Recap: Portland Rain Open 2012 Season with 2-1 Win Over Oregon Rush

Quick recap: the Portland Rain opened their 2012 WPSL season on a strangely stormy night at the Howard M. Terpenning Complex in Beaverton with a 2-1 win over the Bend-based Oregon Rush. The Rain scored two first half goals and held on to win despite the Rush pulling one back in the second half.

• Left midfielder Ellora Boon opened the scoring in the second minute, when she received a long cross from right back Haley Rosenberg, headed the ball past the keeper, and tapped it easily into the empty net.
• At about the 10th minute the growing storm started to produce lightning, which required the referees to suspend the match until after the lightning had stopped. The match was delayed for about an hour.
• When play resumed, striker Olivia Lovell started to light up the pitch with runs past the Rush back line. She found some inspiration when, in the 31st minute, a towering rainbow appeared behind the opposition goal. Lovell got on the end of an aerial ball into space at the edge of the penalty area and made a beautiful touch on the ball to set up a shot to the far post: the result was the Rainbow Goal.
• Geoff and I didn't stay for the second half, unprepared as we were for the cold and rainy weather. According to John Strong, who took on the public address duties for the evening, the Rush pulled one back in the second half but couldn't quite come up with the equalizer.