As we crest the hill to 2013 — you silly Mayans — it's inevitable that we look back and remember the best moments from the year left behind.
In just a few short months at the Journal I've had the luck to watch and cover some really great games. The ones that stick out the most do so because they had a moment, a point in time where you felt the rush, the rush of ... pure bliss.
Because that's what's great about sports. We watch teams grind their way through long seasons, observe how the kids develop and improve until, finally, we reach a game — a moment — where all the hard work can either pay off in a huge win or it can seemingly all drown in a lake of misery after a bitter loss.
The moments I'm writing about are when the quarterback finds an open receiver down field for the game-winning touchdown or the buzzer-beating jumpshot in basketball. They're moments fans of that team — of both teams, really — won't forget and neither can the players involved.
Like when Bonneville’s Jordan Vielma kicked a 26-yard field goal with four seconds left to beat Pocatello (sorry, I know that one still hurts Indian fans).
Or the Malad-West Side doubleheader in volleyball that took half the night but was worth the time because only one could advance to state. Those volleyball matches weren’t just about one moment. Instead it was the accumulation of emotion as momentum swung back and forth until, ultimately, the Dragons advanced (apologies to Pirate fans).
Without question, though, the single greatest, best moment from 2012 came from a girls’ soccer match. A 4A semifinal game more specifically.
The Century Diamondbacks entered the 2012 4A Girls Soccer Tournament as the No. 1 seed from the 4A Fifth/ Sixth District, a confident team that hadn’t lost in over a month.
After defeating Wood River 2-0 in their first game, and exercising some opening-round demons in the process — Century had lost its first game at state the previous four season — the D-backs only had Moscow between them and the championship match.
But semi-final games in state tournaments aren’t supposed to be easy, and this one wasn’t. The Bears from Moscow had come to play.
Century struck first via a goal from freshman Kennedy Yost just before half. That 1-0 lead felt like it might hold as Moscow’s offense, like so many before them, struggled to solve the riddle known as the Diamondbacks’ defense.
The Bears, however, were a team that fit the proverbial description of scrappers and refused to go away. In the 50th minute, Moscow’s Julianne Renner found a hole in the D-backs’ defense, took a cross from teammate Ashley Engberg, and crushed the ball into the net to tie the game.
Suddenly, Century, a team that expected nothing less than a spot in the state championship, teetered on the brink of disaster. But in the face of adversity, the D-backs showed their true colors. Instead of withering from the pressure, they attacked harder, relentlessly and without remorse.
Moscow wouldn’t fold, though, and overtime loomed.
Until that freshman, Yost, with an apparent penchant for delivering when it matters most, drew a foul in the 79th minute just outside the box.
It set up a free kick for senior Katherine Roberts.
This was, potentially, one of those moments. In the state tournament, with the game tied, Roberts had the ability with her foot to rocket the D-backs into the championship match.
So, of course, she did.
The ball arced high into the net, just beyond the goalkeeper’s outstretched glove. Roberts’ arms shot up in the air as if saluting the heavens themselves.
Century 2, Moscow 1.
Does the fact that Century lost in the next game to Bishop Kelly somehow tarnish the memory?
Well, remember Abby Wambach’s header that sent U.S. into a shootout with Brazil in the 2010 World Cup? It’s arguably the second-greatest goal in U.S. women’s soccer history.
Is that play diminished by America’s loss to Japan in the championship?
For me, absolutely not.
Let Roberts’ game winner live on in all its glory because in that singular point of time there was nothing better.
And I haven’t even mentioned the best part of the story.
Roberts is staying close to home — ultra close — and heading to Idaho State to play soccer for the Bengals.
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