It's Pancakes and Waples Syrup for Rough Riders!

With the team trailing 1-0 with fifteen minutes left to play, the Riders, nearly all of whom were off their game for one reason or the other, needed a big lift. Despite sloppy passing, bad defense, and an offense that had no trouble getting the ball into the goalie box but a lot of difficulty getting it past the Boardman goalie, the Lady Riders were only down 1-0, a bouncer scored by a Boardman attackwoman with under a minute left to play in the first half. The normally pragmatic and unemotional Coach Mitchell at halftime told his struggling squad at the break, "for the first time in seven years, I have nothing good to say..." Continuing, (paraphrasing) "we're not playing our best... correction, you're not playing you're best." Harsh words, but words the Riders apparently needed coming out of the half. The Riders seemed to control the tempo the minute the ball was put into the play that second half, making some nice runs into the box, and taking some of the pressure off of Rider goalie Abby Bradford.

The "big lift" came with fifteen minutes to play. Erin Waples, a sophomore attacker, whose brother plays on the boy's varsity team, approached the goal from the left sideline. With an amazing thwack of her left foot, the ball, bending like Beckham, flew just over top of the goalie's hand and into the goal to tie up the game with just under fifteen left to play. AND THE CROWD WENT WILD! But she was not done. Waples, on the next Rider possession, would shoot it past the goalie, again with her left foot. AND THE CROWD WAS INSANE. 2-1 Riders. We were just recovering from hooting and hollering in the stands, hyperventilating and all, when Waples took the ball once more on the left side, from a nice feed from Hannah Sampson, and bent it again into the top left part of the goal. 3-1 Riders. A hat trick in less than one minute, about fifty seconds by my calculation. This must be one of the fastest ever recorded. Yahoo! Answers says that the fastest hat trick by professional players came in 1964, when Ross County player Tommy Ross scored three goals in 90 seconds versus Naim County F.C. By this, Waples abolished Ross' record. 


After this "miracle minute," the Riders nor Boardman ever threatened again. Though the Riders should be happy to come away from Boardman with a win, they should be concerned with the lack of spirit and drive they had during the majority of the game. They'll need to improve if they want to stay competitive come playoff time. Waples won't be able to score three goals so easily again. Though I think she deserves more playing time... !