The Cactus Cup

Rustin and his teammates on the Gilbert Jr. Tigers had a great weekend playing 6 games and getting a bronze medal in the Cactus Cup this weekend!!! They played two games on Friday night (not pictured). They lost the first game to a team with a record of 9-1 (The Mustangs). We won our second game against the Broncos and it was an awesome victory over a tough team!

Our first game was at 9am Saturday morning and we won that too!  We played the Warriors and beat them pretty handily. In this picture Rustin is doing one of the things he does best, knock the ball out of his opponents stick.

Now the chase is on!

Clint standing over Brady who'd been knocked down. Not happy!

Rustin with his eye on the ball!

This next game was against the Outlaws and it was a nail biter! If we won this then we would be in the semi-finals. 

Rustin with his stick up ready to hack at the ball!

Take that!

Love that shot up in the air!

At the urging of the parents, Russ ran over to the team to let them know if they hung on for the win they would be in the semi-finals! He got almost as many cheers for running across the field than the boys did. 

Rustin takes a shot to try and lengthen their one point lead.

Goalie watches the shot fly up in the air after it hit the top bar of the goal. 

So close Rustin!!

We won anyway and Rustin was sweaty, exhausted but very happy!

They were all happy and stopped their celebration for a second to pose for a picture.

The next game was against the Scorpions who beat us earlier in the season in Tucson. We fought hard (as you can see, Rustin looks very uncomfortable) but lost by two goals! 

Get up! We have another game to play for the bronze!!!

Chloe and Ashlie and other players' little sisters entertained themselves during the games by sledding down the grassy hill on cardboard scraps.

Miranda, Tess and Jenessa (Nate's sister) who all play on the Gilbert High School's J.V. team practiced lacrosse between games and had fun showing the boys how you catch and throw without a pocket!

Lacrosse never looked so good!

Chloe tries surfing the grass on her feet!

Not as easy as it sounds.

"Hey # 27 I dropped my contact!"

or 

"This is a green line, it means if you go past it, you are out of bounds, Ok?"

 Actually, I have no idea what he was saying.

Whatever it was, it worked because Rustin had an amazing game!!!

Rustin doing the faceoff! He got the ball!!!

Rustin took on the biggest and fastest guys on the team and had the bruises to show for it. It only spurred him on to work harder!

David meets Goliath!

O.K. Perspective makes him look a little bigger than he really is but we was much bigger than Rustin and a head taller than our tallest player, Trenton! Earlier in the game Rustin ran headlong into him trying to push him out of bounds and it didn't work but he and his teammates were able to shut this guy down!

This is where Rustin gets a big bruise on his shoulder. You can see the ref calling a penalty on the other guy. 

This ticked Rustin off and he made some amazing moves down the field with the ball to help his team secure the win!!!

Taking them on with no regrets! 

The whole team played amazingly well. Some of my favorite parts were Gary and Andrew's teamwork from behind the net and into the goal. Collin's amazing quick, low and deadly shots. Andrew Cope's incredible defending skills and using his stick like a saber to harass his enemies and get the ball. Kyle Palmer's seemingly magic ability to always come up with the ball and never let it go until he's ready to shoot. Of course,  Trenton's wheels and brute strength mixed with great talent, Addison,Brady and Luke's amazing ball-handling skills. 

All the boys did great and appreciated the MANY MANY shots that their brave goalie, Alec, blocked!!

Whistle blows and we win 8-5 (or something like that)

The tradition of storming the goalie continues!

How many Jr. Tigers fit in one goal? Lots!

Coach John handing out the medals!

Yeah baby!

Happy Midi!

Trenton, Andrew and McKay soak coach with cooler of ICE!

Coach Chris barely avoids the coldness.

Coach is a good sport.

Jr. Tigers are majorly goofy!

Back to front: Coach Chris, Coach John, Andrew, Kyle P., Trenton, Collin, Clint, Dayton, Luke, 

Ben, Nate, Kyle, Gary

Andrew C., Alec, Brady, Addison, McKay, Robert

Rustin and Clint.

I am proud to say that is all from memory! No cheat sheet! After having the boys over to our house many times for parties and just relaxing between games I know them all by name based on their faces, not just their numbers!

Thanks for a great season tigers!