 
Allow me to introduce myself:

My name is Ruben Rodrigues. I'm a small town kid with a big town heart. This story takes place primarily in East Providence, Rhode Island. East Providence is home to East Providence High School, the Townies. Oh, and before you ask:

Townie—a permanent inhabitant of a town as distinguished from a member of another group (as the academic community). More importantly, it is the school's mascot.

I first created this book in 2006. The book generally takes place in the fall of 2005. That's right, this has been a three year project. I have had so much fun and can't thank anyone who has ever helped me out enough for all their time, patience, and support. Also, thank you for reading this right now.

As you read throughout this book, you will notice one thing...this is not your average book. Try to think of it as me being two feet away from you and telling you the story rather than you reading it. Let the words flow into your mind and everything will be just fine.

One thing you'll find special about The Heart of a Townie is that I go from present to past tense a lot. Remember, you're not reading just pages; you're listening to a story. With that said, is it okay if I spell something wrong? Forget capitalization? Make errors? You tell me.

If you just can't stand it, well...

I'm sorry for being myself

Chapter 1

So here I am, sitting down on my couch, eating chips, and drinking a Coke. Not realizing my summer is over. The door to high school is knocking.

"Get downstairs!" yells my Uncle.

"One minute!" I respond.

This was the theme to my summer. I was like every other kid, just lazy and waking up at two in the afternoon to the music of Instant Messages and MySpace. I thought of nothing better to do throughout the summertime except jam out to music and pork out on food. This was going completely against what I was about. Just last year I had convinced myself of playing soccer. Last season at Martin Middle School wasn't too much fun. I was an 8th grader. A "Senior" so to speak. I was beat to the starting goalie spot by a 7th grader. After endless promises and tons of practice, Coach just couldn't get it to his head that I should have been a starter that season.

That was what had begun my endless habit of just giving up. I squeaked by 8th grade year academically, with three C's to pass me for the year. I don't even think I deserved these grades. I was just good with the teachers, I'm assuming. Martin Middle school was fun, a very laid back atmosphere. There were the cliques. You know, the ghetto bunch, the gothic bunch, the preppy bunch. However, we all seemed to get along just fine.

I only had one best friend. His name was Matt Cavaco. I'd met him in 5th grade at our old elementary school. We were pretty much inseparable after that. He never really cared about what people had to say. In fact, I don't think he really listened.

I was entering East Providence High School. The home of Townie Pride. Every incoming freshman is known for being quite excited about entering the high school, including me. They had everything a high school typically had. The pep rallies, the football, the gigantic seniors. Everyone just wanted to be them. The seniors. To think that in 3 more years we would be that. To go through such a change mentally and physically. It had stunned us how rapidly we would mature these next 3 years.

A big part of this school was, of course, the football. Everybody really was into the Townie Pride. I was sort of laid back. I didn't believe in Townie pride. Hell, I didn't even know what a Townie was! However, here I am. Just 2 weeks before high school is to start.

"Ruben, are you ever going to get off of your ass and do something around here?" asked my Uncle in a very routine way when I went downstairs from my room.

"What's there to do?" I asked, also in a very timely and routine way

"Go do the dishes, get off of the computer and do something with your life. What happened to you? You used to be so full of life! What I'm trying to say is that I really think you should play High School soccer. There is absolutely nothing like it." said Uncle Nuno

"Nothing like what!?" I shouted "Being ridiculed and laughed at for being the overweight punk that isn't even trying!?"

"Why don't you give it a shot... It can't hurt that much" said Uncle Nuno

"Ugh, you don't understand. You've never been through it." I responded

I went upstairs furious at both him and myself. He is just trying to help and I completely just let him down. That is the relationship between me and him. We never really say nice things to each other, but we love each other. Unconditional love, you may call it. At this point, I felt as if no one understood me. If I can't get through middle school soccer without issues, how will I go through high school soccer. The first practice was in 3 days. I decided I was going to go do it. Not for myself, but for Nuno. I didn't want to let him down anymore. My old soccer cleats didn't quite fit any longer, so I had to run down to the local sports shop to pick some up. I figured I might as well have looked nice on the soccer field, so I grabbed a semi-expensive pair. I looked at them at home once I bought them, stared down at the rubber cleats at the bottom of the sole and said "I feel bad for you. You have a lot of laps to endure". Truth is I only felt bad and sorry for myself. I let out a big sigh and threw them in the closet. I shut my eyes and went to my dream land.

