There was 15 minutes left in the second half, we were beating the Mercy Mustangs by a score of 7-1. Michelle, our head coach, looked at me and said,”Sara, go warm-up.” I put my helmet on and had a pass with the Deb, the goalie coach. Then, I was ready to play in the game. Michelle then told me to go in at the 11 minute mark. For the next two minutes all I did was stare at the clock, waiting for my time. The ref blew his whistle and said “goalie sub.” I then stepped on the field during a game for the first time all season. As I ran onto the field I felt the butterflies in my stomach.
During the first minute I was on the field a ball came rolling into the circle and I cleared it out wide to the other defensemen. Stockton then drove the ball up the field and got a corner. On the corner, we passed the ball to the top of the circle and took a quick shot on goal, which was deflected by Cassie into the corner of the goal and the score was now 8-1. Mercy then took the ball down the field and found an opening in the defense. It was then a one-on-one, and I ran out to meet their left wing at the top of the circle, she hit the ball ahead of herself, and I used that as my chance to dive and clear the ball back out to the 25 yard line. After that play, I got up and ran back to the net. It felt like a weight was lifted off of my shoulders and the butterflies started to go away. Stockton then took the ball into the offensive circle where Sierra took a rocket of a shot and scored to make it 9-1. For the last couple minutes I only had one more shot, which I cleared wide.
After the game, I was very excited and could not take the smile off of my face. It felt so good to finally play in an actual game. Everyone came up to me and said nice job or way to go. The only thing that would have made that day better was if I shared this moment with my mom. My mom has gone to every home game to watch the game and wait for the time I was going to play. Unfortunately, that time came at the only home game she could not make. After the game, while I was sitting in my car ready to leave, I called my mom and told her about it. She was very happy for my and she wished she was there to see it.