Sports photography at night question

[radckh]

I'm using a Sony H5 and have not been able to get any decent sports shots at night. My son has been on the Varsity soccer team since he was a freshman so most of his games are at night under the lights. They play in the stadium, so I am taking the shots from the stands and using most of the camera's 12x optical zoom to get close shots.

I have tried all kinds of different settings but either the players are VERY blurred across the pic or the shot is way too dark.

Is it possible to get decent night sports shots with a non-professional camera like the Sony H5 or am I out of luck?
(I get great action shots during the day fortunately!)

[JoesPhotos]

Not familiar with that camera, does it have a WB (White Balance) setting? Can you manual set the ISO & Aperture?

[lputman]

Did you try upping your ISO? The main reason I don't do well with night football games is the lens I shoot with 70-300 isn't fast enough. I would need to be able to use at least an aperture of 2.8 in addition to a higher ISO. I don't know that you can control the necessary components to successfully get night action shots.

[radckh]

I can manually set the White Balance (I've never done anything with this setting, don't know what it does) and the ISO, but it doesn't look like I can change the aperature (that's the 'f' value, right?).

I've always just thought that the lens/camera was not fast enought for night action shots also.