CHAPTER 7

STEPPING UP

“We need some offense, boys.” Coach looked around the circle. “And we need it now. Otherwise we’re watching from the sidelines next week.”

The boys were silent.

“Let me play middie,” Jaylin said suddenly. “We’re already losing, so it can’t get any worse. They’re barely even playing defense. It’s embarrassing. Let’s make them pay for it.”

“Yeah,” several boys said.

Coach had a sparkle in his eye. “DeAndre, you ready to go back to center D?”

“Let’s do it,” Dee said. “Let Jay take the face-off and send everyone forward. Score a quick goal so they don’t know what hit ‘em.”

“It could backfire if Jay doesn’t win the face-off,” Coach said.

“I’ll win it,” Jaylin said, with more confidence than he felt.

“Okay, Jaylin, you’ll take the face-off. Damien, you’ll move to left middie. DeAndre, center D. Boys, this better be the best half you ever played if you want to make the playoffs.”

The face-off was a scramble. Jaylin pushed against the opposing face-off specialist as they clawed for the ball. Just as the Bulldog player was going to clamp the ball, Jaylin batted it to the side. Without pausing, he scooped it up and tore toward the Bulldogs’ goal. It seemed to take everybody by surprise. The Tigers had six guys barreling toward the goal.

As Jaylin advanced toward the goal, he saw Zach, the Tigers’ left attackman, with a sliver of space in front of him. Jaylin whipped the pass to where Zach was about to be. Zach caught it and used a nice roll dodge. As the Bulldogs converged on Zach, Greg charged in from the right with his stick in the air. Zach found it and lobbed a perfect pass to Greg.

A defenseman put a big hit on Greg, but was a fraction of a second too late. Greg’s shot hit the top right corner of the goal.

The entire play had taken about ten seconds. The Bulldogs looked stunned, and now the Tigers had cut the deficit to 4–3.

Jaylin won the face-off again, this time by sweeping the ball behind him to DeAndre. Dee scooped it up and passed it quickly to Greg, who was streaking forward on the right.

Jaylin positioned himself in the center, at the top of the restraining line. This time the Bulldogs’ defense was quicker, and stopped the immediate attack. The Tigers passed the ball around the back of the goal and back up to Jaylin. He passed it back to Zach on his left and it went around the goal again.

On the right side, Greg faked a pass back to Jaylin at the top. The defense tried to rotate, but not fast enough. With the ball still in his possession, Greg used a face dodge — bringing his stick up like he was going to shoot, then quickly crossing it to his weak side — to fool the defenseman in front of him.

With the defender off balance, Greg broke for the goal. Jaylin followed him. As the center defenseman checked Greg hard in the middle, Greg flipped the ball behind him. Jaylin took the pass on his right side and without pausing whipped it by Greg’s head into the upper-corner of the goal.

Greg laughed. “Uh, that was a little close,” he said as they walked back to midfield. “I could hear it blast by my ear.”

“Your head made an awesome shield,” Jaylin said. “The goalie never saw it coming.”

Bulldogs 4, Tigers 4.

Jaylin lost the face-off and the Bulldogs started a slow, measured attack. Jaylin kept moving in the center of the field and reminded his fellow middies to keep moving, too.

“Stone wall in the middle,” he said.

“Stone wall,” they answered.

The ball came back to the middle. Jaylin intercepted it and charged up field. As he neared the Bulldogs’ goal, he passed it to Greg on the right, who ran around behind the goal. Jaylin trotted right up to the crease, where Robert, the Tigers’ center attackman, was standing.

“What are you doing?” asked Robert. “This is my spot.”

“I know. Get ready,” Jaylin said. He called for the ball, holding his stick up and running toward Damien, his fellow middie, who had the ball outside the attack area. Damien threw him the ball. Jaylin caught the pass on the right side of his head and whipped it straight back behind him without looking. Robert shouted in surprise, but caught the pass and shot. And missed.

As the quarter ended, the score remained Bulldogs 4, Tigers 4.