Carter Gribble and the Irish Look to Make a Statement Early in the Season

SEATTLE - With a bad taste lingering from a important loss against a familiar opponent, the O'Dea Irish were foaming at the mouth to play the Lakeside Lion's soccer team again. Especially junior Carter Gribble, who was injured for their previous quarterfinal matchup last season.

This one was personal.

"We knew what we had to do and we knew it was going to take a lot," said Gribble, "they didn't lose a lot of guys from last year, so they are still stacked."

The Irish looked to start off hot, senior's Connor Lofy and Favian Martinez scored for the Irish once each going up to 2-0 for a majority of the match, but Lakeside made a late push to tie the game up with little time left.

"It was a long game and we were exhausted, and it felt like we went back in forth but nothing happened," commented Gribble.

The game ultimately ended in a tie, leaving the Irish 1-1-0, and although they didn't come out with a win, the team felt like they were in good shape for when they see each other in the playoffs. "It'll be the same situation as last year, where we see them late and that will be a test of our abilities," added Gribble.

The next week the Irish prepared for another tough opponent with the Redmond Mustangs and O'Dea's confidence didn't leave from last weeks performances.

Gribble said that "The game conditions were terrible, and they played well against us," he also added, "we were neck and neck the entire game, when we would score they would score."

Though, late in the game, Redmond scored to bring the score to 3-2. Which led the Irish to fall short on the rainy Friday night.

Irish's own, Favian Martinez scored twice and Dylan Weinstein scored once, advancing them to 3-1-1 in the regular season.

Gribble has a positive outlook and thinks things are lining up as they should to be in a "pitch" perfect spot by playoffs.