In the first half, the midfielders and strikers maintained steady pressure on the Striker defense.  Katie and Jessica were especially effective keeping the ball in the offensive third of the field.  Any attempt by the Strikers to clear the zone was quickly negated by the Steeler defense.  Karie, Malayna and Autumn were very solid.  The Steeler pressure was so great the Striker defense collapsed in front of the net making it difficult to get a shot through the defenders.  The Striker keeper was also quick to scoop up any loose balls.  After a lot of effort, the Steelers began to tire a little.  As the Steelers tired, play spread out more.  This allowed a quick Steeler counter to produce the first goal late in the half.  A Striker clearing attempt was pounded back into the Striker zone.  Jen was first to the ball and evaded a couple of Striker defenders to deliver the ball to the front of the net.  Rachel pounced on the ball and put it into the back of the net.  The half ended Steelers 1, Strikers 0.

With only one sub, the Steelers were less aggressive in the second half.  Autumn and Rhianon stepped up to stop any Striker offensive plans.  One especially memorable moment was Rhianon’s crunching tackle on a Striker forward.  The forward will be feeling that one tomorrow.  The Steelers still controlled play, but play covered a larger area of the field.  The Steelers second goal was again the result of a counter attack.  An errant Striker pass was pushed to the right side of the field.  A couple of quick passes put the ball on Jen’s foot in the corner.  Jen crossed the ball and Rachel beat the keeper in a scrabble for the ball.  It was a spirited effort by the Steelers to improve their record to 2-3-0.

In the first half, the Steelers faced a field of mud and standing water that acted like a twelfth defender.  The Steelers maintained a steady pressure on the Stingray defense.  The midfielders really made their presence felt with short passes.  Jessica, Melissa, Mollie, Katie and Kara were very effective moving the ball to the front of the net.  Rachel made several good runs to generate quality scoring chances.  Going the other way, Malayna was very effective keeping the ball from Dearborn’s greatest scoring threat #19.  Dearborn was able to put together several quick counters that revived the long standing Adrienne/Tuesday rivalry.  This time, Adrienne was able to stop all Tuesday scoring chances.  The great flurry of activity in front of the Stingray goal produce a penalty kick late in the first half.  Autumn very calmed placed the ball in the upper right corner just under the cross bar to give the Steelers a 1-0 lead.  The lead held up through the half.

In the second half, the Steelers were aided by the twelfth defender, mud and standing water.  Through the first 15 minutes of the second half, Dearborn pressed the Steeler defense.  Autumn and Rhianon broke up many Stingray opportunities.  Ashley was very steady at sweeper.  At about the 15 minute mark, a rare moment of confusion on the part of the defense allowed Dearborn to tie the game.  The score seemed to spark the Steelers to get the next goal.  The Steelers began to press the Dearborn defense.  Autumn was very effective controlling the middle of the field and making short passes to set up the strikers.  On a corner kick, Rhianon delivered the ball to the front of the net.  Autumn had a shot stopped, but Rachel snapped up the rebound to put the Steelers up top 2-1.  The Steelers had several pretty plays.  On one play, Melissa made a blind pass to spring Jen for an excellent scoring opportunity.  On another play, the always hard working Rachel followed up her original shot with a volley shot off the rebound.  Only quick reaction by the Stingray keeper prevented a second goal by Rachel.  Even with the lead, the Steelers maintained the pressure.  Late in the second half, the midfielder’s short passes put the ball on Jen’s foot in front of the net.  Jen put the ball in the back of the net to give the Steelers a 3-1 victory.  This was easily the Steeler’s best effort of the season.  After the game, the referee complimented the coach’s on both team’s sportsmanship and the Steelers play.

The Steeler midfield continued its strong play on this drizzling day.  Jessica, Melissa, Mollie, Katie, Kara, and Rhianon used short passes and good position to frustrate the Sting defense.  Karie, Autumn and Malayna did a very good job keeping the ball in the Sting end of the field.  In fact, Autumn owned the middle of the field.  Nothing got through Autumn and Autumn decided who touched the ball next.  When a ball strayed to the middle, it was Autumn that put it into the back of the net.  Steelers 1, Sting 0.  As the midfielders tired, the play moved towards our end of the field.  Now it was Ashley, Karie and Malayna’s turn to frustrate the Sting.  They tried the outside way, they tried the inside way, but all they found was the defense saying no way.  The half ended Steelers 1, Sting 0.

At the half, Coach Dick told the team that if the Steelers scored the next goal, the game wouldn’t end 2-0, it would end 3-0 or 4-0.  The game opened up in the second half.  Both the Steelers and Sting started to tire so the ball went from one end of the field to the other on quick counter attacks.  Dexter is a big team and #16 is one of the bigger Dexter players.  Molly was able to tie up #16 time after time to keep the ball in the Sting end of the field.  It was like David versus Goliath.  The Sting pressured, but the closest they could come to scoring was a loose ball in front of our net.  The ball bounced around for what seemed forever in front of the net before Adrienne finally picked it up and punted it down the field.  A little later, the momentum switched back to the Steelers.  The shooting started and continued unabated until the end of the game.  Rachel started the scoring with a scrappy drive to the front of the net.  Jen worked hard for a goal.  Jen got the ball numerous times.  Sometimes she didn’t get the shot off.  Sometimes she shot wide.  Finally she took off her glasses.  She shot and hit the keeper.  The ball bounced off the keeper back to Jen who put it in the back of the net.  Coach Dick vowed to take her glasses before every game.  It was a big, well earned victory for the Steelers.