Walhalla Varsity 2, Southside Chr. 4; Walhalla JV 0, Southside JV 1

The Concussion Game

As I stepped off the bus at Southside Christian Academy into the gale force wind, a bald little man, sopping wet with side-hair almost knocked me over in his frantic chase for what looked like a toupee which was eluding him, as if it had a mind of its own, every time he bent down to retrieve it. It finally landed on a tall piece of grass in a huge ditch cunningly dug out behind the visiting teams warm-up goal. (Needless to say, I spent a lot of time in that craggy ditch before the game and was still catching my breath when the opening whistle blew.) He dusted the renegade hair piece off, chastized it for embarrassing him and exposing his true identity, under his breath, and then walked out onto the pitch with a large pair of glistening scissors to finish cutting the grass which had been doused with a mysterious water-like substance, along with the floppy haired greens keeper, about 30 minutes prior to us getting there.

Despite not being allowed much warm-up time and lacking several key players due to their alleged role in a practice-skipping scandal, the mini-hogs had most of the play against the pocket-knives of Southside Christian but could never get that elusive goal. Hermilio came down from the varsity team and played a stellar game in the goal for us and Hayden Wilson played a courageous game on a severely bruised bum.

The first 15 minutes of the Varsity contest saw the Razorbacks knocking the ball all over the pitch looking poised to dominate the sabres for the rest of the night. Cody "the Dunn" Dunton was flying about the goal mouth in complete charge until he made an incredible save going air born to his right, jabbing the ball with his right hand over the cross bar but clanking into the post (which was round luckily) with his head, knocking him to the ground. After a few scary moments Cody was helped to his feet. The referee asked him to read the score board to which a dazed and dizzy Cody replied without looking up, "0 - 0." To think that he had enough wit and competitive fire to try and dupe the referee and stay in the game is a testament to just what true grit and heart Cody Dunton has. In that statement, "0-0," he showed what a true leader is even though he could not play the rest of the night. Though Tom Warner came in and did an amazing job in his absence making several goal saving efforts, the hogs greatly missed Cody's presence the rest of the night and had a difficult time trying to overcome the loss. From the minute he left the game the tide began to shift, and though Solomon Garcia scored a brilliant goal and Jonathon Martinez was able to pound another penalty kick through, we just could not ever regain the magic of the first fifteen minutes. Our usually fluid game was gone with the wind and as hard as we chased it we couldn't quite seem to catch up with it. Hopefully it landed back in Westminster where we play the dreaded Warriors Thursday night.

On April 24th, both Razorback squads will get another crack at Southside. They will have to come to "the beach" this time where we don't use silver-plated scissors but a large rake attached to the back of a tractor to manicure our pitch. They will have to deal with our rabid fan base with their pitchforks and medieval torches and the haunting shadows that are cast onto the field from the bamboo forest and the giant Leland Cyprus trees surrounding it. They will also have to deal with the dreaded Darlene Kerr who will stare them down with her steely eyes as they step off their chartered tour bus and make them feel like maybe they should have stayed home and called in sick. Don't miss this one Purple Pig Nation. It will be one for the ages.

-j-