High School Soccer - Millikan Boys Varsity vs Cabrillo

High School Soccer

My first sporting event for 2017

Covered the Millikan Varsity Boys vs Cabrillo game, which was held at Millikan High School.  We've been having a lot of rain in So. Cal, which is a very good thing, but the clouds opened up and provided me with some great light for this game.  It was great being out there shooting some soccer, which I haven't done much of lately.

For this game I used my Canon 7D mark II along with my 300 f/2.8L IS lens.

Please enjoy these highlights from the game.

Millikan Girls Varsity Soccer vs Poly

This has not been a good week at all, but it did pick up when I got a text requesting me to cover the Millikan vs Poly girls soccer game.  The only down side was the game started at 5pm, which meant a night game.

 

When it comes down to shooting sports I will adapt and get the shots I want.  So enjoy a few of my favorites from the game.

 

CIF State Semifinals - Boys Soccer - Millikan vs Crescenta Valley

With their win against La Costa Canyon in the CIF State Playoffs Millikan continues to the CIF State Semifinals against Crescenta Valley

In this match up Millikan struck first scoring a goal, but Crescenta Valley quickly returned the favor by putting one of their own into the net. The game stayed pretty close until Crescenta Valley matched their goal with another one giving them a pair. Millikan had drive and focus, but were unable to come up with another goal ending their drive for a state title.

Now to some action shots. I'm a firm believer when shooting sports you should get some safe shots prior to the game. What I mean by safe shots are those shots of players you either won't normally get, such as players riding the bench, or players that play away from the action. Now although goalies don't really play away from the action they do tend to be crowded when the action comes their way. You really need to position yourself in a place of advantage to focus on the goalie and only the goalie. So I make it a practice to get some shots of the goalies while their warming up. These first two shots are of those.

Here are both teams being brought onto the field by the ref's

Millikan's coach with his head bowed during the national athem.

Now for some action.

CIF State Playoffs - Boys Soccer - Millikan vs La Costa Canyon

After Millikan's CIF win against Ventura on March 2nd, they continued to the CIF Southern California Regional Championships with their first round of playoffs being against La Costa Canyon.

La Costa Canyon drew first blood, but all that did was put Millikan into a frenzy with them returning the favor by scoring 4 goals within the matter of several minutes. It was a very exciting game to watch as Millikan simply dominated the game.

Sit back and take a look at what domination looks like.

CIF Semi-Finals Boys Soccer Millikan vs Loyola

Last week I took off early (yeah I deducted it from my time) to cover the CIF semi-finals at Loyola High for boys soccer.

I hate covering a team when its a defensive game as I don't get the face on action as they move the ball towards the goal and me, which is how this game started and pretty much played out during the whole first half. Occasionally the Millikan Rams, whom I was covering, moved the ball and made attempts to score, but on the most part the ball stayed on Loyola's side. This caused me to adjust my position to get some action of my players as Loyola dominated the first half making two goals.

I don't know what was said during their halftime between the players and coaches, but whatever it was it put some fire in Millikan's eyes. They came out during the second half playing some great offense and moving the ball, which gave me more and better opportunities to capture some offensive shots.

Now to quickly run down the remaining game stats, Millikan was able to score their first goal at about the 17 min mark (second half), bringing the score 2-1 Loyola. With just a little more than a minute left in game play Millikan pulled off another goal tying the score. This brought them into overtime with two additional 10min periods. After no goals being made during double overtime the game went to penalty kicks. I have to say I was very impressed with Millikan's goalie and how he was able to read the ball and eventually winning in penalty kicks.

Now to the shots. I've said it in the past and will state it again, take the opportunity during warm up to get some shots of the goalie. I say this for a couple of reasons. One and most importantly if you position yourself to get the goalie you are more than likely positioning yourself away from the offensive side of the action and missing a lot of shots, but if your team is being dominated then you'll have plenty of opportunities for some great goalie action.

So these first two shots were taken during warm up and since the first shot was a bit soft past the hands I decided to play with it and turn it into a b&w (high contrast / clarity), which I like a lot.

Now for some game action.

This was Millikan's first goal

Although I didn't capture a decent shot of the second goal I did get some great shots of the player who made the shot as he ran towards Loyola side lines screaming. Loved the intensity of this one.

Of course they need to get the fans invovled.

With the score tied 2-2 and after double overtime the game went to penalty kicks. This first one is of the Millikan goalie who did an awesome job at the net.

Taken just after he stopped his last goal for the win and right before he was mobbed by his team.