That's how it's done: Gareth centers the ball to Emi, whose shot to the far post is successfully intercepted by Bentley. And just like that, one minute in, we're up 1-0.
In quick order, a 1-0 lead becomes a 1-4 deficit. Then Blake centers the ball to Bentley who touches it to Emilio, who finds the net near the far post that he missed earlier.
We go into halftime down 2-5.
We're down 3-5 in the second half when Emi successfully nutmegs the center defender and just misses the far post.
When he gets another chance, under almost the same conditions, he skips the nutmeg and hits the spot he missed the first time and pulls us back to within a point 4-5.
Five minutes later, Emi turns on a corner, sends it through the keeper's legs, but the potential equalizer just misses the far post.
Less than a minute later, he gets a foot on Blake's corner but the ball bounces off the top post. Gareth hustles to keep the ball in play, and then Luke comes up from the defensive end to lift a pass into the box. Emi gets crushed between two defenders, but seconds later, when the ball bounces back his way, he's ready to score his third goal to tie the game 5-5.
With time running out, we're down 5-6 when Devin crosses the ball to Emilio in the box. But though an Emilio attack seems imminent, the ref blows the whistle. Game over.
Emi scores 3--a hat trick--giving him twenty-three goals in eight U-12 games this season.
Our division record is 4-1; our tournament record is 1-2.
