As it turned out, winning the game wasn’t nearly as difficult as Andi had thought it would be.
Perhaps giving up the tying goal so quickly took something out of the Blue Bell players. Or maybe it was the sight of Merion’s three best scorers coming back onto the field right after that goal. But something seemed to go out of them during the final twenty minutes.
Arlow scored the go-ahead goal with just under ten minutes to play, on a pass from Zack Roth, who chipped the ball over all the Blue Bell defenders’ heads to Arlow in the penalty box. Arlow timed his move perfectly so as not to be offside, gathered the ball in, dodged the goalie when he dived at him, and booted the ball into what had become an empty net.
Five minutes later, after Blue Bell had turned the ball over trying to push for a tying goal, Jeff sent Andi down the left side with a long pass. She dodged one defender and cut into the box. Before she could make a move, the other Blue Bell defender—Roberts—took her down hard, hard enough that the referee raced in waving a yellow card.
Although Andi popped right back up, Jeff and Craig came running in, clearly wanting a piece of Roberts for the hard tackle.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Craig yelled, pointing a finger at him.
“Playing soccer,” Roberts answered. “What’s the matter, I can’t tackle her ’cause she’s a girl?”
It was the referee who answered. “You can’t tackle anyone that way,” he said, digging into his uniform and pulling out a red card. “The yellow is for the tackle. The red is for your lack of sportsmanship.”
He pointed to the sideline to indicate Roberts had been ejected.
The Blue Bell bench erupted. Both coaches, male and female, charged onto the field, screaming at the referee.
“Red card for what?” the head coach yelled.
“For not admitting his tackle was over the line,” the referee said. “I probably should have given him the red right away for the tackle.”
The coach calmed down. He put an arm around Roberts and led him from the field without another word.
The Merion coaches had also come onto the field just in case a fight broke out.
“Andi, you okay to take the penalty kick?” Coach J asked.
“I got kicked in the shin, I’m a little sore,” Andi answered. “Let Ron take it.”
Coach J nodded.
Arlow was standing there, hands on hips. “You sure, Andi?” he said. “It should be your kick.”
“Just bury it, Ron,” Andi said.
He pointed a finger at her. “You got it,” he said.
The referee whistled everyone back into place and put the ball down on the penalty spot.
Arlow waited for the whistle, then did a stutter-step approach and booted the ball as Andrews, the goalie, dived helplessly in the wrong direction. It landed cleanly in the net, for a 3–1 lead.
That was the game. Coach Johnston took Andi out a minute later because she was limping a little.
“We’ve got this,” he said. “Get off your feet.”
For the first time all season, Andi didn’t mind being taken out of a game.
That was the last score before the final whistle. In the handshake line, Roberts apologized to Andi.
“Frustration play,” he said. “I’m sorry about the crack about you being a girl. You’re a great player.”
“Apology accepted,” Andi said. “Thanks.”
The last player in the Blue Bell line was Carrie O’Shea. After they had shaken hands, she pulled Andi aside.
“Listen, I need to tell you something you may not know,” she said.
Andi was puzzled.
“You guys finish the season next Friday against King of Prussia–North,” she said.
“I know,” Andi said.
“My mom just told me they tied today. That means if you guys win on Tuesday, you can win the conference by beating them. You win, you’ll be tied at six, one, and one and you’ll have the tiebreaker because you beat them.”
Andi was still puzzled. She knew the math already. They had talked about it before the game. The news that Cynwyd had tied King of Prussia–North was important, but why was O’Shea explaining it to her?
O’Shea read her mind and got to her point. “When we played them, the entire game most of their players were yelling at me that I didn’t belong on the field, that I needed to go play girls’ sports with other girls or that I should be taking a cooking class.”
“Seriously?” Andi said. She hadn’t encountered anything even close to that until Roberts’s crack about Craig being upset with his tackle because she was a girl.
“Very seriously,” O’Shea said. “Apparently their coach makes your guy look like a leader of the Me Too movement. And the players take their cue from him. They went after me with dirty tackles a few times.
“If the game is to decide the title, it’ll probably be worse. You need to watch yourself.”
Andi was caught off guard by this news. She hadn’t heard anything about it before now, but then again, why would she? It wasn’t as if the conference website was going to talk about it.
“Thanks,” she said finally, offering O’Shea a hand. “I appreciate the heads-up.”
O’Shea smiled. “Sure,” she said. “I hope you guys win both your games next week. I’d love to see you knock those jerks off their pedestal.”
“Well, Cynwyd did its part today,” Andi said.
“Yeah,” O’Shea said. “I’ll bet it just about killed KP–North to be tied by a team that has not one but two girls on it.”
“Well, here’s hoping we go them one better next week.”
O’Shea grinned. “Make sure you win on Tuesday first. Friday won’t matter unless you win that game. KP–North will beat Gladwynne easy.”
Andi knew she was right. Unless Merion beat McKinley on Tuesday, Friday’s game would be strictly for pride. She wanted it to be more than that.
Jeff was about to walk over to Andi when he saw she was in some kind of deep conversation with the girl who had played defense for Blue Bell.
He waited until they finished, standing at a respectful distance so it wouldn’t look as if he was eavesdropping. When Andi shook hands with the girl, he waited until she walked over to him.
“What was that about?” he asked. “Female bonding?”
She gave him what was clearly a nasty look. “Really?” she said. “You too?”
He quickly backed off, a little surprised that she’d reacted so angrily.
“Kidding,” he said. “So what was it?”
She sighed.
“According to her, KP–North’s players and coach really don’t like the idea of girls on the soccer field—at least not a soccer field with boys on it.”
“How does she know that?”
Another look. “She played against them, remember?” Andi said. “There were all sort of cracks about girls belonging in cooking classes and a number of dirty tackles. Apparently the coach is even worse on the subject than Coach J. It’s just never come up because they didn’t have any girls try out for their team.”
“So she was warning you about them?”
This time he got a nod—a major improvement.
“Exactly. Carrie says if we end up playing them for the championship, they’ll probably be especially nasty and chippy.”
“What’s chippy?” Jeff asked.
“Trying to get away with dirty plays. Trying to start trouble,” she answered.
“Well, unless someone beats them or ties them, that won’t be a problem,” Jeff said.
She put her hands on her hips. “Well, unless we lose Tuesday, it will be a problem,” she said. “Cynwyd tied them today. Carrie’s mom told her.”
Jeff hadn’t heard.
“Hey, you two, come on, everyone in the locker room.”
It was Coach C.
“Wonder what this is about,” Jeff muttered.
“Probably that KP–North didn’t win today and we’ve got a chance now.”
“A chance or a problem?”
She smiled and said, “Both.”