My Stint As a Forward

We traveled to Madisonville, Tennessee, to play Hiwassee College. We left at seven this morning and had a five hour bus ride. Well, it was supposed to be five hours, but we got turned around (as usual) and added another thirty minutes to the trip. I'm pretty sure we've gotten a little lost every trip we've made for the JV team. Anyway, we got onto the field at 1:25; the game was supposed to start at 2. I actually liked the shorter warm-up. We used less energy.

Julie scored in the first half, and we ended the first half up 1-0. We were dominating, but, as usual, we were having a little trouble finishing. Just a little, this time. The field was a little jacked up; you were never quite sure what the ball would do because of the major unevenness and even tire tracks found on the field.

At half time, Isaac set our amount of goals goal for the second half: Three. So we went out and scored within the first two minutes or so. I don't know exactly what time, but I know it was not long after the whistle blew to start us off. We scored another one some time after that, making the score 3-0.

I was given a substitute at some time (as in the first half), but I was feeling great. On defense we weren't running a whole lot, because they honestly weren't getting the ball over the half-line - minus a few runs. They got three shots the whole game, and only one on goal. I was on the sideline, and I said, "Isaac, I want to play striker." After a pause, he asked, "Did you play forward in high school?" I replied, "I played it up until high school, actually." He was like, "Okay. Just give me about five minutes and I'll put you in for Rachel." I got so excited. I've been thinking about playing it, mainly because I would love a chance to score. However, I decided long ago that I have a much more defensive mindset when it comes to sports. Mom is like that, too. I was also a little nervous, because I wasn't sure how well I could do. But I decided I couldn't do too much damage at this point. ;)

When I went in, I told Jamie, "Talk to me, tell me what to do." She said, "You're playing forward?" I answered, "Yep," with a big grin on my face. "Alright!" I had fun, even though I was quite unsure where I was supposed to be the whole time. At one point, I had an opportunity to take a shot, but I think I got knocked off by a defense player. I'm not sure what happened; I do know that I fell and banged my head pretty good on the ground. I stayed down and felt the ball hit my butt. I had no clue who hit it (I found out it was Jamie), but I thought, "Why didn't I get up?!" Man, I almost had one. Haha. It wasn't really that close, I know. I didn't feel dizzy or anything, so I just told the ref I was okay and went on playing. Another time the ball was put through in the air, and I turned to run onto it...right into a girl on the other team that had jumped to cut off the pass. She had her leg even with my head. It scared the crap out of me, and I let out, "Oh, shhh!" I promise I didn't finish that. It didn't hurt to hit her (which of course is what happened), it just startled me so badly. Lol. I think I only played for like 5-10 minutes at forward; Isaac put Rachel back in. I had a fun run.