“Ground balls” my coach said as we put the ball on the ground and picked it up. We looked over at the other team as they also warmed up for the game about twenty feet away from us. The other team gave us looks and talked to each other about us when they looked over to us. My team the Madlax National team were at the Young Guns lacrosse tournament in Baltimore, Maryland. The best teams in the country were at this tournament and we were in the semi-final game of the whole tournament. We had played 6 games before and won 5 of them. The team we had lost to was the team we were playing in the semi-finals, they had beat us before by one goal. We had beat the number one seed, The West Coast All-Stars from California. Now we were playing the number three seed Sweet Lax from Rochester. They were dressed in green, blue, and white and they all had the same helmets. We exchanged stares with them before the game started. We gave nasty looks at each other, we both really wanted to win the game.
A whistle blew “Take the field white” the ref said. We started walking on the field as we got pumped up for the big game. In our team huddle it felt like we were ready to go to battle, we all were ready for them game and extremely pumped up.
‘“This is a big game boys we need to work hard and get the ground balls if we want to win this game.” We took the field and I lined up at the face off line. So many things were going through my mind at the face off line, was i going to win, how can i beat him and many more thoughts. I got in my stance, I was staring dead straight at the ball on the face off line. The ref started to walk over to me and my opponent.
“Ok no cheating, a clean face off.” the ref said as we got ready for the face off. “Down… set… whistle. It was a scrum for the face off but I got the ball out and passed it to my teammate. We took the ball down to their side of the field and we got into our offense. We worked the ball around a couple of times and moved it to my teammate Connor. He drew his defender to him then split to the right and beat him. The other defender slid to him running at him, when the defender was right in front of him he dished it off to my teammate Ross from florida, he had an open shot and shot low to high and it went in the top right corner of the goal. We all started jumped up and cheering on the sideline. I was so happy when we got the first goal of the game, it was very important that we had the lead. It was now 1-0. After that they got the ball and beat our defense and took a shot from up top and scored. It was a battle the rest of the quarter and there was so many scoring chances but no one put the ball in the net the, so the score remained 1-1.
The second quarter began with another face off. I was really nervous to take this face off, it was very important. I lined up again for the face off. The ref blew the whistle to start the face off. I started wrestling with my opponent to get the ball. I had got the ball and when i tried to pull the ball out it and the ball got out of my stick and the other team got the ball. They ran the ball down passed it twice and took a shot. I was really scared the shot was really fast and it was going to the bottom right corner but my goalie got his stick there before the ball could get there and he saved it. I was very happy to see him save it because it was a very difficult shot to save. My goalie found my teammate up the field and passed it to him. Now we were on a fast break, my teammate ran it down the field and passed it to the attackman, he passed it to the other attackman and he passed it once more shot–goal! We were now up 2-1. The sidelines went crazy after the goal. After that the other team answered with another goal, it was tied 2-2. There was 10 seconds left in the half. The face off began and I won it cleanly, the time was ticking as i took it down the field. I passed it to my attackman and he shot as the defender ran to him with 1 second left in the half, it went right through the goalie’s legs into the net, we all went crazy on the field and on the sideline. We went into the second half with a one goal lead. I felt really good about myself after that because i made a good play to help my team get the lead.
The second half began with another face off. I won it and settled the ball. We got into our offense and moved to ball around.We dodged from up top, while my teammate was dodging the defender went over his head with his stick trying to get the ball from him but he smacked my teammate in the head with his stick. The flag was thrown high up and the air and the whistle followed after. We were man up for one minute. The whistle blew and what we started our man up played. As we moved the ball we beat the defense we had an open shot from up top. The shot bounced in front of the goalie, then went top right corner. We all jumped on the sidelines. The third quarter ended with the score 3-2 us.
The last quarter began with another face off won by us, we took the ball down and worked it around. We started to burn some clock. 5 minutes went by and there was no more scoring, the score remained 2-3. As we were working the ball around my teammate passed the ball but it got picked off by their defense. They got the ball on our side of the field. They started moving the ball around and dodged. With 2 minutes left they had an open man on the crease and passes it to him, he faked low and shot high. The shot went in the top right corner. It felt like a stab to the heart with 1:45 left in the game. The game was now tied, and we knew we had to score fast. They won the face off and ran it down the field. The face off guy passed it to the attack-man, but in mid-air my defense-man picked off the pass and ran it up the field. As he was running up the field he passed it to the middie who sprinted as fast as he could down the field. He passed it to the attack-man, Ross he through a fake and beat the defender, then he stepped back and took a shot. We all stared at the ball traveling to the goal. It hit the bottom right corner, we all jumped up on the sideline. We knew the game was not over yet though we needed to get the ball and burn the rest of the clock so they do not score.There was 30 seconds left in the game. I felt so relieved. I went on the field to take the next face off. I was focused to win this face off because it was the most important face off of the game. I went to the face off line, shortly my opponent came to the line. The ref came over and i was already ready to take the face off. He blew the whistle to start the face off. I did a quick move and I got the ball in the back of my stick. I ran with it to open space and popped the ball out and passed it to my teammate. They started to double the ball and took the goalie out of the goal. We took the ball behind with about 20 seconds left. Everyone was was standing up, excited to see the outcome. My teammate beat the double with no goalie in the goal, shot and scored! We were now up 4-2 with 5 seconds left we ensured the win. When the final whistle blew we ran with joy and excitement to our goalie. We all jumped on him congratulating him. It was a great game and a great outcome. We had now won the semi-final game to make it to the championship of one of the biggest tournaments in the country. It was one of the best feeling in my life and it took a lot of hard work and effort but it was really worth it.