Soccer Season’s End

The Clarke County Football Club concluded their inaugural season in the Old Dominion Soccer League last weekend with two hard-fought away games.

The first game was played against FSCI Phoenix White of Fredericksburg, Virginia, the only undefeated team in the league. The CCFC has improved immensely since they started the season in September as a brand-new team, and they continued their winning streak with a 2-1 victory on Saturday night.

It was the first time I’ve shot a game under the lights, so it was a challenge to deal with the variable brightness on the field and high ISO settings while stopping the fast action. It was also fun to play with the shutter speed and pan with the action to attain some of that artsy motion blur.

Sunday’s afternoon game at 1:30 against the TAFC Eagles 98 in Occoquan, Virginia, was by far the most aggressive game the CCFC team had encountered all year. While their style of play provided me with some amazing action shots, it was at the expense of some of the CCFC players who hit the turf pretty hard.

Thankfully, by half time and after the Eagles had received several yellow cards, they reined in their players. But the CCFC was on a roll, and by the game’s end the score was 7-0. Seven different players scored in this game, providing a great swan song for several who netted their first goal of the season, including Cameron.

It was a fun and memorable season, and Cam enjoyed playing “up” with the older boys, most of whom will be returning to the field this spring to play varsity soccer for the Clarke County High School team. Very few, if any, ninth graders make the cut for varsity, so Cam will have to wait and see how tryouts go in February. But with his improved skills and higher confidence level, who knows?