My team and I were tired. It was our last game of the day, we had already played 3. We were physically and emotionally done with this tournament but knew we would be playing in the finals. When we got to the field, we hear the team we would be playing was the team we tied with earlier.

The last time we played was not good, both teams had tons of penalties and almost a few fights. From the beginning, this team had an attitude. This was not going to be good, it only provoke my team to have an attitude back. You could tell both teams were trying to keep their distant from one another but the tension was there. It all started when some of my teammates passed the other players. The mouths started to flow. One player to the other. Of course, others started getting involved. I stood back watching and tried to keep my mouth shut but I wasn’t going to let someone bully me. I was prepared.

We got over to our bench and started to stretch. We all started to talk about what could happen and what to prepare for. I was excited, because I love when games are intense like this. We were all ready and prepared to beat this team. Nothing really happened at first we were playing good and so were they. Even though this team was bad news, they still were very good and we knew it would be a lot of hard work to win. Both teams played really hard in the first half. At the end of the first half we were tied. We all stayed calm and just concentrated on the game. Both teams had a lot of penalties in the first half.

The adrenaline started at the start of the second half. Both teams wanted to win. The mouthing off to each other was starting. I don’t think the Ref’s really knew what was going to happen. They were just letting the talk continue. This of course was not going to end well. You could feel the tension once again. I just knew nothing good was going to come out of this. I went to the bench after the third and got some water and I told some of my teammates to be ready because something was going to happen and they agreed.

It was hot and the sun was beating down on us at the start of the 4th quarter. We were all tired and cranky. Both of our best d-pole players were out. The game was getting crazy and both Duncan and Hodgie were being guarded by the other players. All of a sudden you see Duncan running down the field towards Hodgie. Hodgie was getting punched by another player and Duncan wasn’t going to let that happen. We thought it would be stopped by the Ref’s but it continued and other players started running. You saw punches going everywhere. 4 guys were on Duncan. Duncan started getting crazy. He headbutt one of the players and everything started. I told one of my teammates this is going to be good. Right when I said that Hodgie punches a kid right in the jaw taking off his helmet. All chaos started, both benches were empty.

The refs had their hands full. They were outnumbered by the amount of fights that were going on. Parents were starting to yell at the refs. When the refs were not able to stop anything the parents started running onto the fields from both sides. It seems like the fights went on forever but when I think about it I’m sure it wasn’t more than 10 minutes. I stood there and looked back at what just happened and realized my team did their best to try and maintain sportsmanship but when it came down to it we also had to protect our teammates. When the first punch happen it was each man for themselves. I felt sorry for the refs. They were so outnumbered and could only do so much. But they should have known the other team was playing dirty from the beginning and that something was going to happen.

At the end, the game was eventually called off. I believe there was only a minute left of the game anyway. We ended up losing by 2 but at the end I think we were the better team overall.

As we were getting undressed it was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. We knew our High School coach was watching from the sides. Would he be mad was the question. When Coach came into the locker room we all looked up. He knows he’s not able to coach us during the summer months but he manages to always give us advice on what we did wrong. This time, he applauded us for trying to keep our cool. He knew we were provoked and he respected the fact we wanted to protect our teammates. He did end the speech by telling Duncan not to try and fight 4 kids at the same time again.

At this point we all looked at each other and laughed. Maybe it was a learned lesson or maybe not but I do know we became a closer team after this and confirmed the fact we are a family.