## Chapter 2

I woke up to the buzzing of an old alarm clock. It was 6 o'clock in the morning. Any other day, and I would be set to wake up in another six or seven hours. I slam the alarm clock and lay down once again.

"Don't ignore it!" Nuno called. "It's your big day!"

With those words I rose out of bed, and stood in amazement. I haven't seen the morning sun in over a month. It stung and throbbed my eyes so much that I couldn't open them. I felt like a newborn baby looking at the doctor.

I pulled on my shorts and put on a scrubby t-shirt. Put some socks and sandals on and hopped downstairs.

"Have some breakfast" said Nuno. "I don't want any. I'm a little jittery" I remarked.

"Have a banana or something. Don't leave on an empty stomach. Ana is almost here." He said

Ana is my aunt. She lives also in East Providence. She was always in a rush for work so it took a lot to get her to take me to practice that early in the morning. I gave her a call to confirm my ride.

"Morning, Ana" I said.

"Are you ready yet?" she responded

"Almost" I said

"Well, hurry up, I will be there in 15 minutes" she said

She hung up the phone. I knew Ana all too well. I made up a conversion chart for her timing. For every five minutes she says it takes to get here, triple it, and divide it by the number of minutes past 7 AM that she was late. It was 7:02 and practice was to start at 7:45. If my calculations were correct, it would take her about 22 minutes to get to my house to pick me up.

Man, I tell you, I was on the money. She showed up at 7:23 AM. I was sweating bullets; the guys were probably already gathering up in the locker room and having their pre-practice pep talk. I showed up and was surprised that they had not started yet. The janitors had not opened the locker room doors.

When I arrived, I reached a new point in my life. I was at East Providence High School. I stepped out of the car into the student parking lot as my Aunt sped away. I looked around and something just hit me. I felt as if I had just got out of the shower in a cold winter night. A whole new environment was around me.

To my right, the famous East Providence High School band was performing their march and fight song. The trombones were blasting and the percussion was buzzing. The music pumped the adrenaline in my body like never before.

To my left, the girls' soccer team had already begun their practice. Dead ahead of me was the locker room entrance. I walked in rapidly and headed down the hallway for the Boys soccer locker room.

I had arrived late, and today they were handing out locks. I was the last to register, so I had received a locker near the coach. I threw my bag and water into my locker and sat down for coaches' talk.

"Boys... Today is the start of a long journey. A journey in which will require a lot of hard work from both Junior Varsity and Varsity. No spot is guaranteed, I need you to remember that" said Coach

A few snickers were heard from the older players. They were amused at the fact that someone could possibly take their spot.

"Everyone boys! Everyone is at risk. You have a lot to prove out there, boys... Any new freshmen in here?" asked Coach

About 3 kids raised their hands. Maxwell Osei, Danny Lopes, and I.

"Ah, Maxwell Osei!" said Coach

Maxwell Osei was a lot to stand up to against. He was the best middle school forward in the state. I played with him in Middle school. He is a native of Ghana, and his speed is absolutely incredible. He was already well known to the high school coaches at this point.

"It's finally the time in which you join us, kiddo" said coach

"Thank you, Coach" replied Maxwell.

"Okay boys, let's get out there and begin our warm-ups, myself and coach John Mark will be there soon enough. Louis and Anthony, lead them out" said Coach Andrade

"Alright boys, let's head out of here!" said Anthony.

Anthony Tavares was a senior. The all star and the veteran of this soccer team. He was without a doubt the best in the state and some question if he is the best in the region. He is the goalkeeper, so therefore, a captain at heart, even without the armband. He has been a starter for East Providence since freshman year.

His little brother, a junior at the school, Louis Tavares. Louis was just a smaller version of Anthony. He was relatively short, but he definitely got the job done. These two men are the captains of the squad this year. They have us at the palm of their hands.

Jason Silveira, better known as slick, turned off his stereo that was blasting in the locker room, and got his cleats and ran outside. Jarrod Bento followed him out, those two were like glue, I never seen them apart.

Everyone left except us three freshmen.

"Ay, all you freshmen, get the balls and crap, let's go" said Anthony

"Man, what the hell" said Danny

"Excuse me, listen to me right now. You're a freshman, we've all been through it and it's your turn. Now get your ass out there with the balls and hurry up" said Anthony

I have a feeling this year is going to be the worst of my life.

