The Long Shots

Blue - Royal

Non ausi, nihil acquiritur

Established in the fall of 2016 the Long shots struggled to find their first win. It took the opening game of the playoffs for them to earn a shutout against the first place team Three Rivers United and then to win in the shootout. The Long Shots would go on to lose the next week to Winterfell on a frozen field with temps in the low 20s.

The Long Shots started off the 2017 season going 0 for 8 in the Spring, and managed to earn 2 wins and a draw in both the Summer and Fall.

The Long Shots failed to field a team for Spring of 2018 but came into the Summer with a renewed sense of purpose as well as some new blood. Adding a solid backstop and a talented striker allowed the Long Shots to finish the season in 4th place setting up a playoff run that seemed unimaginable just a year ago.

The Long Shots eliminated Paintsburgh in the first round and set their sites on the first place team, Steel Soul who had beat them 3-0 early in the season. The game started on a goal from the Long Shots. Steel Soul would claw their way back to even, and the game winner came on the foot of Gavi who bent it outside low, pinging the right post as the keeper was fooled and went left. Steel Soul put forth a feverish effort to tie it again.

Fortune looked to favor Steel Soul late in the game when Lenny made a stop but couldn't contain it allowing a pass to a wide open winger who had the whole goal to shoot at. Leah stopped her shot a foot out and made the clear. The final act of the soccer gods came thanks to the incapability of the ref to see a clear handball inside the six which gave Steel Soul's attack a long enough pause for a clear.

Immediately after the game Winterfell took the field to face the Long Shots in the championship game. After a physically and emotionally draining game against Steel Soul the Long Shots couldn't put forth enough effort to beat the perennial champs. Second place might feel like a sorry place for some teams but given the history of the Long Shots and where they look to be going it will be remembered as the point where they announced to the league that this is a team on the rise who came to win.