The Flip with Lip Makes it debut
October 13, 2010 | Men's Soccer
Oct. 13, 2010
Louisville, Ky. - Hello Cardinal fans! My teammate Austin Berry had kindly handed over the reigns of the blog to me to finish out the 2010 season. I am looking forward to keeping you updated throughout the rest of the season. Currently, your Cardinals remain undefeated after a 2-1 victory at Rutgers last Saturday night. It was a long yet successful weekend and three points well earned.
After JT Murray's brilliant game winner against St. Johns on Saturday, September 25; we used our week off to recover and prepare for Rutgers. Thursday, the day before we departed for Newark, New Jersey - the team was looking good and healthy. It had to be an early night due to scheduled departure from Cardinal Park at 6 a.m. on Friday morning. The team handled the early wake up call pretty well. When we arrived at Cardinal Park we packed up the rest of our travel gear and belongings. Not much was said at 5:45 a.m. except for a few incoherent grunts and a brief conversation on how cherry juice makes you have crazy dreams. Cherry juice is given to us from our strength coach Jason to help with recovery. Cherry juice also serves as an antioxidant and helps you get a good night sleep. If you drink cherry juice before bed, you will often wake up in the next morning vividly remembering your bizarre dreams. Cherry juice dreams have become a hot locker-room topic in the mornings. Anyways, by 6 a.m. we where bound for Newark, New Jersey.
We flew a connecting flight from Louisville to Chicago, then from Chicago to La Guardia in New York City. Our flights went smoothly. Actually... on our second flight from Chicago to La Guardia, shortly after take off, the majority of the team was fast asleep. I started to drift into la la land when I was violently shaken awake as the plane began to plummet. I noticed a passenger to my left begin to scream. I thought to myself, "this is it." Just as I was about to pull the freak out and scream or burst into tears, the plane leveled out. The cabin nervously laughed it off and we continued on our way. Even though the rest of the flight went smoothly, sleeping was out of the question. Due to the post trauma from the plunge, I had broken out into cold sweats and had a rapid heart beat. Once we safely landed in La Guardia around noon, the team was anxious to get to the hotel for lunch and down time.
In the past, the team has experienced more than one questionable bus drivers while visiting NYC. Particularly in NYC the bus driver's seem to get confused in the massive city. We often find ourselves lost on route to the hotel or destination. Once we get sidetracked, the bus driver no longer is a city employee. He becomes Jeff Gordon rounding the final lap of the Daytona 500. Unfortunately, some maneuvers in NASCAR aren't made for a charter bus...
Around 12:30 p.m. we had picked up our luggage and were patiently waiting outside to be picked up by our bus driver. Once again confused, the bus driver thought we were to be picked up at 2 p.m. We ate lunch at the airport and were finally picked up around 1:30. With the white checkered flag waiving, lap one of the Daytona 500 officially started.
Since the bus driver was late we didn't have a chance for any down time. By the time we got to the hotel we had to quickly change for our afternoon training session. We could only train for an hour because of our 6:30 p.m. reservations at the Macaroni Grill. This gave us plenty of time to get the travel stiffness out of our legs.
Due to a Rutgers football game we had to take an alternate route to the restaurant. Roughly an hour later, we arrived to the restaurant absolutely starving. The team, full of grown boys, inhaled our entrees. I can't recall if I used silverware with for my shrimp alfredo. I believe I just dropped my head in my plate and the rest is history. Later that night the team met in a conference for a chat about the game and Saturday's schedule.
Saturday's schedule went accordingly: breakfast 10 a.m. at Somerset Diner, walk through on the game field after breakfast, pregame lunch at 3 p.m. at the hotel, and finally a win over Rutgers at 7 p.m. Congrats' to Austin Berry and Andrew Farrell both scoring to clinch the win. I'd also like to give a shout out to David Stockum for his outstanding encouragement from the sideline. Just as Aaron Horton began our counter attack at midfield and preceded to play an excellent through ball to Andrew who would go on to score, I couldn't help to look over at a grown man sprinting down the sideline keeping up with the play then celebrating as if we just won the World Cup. Indeed, this man was David. Once again, hat's off to your enthusiasm on the sideline.
We are currently on the road at Cincinnati, Ohio for our match Wednesday night at 7:00 p.m. against the University of Cincinnati. UC is also 3-0 in the BIG EAST. Just like any match, we are prepared for success. Keep truckin' Cards!