## Chapter 3

I get outside along with Danny Lopes and the boys have already begun their running, we quickly hop in and sprint towards the back of the line. Our practice field was always damp. Even on a blistering summer day like this, the field always seemed damp. Not much spark to it, and it was the JV field so it was repetitively in bad condition. We ran a long distance for one lap. I'd say maybe 150 yards would be a lap. We circled an entire baseball field, went behind the batting cages and followed the touchline towards the opposite goal, where coach was always standing with a stern look on his face, closely watching us.

We did 3 laps and I slowly began to get tired. I only expected four laps, so I just kept on pushing. Once we crossed the fourth lap, Louis yelled out "Halfway there, boys!" and I could have sworn I died and came back to earth that very moment. My legs were already weak, I was already sweating, and I could feel myself wheezing for air.

During the 5th lap, I was the very last in the group, but I managed to keep up, I just had to keep on pushing. If I can't even survive warm ups, what can I survive? 2 laps later, I was still in the end and slowly separating from the bunch. Once everyone had crossed the final lap, I was the last one by about 5 seconds. I was quite embarrassed, and had not made a very great showing of myself.

We got into our stretch positions, and coach began talking to us.

"Okay, right now, I am going to be giving out paperwork to you guys. All paperwork must be handed in as soon as possible along with insurance. If you do not hand in this paperwork, you will not play. It's that simple. I'm also going to go around right now and meet the freshmen. Anthony, have them do silent stretches and back to running" said Coach.

Coach went to Danny first and had a small chat with him, then to Maxwell and had a rather nice conversation with him. He finally reached me.

"Your name, kiddo?" he asked

"Ruben... Ruben Rodrigues" I responded

He muttered my name as he wrote it down on his clipboard.

"Okay Ruben, it is very nice to meet you, I am Coach Mario Andrade, I will be the Varsity Coach this year. Who am I kidding, I will probably be the coach until I die! It's been eighteen long years. Anyways, did you play at the Middle School?"

"Yes, Coach" I said

"What position did you play?" he asked

"I played goalkeeper, sir" I said

"Goalkeeper!? With that height, you played goalkeeper? Well. I can't wait to see this!" he said

I gave a small chuckle.

I'm tired of people doubting me.

"Okay kid, have fun at the rest of practice, and just play simple soccer. See you" he said

"Good-bye Coach" I said

I did my butterfly stretch and then I stood up and touched my toes. Everyone was talking, but I didn't really feel like talking. I was thinking I was going to be sick. We got back up and Anthony said "Five more laps guys, then we will do our drills".

I got back up and tried to walk fast to get a good spot in line. Anthony stopped me abruptly. "What in the hell do you think you're doing? You're a Freshman, get in the back of the line"

"Um. I'm sorry" I responded

"Don't worry kid, I'm just busting your balls, just try to stay towards the middle"

I find it weird that he was kind of nice. He has that image of being kind of scary, and intimidating.

So I got in the middle, and I was running next to Brian Peterson, everyone called him Botat. I knew him by name, but I never really talked to him. I tried to give a hello, but he just nodded his head and ran. This time, I did make the 5 laps successfully, but by the time I was done, my legs felt so heavy, like I was carrying weights on my thighs.

Coach John Mark Andrade showed up. He had a stern look. He meant business, and I knew it from the start. He didn't take any crap. We huddled around him for our drills, and for his mini-speech.

"Hello Boys, Great to see you again. It's that time of the year again. We have got to step up to the plate, especially after last year. Now, I know some of us haven't been working out as much as we should have been throughout the summer. I'm not mentioning any names, Bento" he said

"I'm not fat coach, I'm big boned" replied Bento

"Sure, Bento... Sure. Anyways guys, this is why we have to cut the shit and get to work. Right now, I have four cones on the field; we will be running the grid. Everyone grab a ball" he said

I scrambled to get my ball and then stood next to the boys.

"What the hell is this?" said Coach John Mark

He gave a dirty look to Danny Lopes.

"Are you a goalkeeper, kid?" said Coach John Mark

"No" Danny replied

"Then why is that ball in your hands!" screamed coach

Danny dropped the ball to his feet immediately.

"We're soccer players here, not basketball, and I, for one, don't have time for this!" said Coach

"Drop and give me 20" said Coach

Danny probably made the worst mistake of his entire life. He rolled his eyes.

"Want to give me attitude? Make it 50" said Coach.

