Saturday, September 5, 2009:

Well, our season has begun in earnest. Last evening we opened our season against Blackburn College from Illinois and it could not have been a better start to the 2009 season. Playing against Blackburn brought back a wave of memories, not about playing them particularly, but playing once again against one of my oldest and best friends in soccer coaching...Aydin Gonulsen. We go back a very long way and had some great battles playing each other almost every year and especially in the NAIA National Tournaments, when he was at Illinois-Springfield. It is always such a special treat for me to play against my friends from coaching and it certainly makes the game that much more enjoyable. We will always battle as warriors, but in the end we will always hug and remind ourselves of our great friendship, forged through these battles! Tonight was no different. My only regret is that one of his players broke his leg in 3 places and had to have surgery last night. He is doing well after surgery and we wish him a very speedy recovery. His name is Andrew Leonard.

As I said, last night could not have gone better. It was the first time in my career that we played 26 players in a game. We are carrying 28 players on our roster and the only reason the 27 and 28th players did not play was because one is injured and the other was not ready yet. The game itself began with a goal in the 8th minute by Garner Shivers, a sophomore from Oxford, MS with an assist from Tyler Evans, another sophomore from Panama City, FL. Our 2nd goal came in the 17th minute by Tyler Evans on an assist from Nico Reitmeier, a freshman from Stadtallendorf, Germany. The 3rd goal was again scored by Garner Shivers with another assist from his counterpart up front, Tyler Evans in the 28th minute of the first half. The 4th goal was scored by Tony Crocker, a sophomore transfer from Appalachian State and a Birmingham resident, with an assist again from Nico Reitmeier. The 5th and final goal of the first half was scored by Nico Reitmeier, with an assist from Tony Crocker. So the score at half was BSC 5, Blackburn College 0! Blackburn did not have a shot on goal during the first half and our defense, with Shachar Hovan in goal had a clean sheet thus far!

The second half began with our starting team now back in the game after a good rest, including the 15 minutes of halftime. We did make a change in goal with Charlie Boles, a freshman goalkeeper from Florida starting ther 2nd half in place of Shachar. Charlie played 23 minutes and was replaced by another freshman, Clint Lum, from Pearland, TX. Their goalkeeper came up really big, with some great saves. Finally, after making more substitutions, we scored again in the 68th minute, with a goal from Jonathan Alexander and an assist from Jared Brookins. Both are local Birmningham freshmen playing in their first intercollegiate game. That was great to see! The 7th and final goal was scored in the 80th minute by Stuart Weekes, a freshman from Bridgetown, Barbados, with an assist from Brice Hunt, a sophomore from West Plains, MO.

So, our final score was BSC 7, Blackburn College 0! Overall, it was a good result for us in our opening game. We now play Mississippi College a 3:0 winner over Sewanee in the first game of our tournament. This will be a really good test for our very young team. Mississippi College is a very talented team with a great striker who scored all 3 goals against Sewanee. last year they beat us 6:3, in a game we could have done a lot better in. Now it is time for payback and we must come out determined to influence the flow and direction of this game. We have talked about restoring the great Pride our tradition has instilled in the program through the years. We must take Pride in the Jersey we wear; take Pride in doing whatever it takes to make something happen in a positive way; take Pride in knowing you can do your best each and every time we step on the field; take Pride in limiting our unforced errors; take Pride in not allowing your opponent to beat you and take great Pride in winning as many individual battles against your opponent that you can in order to make sure we win the war! Pride is an individual thing in each of us and those of us that have this Pride will always be successful!! BSC through the years has always had great Pride in the Jersey, representing our College, our families and most importantly our team! Tradition and Pride will always be evident in everything we do as team, never forgetting the past Traditions of this program and always striving to forge new Traditions and Pride in ourselves, our team and our history!

I would like to take this opportunity to say thank you to our constant and wonderful sponsors Jim 'N Nick's Bar-b-q and PUMA and all that they do to help keep our Tradition and Pride alive. Jim 'N Nick's has been with us since 1984, Buffalo Rock (Pepsi) since 1987 and PUMA has been with us since 1992. Our program could never have accomplished all that we have over the years,without their constant support and loyalty to our program. So, on behalf our our team, once again, thank you so very much for always being so loyal to us!

So, until Sunday, I will say goodbye. Have a great week-end and we hope to see all of you at our game at 2:30 PM tomorrow.

Coach Goldfarb from BSC