Benched (7 page)

He cut toward the middle to avoid a defender, then caught sight of Kim coming up to his right. He passed the ball in her direction, but it was too far ahead of her. It rolled out-of-bounds and a Shark ran toward it for a throw-in.

“Nice pass, Red,” said the kid with the yellow wristbands.

Ben was startled. “What did you call me?”

“You heard me,” the kid said with a smirk. “We know all about your red card.”

The Sharks seemed to be doing everything they could to upset Ben. They were elbowing and tripping him and calling him names.

I’m not getting caught up in that nonsense
, Ben thought. They could try to bait him, but it wouldn’t work.

The Bobcats made a couple of nice runs toward the goal, although Jordan’s shot was blocked and Kim’s went just wide of the net.

“We’re the better team,” Ben said to Kim after her miss. “Keep it up.”

But the breaks didn’t seem to be with the Bobcats today. Despite outplaying the Sharks for most of the half, they didn’t manage to score. And when the Sharks put the ball past Darren and into the goal in the final minute of the half, Ben felt his stomach sink.

All that work and we’re behind
, he thought as he walked off the field at halftime. The rest of the Bobcats looked stunned, too.

Ben took a seat on the bench and felt his knee. He’d played the entire half, so he hadn’t had a chance to examine it. There was a red spot on the side and it was sore when he pressed on it. But it hadn’t slowed him down.

Jordan joined Ben on the bench. “We can’t play much better than that,” he said.

“The only thing missing was some goals,” Ben replied. “We should have had a couple.”

“Just keep working,” Jordan said. “Sooner or later the shots will go in.”

“They’d better. I’m not ready for this season to be over.”

“Neither am I,” Jordan said.

Ben rapped his knuckles on the bench. “They kept trying to get on my nerves,” he said.

“Me too,” Jordan replied. “One guy was calling me Butterfly.”

“Why would he call you that?”

Jordan shrugged and smiled. “Who knows? Would
you
like being called that?”

“I don’t even get it.”

“Neither do I. ‘Come on, Butterfly,’ he kept saying. ‘Don’t lose that ball, Butterfly.’ ”

Ben laughed. “That’s ridiculous.”

“I know. But it
was
very distracting.”

“They called me Red.”

Mark had come up behind them. “They called me Hamburger,” he said. “I was ready to punch somebody at first. Then I just got fired up about the game.”

“We’re better than they are,” Jordan said. “They can call us whatever they want. But at the end of the game, they’ll be calling us winners.”

Jordan stood on the bench and waved the rest of the team over. “Listen up,” he said quietly. “We’ve got twenty minutes left in this game. Twenty minutes left in the season if we don’t put that ball into the net a few times. Who’s ready?”

“We are,” said the Bobcats.

“Who is?”

“We are,” they said more loudly.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes!” they yelled.

Jordan stepped down from the bench. “Hands in here,” he said. They all reached in, just as they did before every game. “We win or we go home. One …”

“Never stop running,” Ben said.

“Two …”

“Use every ounce of strength,” Ben added.

“Three … Bobcats!”

—————

“Here’s the lineup for the second half,” Coach Patty said. “We need some goals, so let’s really hustle.

“Shayna’s been our top goalie all season, so she’ll play there. Mark, Erin, and Kim will start at forward, and Darren and Omar will rotate in and out with them. You forwards need to work like never before.

“Ben and Jordan will be on defense. That
might sound strange since you’re both great scorers, but I’m counting on you to play both ends of the field. Your first role is to stop the Sharks from getting close to our goal, but I also want you to be part of our offense.”

The strategy worked well. At least it kept the Sharks from scoring another goal. But as hard as they tried, the Bobcats weren’t able to get close to scoring, either. The minutes ticked away. Ben felt as if he’d sprinted several miles.

The Sharks were keeping up their banter as well as their hard play. Ben heard “Red” every time he touched the ball, and also “Hamburger” and “Butterfly” when his teammates had it. Kim was now being called String Bean. Erin was French Fry.

Those are the stupidest insults I’ve ever heard
, Ben thought as he ran toward the ball. But he knew that they were working. Although the Bobcats were playing very hard, they seemed
disorganized. It was hard not to listen to those silly names.

The Sharks were killing a lot of time by making safe passes back and forth, not even attacking the goal. But then Mark fell on the grass and a Shark slipped past him with the ball. He made a quick pass to an open teammate, who fired the ball at the goal.

Shayna had to dive to stop the ball. She batted it with both hands and it rolled to the side. Another Shark ran toward it and booted it hard.

Shayna was still on the ground. Erin had dropped back and was in front of the goal. She couldn’t use her hands, but she managed to get a foot on the ball and deflect it away.

Again the Sharks got control. Two quick passes led to another shot, and Shayna made her second great save in a matter of seconds. This time, the ball wobbled out-of-bounds to
the side of the goal. The Sharks would be putting the ball into play with a corner kick.

“We’re getting bombarded,” Jordan said.

“Toughen up!” Ben called.

The corner kick floated in the air for a long time and finally came down in front of the goal. Mark caught it on his chest and let it drop, then booted it as hard as he could.

The kick was off-center, and the ball spun toward the sideline. Jordan scooted over to it and directed it up the field, chasing after it.

