CHESHIRE -- For 30 minutes, Blair Mahar and Tom Ostheimer stood in a puddle at midfield in the pouring rain talking over their options.
The duo walked the sidelines and the 18-yard boxes, stepping in mud for most of the stroll.
Finally -- 15 minutes after its original start time -- the two coaches along with the officials determined the Hoosac Valley and Mount Greylock girls’ soccer teams would play.
And play they did ... for four minutes.
Hoosac senior Danielle Beauchemin made a hard charge for the ball inside the Mounties 18-yard box. Goalkeeper Margot Besnard made the same hard charge.
The ball didn’t help either of them and came to a dead stop in the middle of a puddle and creating a nasty collision between the two seniors.
Seconds later the whistle blew and the refs determined the field was unsafe to play on.
"It was obviously unplayable and I think the refs made the right decision based on that collision," Ostheimer said. "The ball just all the sudden stopped dead in a puddle. ... Seconds later the refs blew the whistle and we knew it was over."
The two teams did everything they could to get the game in. Parents spent time during warm-ups sweeping the water off of the field and the officials even measured off the junior varsity field to see if the game could be moved there. The field was ruled too short.
The ball came to complete stop several times in the
"I knew the game could be called short, so I really wanted to score early," Beauchemin said. "I saw that was an opportunity right there."
Besnard said she didn’t remember making contact on the play and was very happy everyone was OK. Beauchemin was a little slow to get up after being sent airborne.
"That hurt pretty bad," she said. "But, I’m all right."
Mahar watched his star forward very closely after the crash.
"I was just thinking ‘I hope Danielle gets up right now,’ " he said. "Thankfully she did.
"I think we all wanted to get the game in, but it was the right call [to postpone]."
The tentative reschedule date for the game is Oct. 30. It will be the final day of the regular season and will most likely be the deciding game for the South Division.
"I think the refs made the right call," Mountie sweeper Alexa Adams said. "I don’t want anybody getting hurt on their team or ours, it’s too late in the season. We’ll just come back and play them again."
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