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We said some official goodbyes Saturday night to our seniors and our home field, but managed to keep our season alive with a well-earned victory against Valparaiso.
The night started out emotionally with the presentation of senior awards to our three departing Panthers, Jamie Bladen, John Shakon and Cody Banks. Their parents were invited up to receive their deserved honors alongside them. Cody’s and John’s family proudly marched out their sons to cheers from the crowd. But as Jamie’s name was announced, he was accompanied by a man who looked suspiciously like our athletic trainer, John Ochsenwald, instead of any Bladen relation.
Nonetheless, in the absence of his real father on the night, who couldn’t make the trip across the Atlantic, Ox hugged him like a son to warm applause from the team for one of our star players this fall. All three seniors have indeed contributed hugely to the program over their years here and I’m sure everybody who knows them wishes them well in whatever futures lay ahead.
We also played our final game of the season at Engelmann field on Saturday. Finishing with a victory was both crucial for our post-season participation and fitting for the way we have played at home this year. A final record of 6-1 at Engelmann has provided the backbone for our team’s winning record and this has come about from a mixture of great crowd support, home confidence and familiarity of our surroundings.
We are thankful to all the fans who have cheered us on this fall and the Valparaiso game was no different. Our 2-1 win had a lot of positives. It was our first victory in four outings, it secured fifth place in the division and Kyle Neumann tallied his first goal of the year.
With a bit of luck next week’s blog will not be my last, as we look to extend our season for as long as possible. We all know there is a lot of hard work to do and some good teams standing in our way, but in the post-season we also know that anything can happen!
