, no less!) It had been a nice day, but got pretty chilly after the sun went down. They are playing in the NPL again this season.

For fun, we added some waves to Morgan's hair... it turned out beautiful! :)

Morgan had a great game! Lots of fancy footwork and great passes! She played most of the game without subbing out (even though they had 5 girls subbing in and out). Her playtime ended when she took a hard shot to the face a few minutes before the end of the game. She tried to head a kick from the goalie and misjudged the trajectory of the ball and it hit her square in the face. :( She got a bloody nose and a bad headache. She sat out the rest of the game. Her team won 7-0!

Soccer game at the dome

Morgan's team had a game on Saturday at the Bridgeview dome. Their goalie was hurt, so Morgan had to play goalie this game. She hasn't actually played goalie much of this winter season now that they have a dedicated goalie (Caiti). She had some great saves, but did get scored on once on a corner kick. For the last five minutes of the game, the coach switched Morgan out to play offense. Our team did not have a lot of luck scoring. Two girls had great shots that hit off the post. Then, Morgan had an awesome shot that hit the crossbar. She had a couple other shots in the few minutes she was offense, but their team never was able to score. The final score was 0-1.

Thanksgiving Weekend

We had a shortened visit with my parents for Thanksgiving. They left a day early because of the snow storm that was coming in Friday night.

But, that didn't stop Avery from getting in as much Clue as possible!

Matt made his traditional Bloody Mary's!

All hands on deck getting the food ready!

Morgan also played lots of Clue with Grandma and Grandpa!

Matt spatchcocked the turkey in the smoker, but had to finish it up on the grill so we could all eat in time!

Milo tried so hard to get some turkey! Too bad he has such a sensitive tummy! :(

We had some very delicious desserts to choose from!

Avery loved the Oreo pie... she licked her plate clean... literally!

As we always do on Thanksgiving weekend, we went to pick out the tree at Wannamakers. We found a good one pretty quickly this year!

Overnight Friday and through Saturday, the snow hit! We already had tickets to see Wicked: For Good, so we braved the streets! Erin and Beckett met up with us, too.

It was a snowy drive! When we got home, Morgan opened the car door and got covered in snow! :)

Milo loves the snow! Mostly, he just eats it. This snow was even a little too deep for him!

I think at the end of the storm, we had almost 9 inches of snow!

Milo just watched outside and hoped we'd let him out for more "snacks"!

On Sunday morning, Morgan helped out the G2011 team in the Westmont Yard League. They needed a goalie, so she filled in. They are playing against high schoolers in this league and it's 6 vs 6. Their team won 9-2. She even scored a goal! :) No pictures as we're sitting behind the glass and nothing turns out.

Morgan also had a Team MC game at Glenbard West vs the Glen Ellyn Titans. I took one picture - oops! Matt got a video, so I'll post that eventually. They ended up winning 33-19.