The Taft Boys Thirds soccer team welcomed our big rival Hotchkiss to Taft for our last match of the year on a cold, sunny, blustery day in early November. Our field was a soupy mess due to last night’s rain and the excessive rain that we have been experiencing all fall really. Both teams came out energetically with Taft going toe to toe with a very talented Hotchkiss side. Unfortunately the lads in red again let fouls get the better of us. Hotchkiss took advantage of two free kicks from within the Taft defensive third and scored two goals in quick succession late in the first half. Then a Taft defender missed the ball on an attempted clear and allowed the Hotchkiss forward to go in alone on Taft ‘keeper Bryce Smith, who had a good match by the by. The first half ended with ‘kiss ahead three nil. We had a pretty spirited talk and listen at half and our boys did give their best effort early in the second half but then a Hotchkiss through-ball split the Taft defense and lead to the lads in white & blue scoring their fourth and final goal of the match. All year our team has won matches based on athleticism not upon soccer smarts or skill. Today’s tilt was probably the last organized soccer match that many of the Taft players will ever play or desire to play. At halftime, I told our team that I should have tried harder to get them to practice harder and better and truly become better soccer players. However, it is very difficult to get someone to try harder. To get nineteen someones to try harder is an enormous task and to get all nineteen boys to actually care was impossible. Early in our season, one of our boys marveled, “Hey, we’re pretty good. Imagine how good we would be if we actually tried.” No true words were spoken about our team. We finish this season with nine wins, four losses and one draw. This is a pretty good record and our goals for/goals against was very good, as well. However, we could have been better and served the game better. See you next year.