Last week I was on my way to Sumner to shoot track when I got sidetracked by spot news.

This week, I actually made it to Sumner without being detoured and had the opportunity to shoot a great high school soccer match between Auburn-Riverside and Shorecrest.

Soccer is fun for me to shoot because I don't have the chance to do it very often. I wanted to sharpen my skills because I'll be shooting a match between Canada and Brazil at the end of this month, and also will likely shoot some soccer at the Olympics in Beijing.

Because I was shooting for the paper and wanted to get the best possible image, I made use of the chance to shoot along the sidelines. When shooting professional soccer, photographers are often limited to shooting from the endlines.

Early in the game, Shorecrest's Josh Rudnick attempted a bicycle kick on a shot on goal:

(Canon EOS 1D Mark III, EF 400mm/f2.8 lens, ISO 2000, 1/500 sec., f2.8)

Shorecrest scored first, on an own-goal by Auburn-Riverside after Mickey Crudo smashed a free-kick into the area in front of the goal. He celebrates with teammates after the goal:

(Canon EOS 1D Mark III, EF 400mm/f2.8 lens, ISO 2000, 1/500 sec., f2.8)

The score at halftime was still 1-0, but Auburn-Riverside's Oscar Diaz scored twice in the second half to give his team a 2-1 lead. Shorecrest goalkeeper Andrew McDonald dove to his right but could not make the save on Diaz's header:

(Canon EOS 1D Mark III, EF 400mm/f2.8 lens, ISO 3200, 1/400 sec., f2.8)

Diaz turned and celebrated in a classic soccer pose:

(Canon EOS 1D Mark III, EF 400mm/f2.8 lens, ISO 3200, 1/400 sec., f2.8)

Shorecrest tied the game late, and after a scoreless overtime, the game went to a shootout.

Even though he'd allowed two goals in the second half, Shorecrest goalkeeper McDonald saved the first shot of the shootout, a rocket to his left by Auburn Riverside's Jermaine Haller:

(Canon EOS 1D Mark III, EF 400mm/f2.8 lens, ISO 3200, 1/500 sec., f2.8)

(Canon EOS 1D Mark III, EF 400mm/f2.8 lens, ISO 3200, 1/500 sec., f2.8)

Shorecrest converted all of their five penalty kicks and McDonald's save proved to be the difference.

Because of overtime and the shootout, the game didn't end until just before my 10pm deadline and we scooted the photos into the paper just in the nick of time.

And yes, for those of you who look at the exposure data, it was DARK. But it's fun to push the cameras to ISO 3200 and to see what happens. I know the new Nikon D3 is a monster at high ISO's, but with the financial state of the newspapers the way they are, I don't see us switching systems anytime soon.