impact weekend!

a few words about the disproportionate number of pictures clare gets on this post: she's just prettier than her brothers. but seriously...first, i'm no photographer. this is especially true with my digital camera that captures the image about two seconds after i press the "shoot" button, and even more so when trying to photograph a fast-paced football game. liam is fortunate enough to have parent with a nice camera who posts photos on the web after each football game and clare's soccer games are much easier to photograph. unfortunately, kieran gets hosed. i'll try to compensate somehow in upcoming weeks.

If this keeps up i'll have to buy a video camera. the dufflings helped their teams go 2-1 this week, with clare scoring, not one, not two...oh wait, it was two goals and an assist! liam played another strong game, with a touchdown and the usual, smashmouth D and kieran made several tackles, including a TD-saving stop on chris cooley, or possibly his younger brother. this guy, number 34 on da bears, puts the OOOH! in HUUUGE, but kieran put him on his backside. kieran also had a strong run without the benefit of much blocking.

this week's nugget of wisdom to clare was to get in front of the goal when the ball is inside the penalty box. too often at this age the tendency is to advance the ball, pass it, and then stand around and watch. clare has always been good about staying involved without the ball, but i told her she could have had a couple goals this season if she were more aggressive on offense.

i love it when i'm right.

the white lightning tigers (or whatever, i've forgotten their name again) played excellent soccer saturday. the passes were crisp, the crossing passes were paced neatly in front of the forwards and the midfield got back on defense and served the ball up on a plate to the front line.

ok, enough about the rest of the team. this is the duffling blog, not the white tiger lighting kicking blog! clare's first goal was on a breakaway down the center of the field. she got the ball about 10 yards from the penalty box, dribbled past one defender and faked out the goalie to find the back of the net! it was So Exciting, one of those slow-motion moments that seemed to take about half-an-hour to unfold. and it really may have, because i had enough time to take a picture. normally i get the celebration after the goal because i'm busy yelling/jumping/biting my fingernails or doing a voodoo dance. but i was not to be denied a picture of my daughter's first goal.

the second goal came on another ball played from the middle of the field to clare on the right wing. after some fancy footwork, she angled the ball into the left corner of the net. great game clare!!!

liam. ok, it's a good thing this guy is a little small for his age because i don't think they'd let him in the league if he were any bigger. he played on both sides of the ball in his rookie season last year, but he didn't figure into the offense much until the last few games. this season he's gone from being the pee wee steelers' Secret Offensive Weapon to a regular contributor. liam's scoring in '06 was limited to an extra point conversion, and over the offseson he made it his goal to score a touchdown this year. he scored his fourth on saturday on a counter from roughly 35 yards out.

as proud as i am to watch him excel in the steeler offense, i get most geeked watching him deliver the goods from the middle linebacker position. accordingly, i was quite geeked this weekend, like three-ring-circus sideshow geeked.

with time running out, the opponents down plenty and just trying to erase the goose egg on the scoreboard, liam was apparently as psyched as i was to see one more solid stick. the bulldogs ran a sweep left and as the players spread out across the field, i noticed liam had a bead on the ball carrier. this promised to be good!

as the running back turned the corner, with the pack trailing him by a few steps, liam extended him an invitation to this week's edition of "JACKED UP!" as with many of his victims, liam gave up several inches on this guy, and that's before he slammed into his thigh pads and elevated him about 8 inches backwards off the ground. i swear, it was like the guy was standing the wrong way on an elevator before disappearing in a swarm of tackle-hungry steelers.

kieran's team faced the bears this week and it may as well have been the chicago bears. the smallest guy on their squad, save one, was at least as big as the biggest intermediate steeler. the bears also have a reputation for sending opponents to the injured reserve and playing dirty. they lived up to the latter, with plenty of stepping on hands and such, but as coach kit told his steelers, "that," pointing to the opposite bench, "is life. that's life in football, that's life at work, that's life when you're trying to get a girl. there's always going to be someone better-looking, taller or richer out there." but, as he reminded them, your character is revealed in how you deal with adversity, and they just played the toughest team in the rfl better than anyone expected.

the bears had one play they ran three times for three TD's which involved handing the ball to priest holmes and letting him outrun everyone to the end zone. he got there FAST, too! but on the fourth attempt, kieran, who was more than a little nervous about facing "da bears," dove at his knees and took him down.

at the pee wee level (9 - 11 year olds), the parents sometimes joke about how we'd be scared ourselves to face thus-and-such a player. at the intermediate level, this begins to be not so much of a joke. it would certainly be a little scary for any 13 year-old to face the entire rfl bears' defense with a football in his hands and no blockers in sight. that's exactly what kieran did, and for a moment it looked like he was going to break a long one for the first points scored against the bears all season. that dream ended abruptly as the secondary appeared from nowhere closed in around him, but not before kieran logged the longest play from scrimmage for his team. way to fight, kieran duffy!!!

next week kieran's team faces a team a little more their speed. after getting a large dose of harsh reality against the bears, i'm thinking they'll be ready to eat these guys up! stay tuned...