On a beautiful sunny afternoon but chilly weather with only on the high 50's, the Caro bus was heading towards Croswell-Lexington headquarters to face the Pioneers for their first time. Missing on the bus were Deziree Hughes and Abby Spencer which left the team with no subs on the horizon.

It was also officially the last school day for the four (4) Tigers' seniors Stopper Marisol Reyes (C), Right Defender Ellie Fisch (C), Left Defender Olivia Montgomery and Right Midfielder Bryanna Funsch. The word on the bus was to perform during this game and try to win it for the seniors, although the lineup was restricted to only 11 players.

After a paying respect to the American Flag and a brief presentation of the players on both sides by the hosting staff, the officials blew the whistle to kick-off the game. Within 5 minutes of play, the Caro midfield and forward machines already threatened 3 times with Olivia Walker missing a golden opportunity after a breakaway face to face with the Cros-Lex goalie, Faith MacDonald missing the net so close by hitting the top right corner of the goal post, and Alyssa Smith coming close to surprise the hosts' goalie by inches to go out past the post. On another organized attack, Freshman Olivia Walker missed a beautiful shot at the top right corner of the goal tender. The Tigers kept pressing the Pioneers' vulnerable defense and Freshman Faith MacDonald took matters in her hands by dribbling through and past the defenders to shoot the ball right at the goalie.

It was obvious that the Caro players were dominating the soccer field real estate with nice transitions from the solid defense through the midfield and towards the forward crew. With a nice cross from Freshman Lexie Johnson and a deflection by Bryanna Funsch and Katie Scharrer, Olivia Walker retrieved the ball and shot it with her left foot to surprise the hosts' goalie for the first goal for Caro assisted by Katie Scharrer. The hosting team from Cros-Lex decided to switch gears to try to put pressure on the visitors' defense but in vain since the solid defense led by Junior Lydia Chapelo and supported by Seniors Ellie Fisch, Marisol Reyes and Olivia Montgomery did not allow any action to threaten the amazing goalie Talena Pifer.

On another organized attack by the visitors led by Freshmen Olivia Walker and Lexie Johnson, center forward player and Sophomore Katie Scharrer intercepted the ball outside the box and rushed towards the dangerous opponent's zone to blast the ball with an accurate shot to beat the hosts' goalie for the second goal of the game assisted by Olivia Walker and Lexie Johnson. At this point, the game was controlled by the visitors and the Croswell-Lexington Pioneers kept pressing the Caro's defense but without any tangible result for this half and retrieved to their bench with built-up frustration not to resolve the dilemma at this half break time.

The half time speech by the coaching staff on the Caro bench was focused to remind the players to stay at their game competitive level and not to relax too much by being too confident with a 2 goal lead. The word was to spread out and use the whole field as the opponents tend to gather in the middle.

After 10 minutes into the second half, Bryanna Funsch and Lexie Johnson were pressing up front and fair enough, Olivia Walker exploited a lost ball outside the opponent's box to surprise their goalie with a perfect top quality shot into the top right corner for her second goal of the game to give her team a 3-0 lead with assists from Funsch and Johnson. The coaches decided at that point to move up Sweeper and Junior Lydia Chapelo into the center midfield to switch with Walker who became the sweeper for the rest of the game. Another line up change was deemed necessary to move up Senior Bryanna Funsch to anticipate any actions from her since she was very motivated to score a goal. On a smart attack from the wing by Lexie Johnson who passed the ball to Faith MacDonald, Bryanna Funsch intercepted the ball in the dangerous zone to surprise the goalie with a low shot to beat her for her first goal of the season assisted by both MacDonald and Johnson. What a nice gift for Funsch's last school day at the high school level.

Some slight adjustments within the defense maintained the protection of the Caro goalie's headquarters and contained the hungry opponents' forwards but in vain without any result to change the outcome of the Tigers' 4-0 win. Such a sweet win dedicated to the Seniors of the team!

The MVP award/trophy was presented to the whole TEAM as each player contributed and gave it all to impress not only the coaching staff but the parents present at the field. The MVP trophy was labeled "2019 Varsity Team"! The Caro team ended up with 39 shots on goal (a high school team record) and goaltender Talena Pifer experienced her 3rd shutout of the season by making a total of 11 saves during this game which brings her total number of saves of the season to 286 in 13 games with an average of  22 saves per game.

Next and final game of the season is tomorrow Wednesday May 22 traveling to Harbor Beach HS. Bus leaves at 2:45 pm from Caro HS and the game starts at 4:30 pm.

District game will be next Tuesday, May 28,  in Frankenmuth facing the winner of Garber/USA game at 6:00 pm.