October 8th, 2016              

    Samantha and her Michigan Impact teammates took to the field to start off the Nike Classic Cup tournament in a rematch game against their regular season game 1 opponent, the Jackson Rush. While the first matchup between the two teams was all Impact, things didn't start out that way in this game. The Rush team dominated the ball for the first 5 minutes of action, keeping the Impact girls on their heels. Thankfully the girls finally started to wake up a bit, and the rest of the first half of the contest was played relatively evenly between the two teams. The game went into an early halftime tied at zero all when the referee seemingly blew the halftime whistle a couple minutes early as the Impact team was in control of the action in front of the Rush goal.

    While the Impact girls dominated play for the vast majority of the second half, they weren't able to find the back of the goal despite having many good looks. Although the Rush team didn't have a lot of chances on offense, they made the best of the ones that they got. Thankfully some good keeper play as well as some timely help from the defense kept the score at zero all. As the clock was winding down the Impact girls were back on the attack, and a high lofted centering pass found it's way over the Rush defense to an open player alone on the back post who was able to knock the ball into the back of the net, providing the game it's first goal. That goal wound up being enough as the game ended moments later, giving the Impact the victory.

Michigan Impact - Nike Classic Cup - Game 1 - at Michigan Jackson Rush 00G
	Samantha making the pass across to a teammate.
	Sam looking back at the ball after making a header.
	A close-up of Sam on the field.
	Sam making a move to get around a defender.
	Sam knocking the ball down out of mid-air.
	Sam lining up a direct kick...
	...and taking aim for the ball...
	...and making contact with the ball...
	...and sending it over the wall of defenders standing in front of her.
	Samantha fighting for a ball against a Rush defender...
	...before making her way around her.