CHAPTER 6

FALLING BEHIND

Saturday morning was overcast and gray. A light rain soaked the field.

“This slick field gives them an advantage because they’re not as fast as we are,” said Coach. “It’s going to slow us down. Here is the starting lineup.”

Jaylin was playing center defenseman. Part of him was glad to be back at his old position, but another part wished he was back at midfield. Running the entire field and helping run the offense had felt natural to him.

“Let’s do this,” DeAndre said. “If we get to the playoffs we’ll keep practicing so you can play middie.”

“Is it that obvious?” Jaylin asked.

Dee laughed. “To me it is! But let’s win this game first.”

The Bulldogs won the face-off and set up their offense. Jaylin was surprised to see two attackmen run straight to the middle, by the crease, and wait for a pass. Most teams sent only one guy into the middle at first. The other Bulldog attackman and the three middies crisscrossed and ran cutting patterns, passing the ball back and forth to keep possession. They pressed forward with aggressive passes and cuts until — WHAP! A middie on the side slipped a beautiful shot past Mateo.

After the Bulldogs won another face-off, it was clear to Jaylin that they had scouted his team. They brought all six offensive players toward the goal without any concern about their defense. They scored again on their second trip down the field.

Jaylin yelled at his Tiger middies to move their feet on defense and stick with their man. They would have to help out against the Bulldogs’ blistering attack. So far, they just seemed to be standing around, waiting to start the offense. But there would be very few scoring opportunities if their defense had to keep playing three-on-six.

After a furious ten minutes, the Bulldogs were up 4–1. The Tigers’ one goal had come on a lucky long-range shot from Greg that had bounced on the ground over the Bulldog goalie’s stick.

“They aren’t even bothering to play defense,” Jaylin said to DeAndre after the first quarter.

“They know they don’t really have to,” Dee said, taking a drink.

“Hey, you guys haven’t been exactly a stone wall in the back either,” said Coach, who didn’t look too happy.

“They’re bringing the whole team down into the attack area,” complained DeAndre.

“Middies, you’ve got to come back and help on defense. They’re killing us back there,” Coach said. The whistle blew. “A little tighter on defense and a lot more aggressive on offense, all right?”

They brought their hands in. “One, two, three, TIGERS!”

The second quarter was a little slower. The Tigers midfielders tried to keep the ball from coming into the middle of the field. That gave the defense a little room to breathe and be aggressive in their man-to-man defense.

But with the Tigers’ midfielders playing on their own half of the field, the team couldn’t generate any offensive threat, either. Their few offensive possessions were broken up without much trouble by the three Bulldog defensemen. Just before halftime, Greg scored on another long shot to bring the Tigers to within two.

At the half, the score read Bulldogs 4, Tigers 2.