"Everyone else, get inside of the four cones with the ball at your _feet_!"

I got inside the grid, and held the ball under my left foot, my kicking foot.

"Alright boys, we did this last year but I will explain it again for the freshmen, and anyone else new to the program. You have a ball and you just have to dribble. It's simple, just dribble around, not in circles. Once I blow my whistle, you are to come to an abrupt stop. Any movement after the whistle will result in pushups" said Coach

We all got into a nice assembly line as he split us in the grid. I was nervous, I felt my esophagus wanting to release. I was already tired. Then, the whistle blew. At that split second... Everything began.

## Chapter 4

We immediately began running. I was slowly pacing with the ball touching the insides of my feet, just pacing. I thought this junk was easy. All of a sudden, the whistle blew. I put my foot on top of the ball to stop, and my foot rolled over the ball. I had fallen... and completely embarrassed myself.

"Pushups, Kiddo" said Coach

I got down and slowly counted to myself. I felt my arms tremble but I couldn't be weak. I just couldn't show any signs of weakness. I felt 30 pairs of eyes burning on me. I finished off and got right back up.

We began the drill again, we did this for another 15-20 minutes. Afterwards we stretched a little bit, then coach got our attention again.

Next to him, was a different coach, I had never seen him before.

"Guys, for anyone that wasn't here last year, this is Coach Jack Burgo. He is the JV coach this year" said Coach Andrade

"Hello Guys" greeted Coach Burgo

"Boys, he's going to take it from here while me and coach Mario are discussing some things, we will be back shortly, give this man your full attention" said coach Andrade

I thought this was going to be some type of break. Coach Burgo seemed to be a nice guy, he always had a smile to his face, and he seemed to have a good sense of humor. For about a minute he talked to Jarrod Bento and Louis Tavares.

Coach Burgo then ran the practice while Coach John Mark and Coach Mario conversed. The rest of practice was pretty straight forward. Coach instructed us on various running drills for the next hour, and then we ran some laps. Coach announced that practice was now over and we headed back to the locker room.

All I remember was being exhausted that day. Absolutely tired. On the somewhat long walk past the parking lot to the locker rooms I stopped and talked to Danny.

"So, how'd you like it?" I said

"Man, that's bullshit, they're racist over there man!" said Danny

"Nah man, I think they're just messing with you" I said

"Yeah I know, but whatever I'm tired. I'll see you later" Said Danny

"See you tomorrow" I said

We step into the school building and we have to take off our cleats and most of the kids have their ADIDAS sandals ready at the doorway. It seems to be some sort of fashion statement around here for the soccer players, I've got to grab me a pair. I felt kind of dumb walking in my socks. I throw my cleats into my locker and put on my Nike's and sit down for coaches talk.

"Boys, this was a good practice, most of you look pretty darn out of shape, but we're all here to fix that and work hard together. We need to work hard, get the fat out of the system and focus on more important issues. With that I leave you boys, Coach John Mark, Coach Burgo, would you like to add anything?" said Coach Andrade

John Mark gave a little wave as if to say he had nothing else to add. Coach Andrade shot a look at Coach Burgo and Coach had a little announcement.

"Well boys, I just want to reiterate what Coach Andrade said. You boys did a good job out there" said coach Burgo

"Goodnight boys, rest up, take your carbohydrates, drink water, and get your asses here tomorrow at 7:00 AM" said Coach John Mark

The room burst with chatter as soon as coach left. Jay Silveira turned up the boombox as everyone got their things together. I walked outside the locker room and I took a left down the hallway towards the cafeteria for a drink. I grabbed a Powerade. Just as the bottle came out I hear a shout.

"YO!" and through the doors came Anthony and Louis

"Yeah?" I said

"I know you're gonna give us a sip!" said Anthony

I thought it was kind of gross, so I just bought them each a drink and headed towards the doorway.

"Hey... thanks kid!" said Louis

"No Problem" I replied

I walked out the door and met my aunt and went home.

## Chapter 5

Today is my first day of actual high school. Preseason had kept me busy for the past two weeks and I had a great sense of accomplishment just being able to survive it. I received a letter in the mail a couple weeks ago telling me my homeroom teacher. I had Mrs. Simeone with a couple of friends that I had from middle school. Danny from the soccer team was on the team, so I quickly took a seat next to him seeing that he would give me plenty of company throughout the year. The air smelled of smoke from kids smoking outside and the room was stuffy as the whole school didn't have any air conditioner. Mrs. Simeone walked into the room and I could tell by the look she had on that it wouldn't be a pleasant year. She sat down at her desk and the class quickly quieted down.

