Lake Buena Vista, Fla. – The final whistles had blown and the battling, grabbing, shoving and slide-tackling was over.
On the field, the women on the Colorado Rush Nike and Carmel United Commotion teams finally had their chance to hug and shake hands. On the sideline, Rush coach Dave Dengerink shook Commotion coach Mark Castro’s hand and said, “The game lived up to the hype, I’ll tell you that much.”
In the first meeting since last summer’s tragic accident evolved into a friendship between these teams, the Jefferson County-based Rush beat the suburban Indianapolis-based Commotion 1-0 on Thursday in the under-19 round-robin portion of the U.S. Youth Soccer National Championships at Disney’s Wide World of Sports.
The game was on the line with a penalty kick during injury time at the end of the second half.
After Mel Samokishyn received a yellow card for fouling the Commotion’s Jill Sarbaugh in the goal box, Sarbaugh aimed her penalty kick low and right, the same direction Rush goalkeeper Rachel Zollner dived to make the save.
“It was kind of a half-guess, half-instinct, I’m not really sure,” Zollner said. “But I stepped in, and I knew I could save it.”
The Rush scored in the 31st minute of the second half, when Caroline Lea headed in Genna Gorman’s corner kick.
“It was a great game,” Dengerink said. “Especially the last 30 minutes were outstanding.”
The victory leaves the Rush, which lost its first round-robin game Wednesday night, with a chance to advance to the championship game if it can defeat the Dallas Texans Red 86 team this morning.
Many of the Commotion players left the field crying after the game, which eliminated the top-seeded team from reaching the championship game.
After what happened June 12, 2004, in Lakewood, reaching the national tournament was an accomplishment in itself. That day, while Carmel United was in the Denver area for a tournament the Rush was hosting, the Commotion’s 15-passenger van rolled after a collision on West Sixth Avenue.
The paramedics who arrived to the scene said the five players who ended up in intensive care could have died, considering the nature of the accident and their injuries, according to parent Jeff Larkin.
The Rush players, coaches and parents quickly responded. In the next two weeks, the Rush would help supply hotel rooms, transportation, meals and, perhaps most important, company to the injured players and their parents.
The parents have been in constant communication since, and some of the players, including Samokishyn, kept in contact. But many of the Rush players had never or rarely spoken with their Commotion counterparts since last summer. They had that chance after the game, when the teams met up at a nearby Italian restaurant.
“Coming from the losing side, our pride stings a little bit, but we’ll really be able to thank them for what they did for us last summer,” Castro said.
In other games, Real Colorado National’s boys under-18 team beat FC Milwaukee 2-0 on Thursday morning and was scheduled to play the PDA Conquistadors from New Jersey on Thursday night.