Jordan had a wide-open field in front of him and he kept moving. He passed the midfield line and ran deep into the Sharks’ territory. Mark and Ben, the two fastest Bobcats, were running up the field, too. They were spread wide but were even with Jordan. Only two defenders and the goalie were in their way.

The defenders were the same two kids who’d given Ben trouble in the first half. They
shifted forward a bit, closing the gap on Jordan.

As Jordan neared the goal box, he stopped short and leaned to his right. Then he made a quick move to the left, drawing both defenders toward him.

“Hamburger!” yelled Mark, who was directly in front of the goal.

Jordan passed the ball to Mark. As the defenders ran toward him, Jordan shouted, “Butterfly!”

Mark slid the ball back to Jordan.

Ben sprinted to the front of the goal. Jordan sent a soft, high pass into the air. Ben planted his feet. The goalie and the nearest defender were taller than he was.

I can outjump them
, Ben thought. He leaped as the ball came down, meeting it squarely with his forehead. The ball made a line drive into the goal.

Ben had tied the score! He turned to the kid with the yellow wristbands. “Red!” he yelled. Then he ran to Jordan, jumping again and bumping his chest against his teammate’s.

“We turned that around,” Jordan said. “We threw those insults right back in their faces.”

Ben, Mark, and Jordan ran back to the Bobcats’ end of the field, slapping each other’s palms as they went. “Hamburger!” “Butterfly!” “Red!” they shouted in turn.

The referee brought the ball to the midfield circle so the Sharks could put it back into play. But then he raised his hand and blew his whistle.

The ref waved for all of the players to join him in the circle. He had a thick gray mustache but not much hair on his head.

“What’s going on?” Jordan asked.

“That can’t be the end of the game,” Ben said. “Let’s go up and see.”

“Just a caution,” the referee said when all the players were there. “I’m hearing too much trash-talking in this game. There’s a lot on the line, but let’s decide the outcome with our soccer skills, not our big mouths.”

Ben looked over at the kid with the wristbands. He was looking back at Ben from the other side of the circle. Ben blushed a bit and looked away.

The referee smiled. “There’s just under three minutes to go,” he said, “and the game’s tied.” He stepped out of the circle and blew his whistle.

The Sharks put the ball into play. They controlled it for nearly a minute, then lost the ball out-of-bounds.

Mark made a long throw-in, but Kim had the ball stolen before she reached midfield.

The Sharks brought the ball down the field and took a weak shot. Shayna scooped it up
and punted it high. Ben drifted under it, keeping his eyes on the ball. As it came down, he tensed his shoulders and puffed out his chest, waiting to trap it.

Just as the ball arrived, Ben felt a shove. He shoved back with his arm and the ball bounced off the ground, continuing up the field.

“Sorry,” said the Shark with the wristbands.

“No problem,” Ben said as they both chased the ball.

Ben got to it first.

“Trailing!” called Erin, who was coming up behind. Ben knocked the ball backward, then moved away as the defender turned toward Erin.

Get open!
Ben told himself.

Erin sent the ball back to Ben, and he took off with it at a sprint. He could see Jordan coming up the middle of the field, but he wanted to lure the last Shark defender away before passing.

Just as expected, the Shark ran toward Ben. After two more steps, Ben passed the ball along the grass, angling it in front of Jordan.

Jordan took the ball without breaking stride. Ben ran toward the goal, too, but he never took his eyes off Jordan. The only Shark between Jordan and the net was the goalie.

“Trailing!” Ben called, but Jordan didn’t need help. He made a series of quick fakes that left the goalie reeling. Jordan shot the ball deep into the corner of the net.

Ben dropped to his knees and shut his eyes. He raised both fists, then leaped up and grabbed Jordan in a bear hug. The Bobcats had the lead. If they could hold it for another minute, they’d be in the play-offs.

“Everybody back!” Ben yelled. “Defense!”

The Sharks brought every player up, including the goalie. They were desperate to tie the score. Ben and Jordan chased the ball wherever it went, and the rest of the Bobcats stuck close to the other opponents.

A pass across the center of the goal box looked dangerous for a second, but Kim ran up and kicked the ball the length of the field. It rolled across the end line. Two of the Sharks sprinted back to get it, but the play killed a lot of time.

When the final whistle blew, Ben shut his eyes again. He wanted to shout, but he couldn’t even speak. It had been a while since he’d felt this happy. Erin smacked him on the shoulder, and even Mark said, “Great game, Ben.”

Ben nodded. He’d played his best game of the season. He was shouting with joy inside.

He hugged Jordan and Erin, then hacked up some saliva that was stuck in his throat.

“Great game,
Red
,” Erin said. “Can you believe it? We did it!”

“We earned it,
French Fry
,” Ben replied with
a laugh. “That was our toughest game, but it was the hardest we ever played, too.”

“Next week will be even tougher,” Erin said. “I’ve never been in any kind of play-off before.”

“Me either. But I already can’t wait.”

Ben looked around at the tired players from both teams. Everyone had played their hearts out.

He and Erin led the way as the Bobcats walked to midfield to shake hands with the Sharks. When Ben reached the kid with the wristbands, he shook extra hard. The guy was a great competitor.

They tried to upset me with all the trash-talking
, Ben thought.
But I kept my mind on the game
.

Because of that, the Bobcats had made it to the play-offs.