Last year our varsity field hockey team had lost to Middletown in overtime and ever since then, all our team was thinking about was beating all the other teams leading up to and after Middletown and beating Middletown on October 12th. Our motivation in every game and every practice was to beat Middletown and become county champions. Our record prior to the game was eight wins and one loss. Beating Middletown would assure us number one in the county and put our record at nine wins and one loss.

Leading up to the game, the practices were intense and everyone was focused. Game day came quickly and we were prepared. We had made shirts saying “Middletown is going down” and had had a pasta party the night before. We were pumped, but we were not the only ones. Middletown was out to get us too; they wanted to be county champions as well and they wanted to beat us to prove that they are the better team. During the school day we wore our shirts proudly and told everyone we knew to come to our game hopping for a great turn out. Field hockey is a sport that does not have very many student spectators due to the lack of understanding and interest in the game of field hockey, but this time we wanted tons.

After school that day we were nervous and excited. Our warm up was intense and we hardly talked other then communicating on the field so we could intimidate the other team. Our team talk in the team room was intense and a motivation to all of the players. Our coaches were as determined as us and the way they gave the pregame talk motivated us even more. Our cheer was loud and fierce as we walked on the field. The amount of fans we had was a record, horns even blew. The atmosphere was exciting and intense.

As our starting line up walked on the field we all cheered as loud as we could. The game started off with all of are players completely focused and into the game. The ball kept going back and forth from our side of the field to theirs without touching the backboard and giving a goal to anyone. Our goalie was playing amazing, blocking every shot coming towards her. The first half the game was very close with no goals being scored for either team. At half time both teams walked to their sides of their field their team mates cheering them on. Our half time talk was filled with encouragement as well as tips from everyone on our team and our coaches. We were playing as a team and we were not going to go down without a fight. The second half began the same way as the first; a game of ping-pong between the two teams and their sides of the field. During the second half the players on both teams started to slow down- we were getting tired. Keeping up the intensity and the will to score, both teams held out until the end. Just like last year we were tied at the end of the game and that meant overtime.

Overtime was an unwanted part of the game. Our best seven players were put on the field to play for a period of ten minutes with only three subs. It was sudden death- first to score win and if no one score we then go into double overtime. Both teams were tired and the amount of running that you have to do in overtime is a lot more then you have to do in a regular part of the game because you usually have eleven players instead of seven. Both teams came out strong and kept up the intensity we had back in the regular game. We had some very good plays, but were not able to put the ball in the goal. Middletown on the other hand was lucky and scored with about three minutes left in overtime. We were crushed. All this hard work we had put into practicing and we had lost in overtime, basically a repeat of last year, but truth is it did pay off. Yes, we had lost the maybe biggest game of our season but we still had playoffs to win states and we came a long way. Our record was now nine wins and two losses which is a very good record and of that we were proud.

In field hockey, the better team does not always win. We lost, but who said they were the better team? If you watched the game, it would have been hard to tell which team was better because we were very much at the same level of play. We walked off that field, our heads down but walked out of our team talk our heads held high because our coached made us realizes these facts and that we truly are an amazing team. One of our team mates also said that maybe we were not destined to win county, but destined to go all the way and win states because we cannot have everything. Who knows what will happen, but all we are going to do is try and put in two hundred for the playoffs.