"Freshmen, how does it feel to be in High School?!" she said

I could have sworn it was a rhetorical question because all she got out of it was a couple of moans and groans. I quickly became bored too and laid my head down.

"Well, my name is Mrs. Simeone. I'm a math teacher here at the high school and I'll be your homeroom teacher from now until you graduate. You can find me for help, any questions you may have, don't be scared to ask." She said

"Yeah, Why does it smell like shit in here?" said some random kid in the back

"It's a problem that has grown throughout the years at the school, and its all the cigarette smoke going on downstairs that is making it reek in this room" she replied

For the rest of the class she talked, and talked, and talked some more. Before I knew it, I was staring at the back of my eyelids in a deep sleep.

I felt a nudge from the kid sitting next to me.

"Wake up!" he said "the goddamn principal's in here!"

As soon as he alerted me about that, I felt eyes burning on the side of my skull. I turned my head slowly because I knew what was coming.

"Simeone. Looks like we have a sleeper again, doesn't it?" said the Principal

He seemed to just let it go after that. We learned his name to be Mr. Piros. He looked like a good guy and all, and he actually made sense. He explained to us some of the new things about coming into the high school, and what to expect. He was a very stern guy. Stood up straight, firm smile, looked like he could give a killer handshake too.

DING DING DING DI-

The bell rang, and it's really a terrible bell. Gives us three dings, then half a ding. Is that necessary? Gives me that feeling of unease I guess.

As I left advisory, the rest of the day was normal. The one thing that shocked me was definitely how much bigger everyone was than me, and how many unfamiliar faces there were. See, my middle school only provided about 75 percent of the new Class of 2009. The other 25 percent came from the smaller school in Riverside, a small town inside of East Providence. I never really came into contact with these kids that often, so when I saw them it was a little bit weird. The feeling where you _should_ know these kids, but haven't really had the chance to. You could say it was a rivalry between Riverside and Martin Middle School. Whether it be sports or academics, they always seemed to be worse. Maybe it's my opinion, but I kicked ass in the district spelling bee knocking out Riverside in the process.

Anyways, I finished up the day without a problem, met all my teachers and called it a day. Here came the fun part: after school.

You see, the thing with me, is that I always have this fear of being late. Even if I'm on time, I feel late. I have to be the first one there to feel in place.

So, I ran out of 7th period into the locker room to make sure that I had gotten ready. Today was the first game of the season, and guess what? _Completely unprepared._

## Chapter 6

As we were getting dressed, no one knew exactly what team they were on. In case you live under a rock, high school sports are usually divided into two teams, Junior varsity and Varsity. The only kids guaranteed on varsity were the ones that had made it last year. Of course, I was only a freshman, so Junior Varsity was guaranteed.

The game today was the _Injury Fund_ match. It was pretty much a way to come up with money for kids who get injured and don't have insurance. This was considered an exhibition game for varsity teams only.

The music was bumping, and J-slick as the DJ as always. Anthony was dancing like a goof, and actually, everybody was. I was beginning to wonder if this was a goddamn club or a locker room. I realized it was a locker room when Coach Mario bellowed "Turn the music off, listen up!"

The room got so quiet, you'd think we lost electricity at that very moment. The players lined up at attention. Their faces were shining with anticipation, they were ready for the challenge. No matter what the challenge was. I see these kids around the city, but I've never seen them like this. They all looked like warriors. They were ready for the David vs. Goliath matches. Whether or not they were David or Goliath.

"Today is our first test, our first challenge. Get the damn game inside of your head and none of that other crap. We play Tolman, so it shouldn't be that bad. Now lets go, when I call your name, tell me your size jersey and shorts" Coach said

"Dias"

"Medium shorts, medium shirt"

"Bento"

"Large shorts, XL shirt"

The room giggled a bit at Jarrod. He turned a little red with embarrassment.

"Brian Peterson"

"Small shorts, medium shirt"

"Kaio"

"Medium shorts, large shirt"

"Andrew"

"Small shorts, medium shirt"

Well, anyways, you get the picture. Soon after, coach posted a roster on the wall of the 2005-2006 East Providence Varsity men's squad:

## NAME:

## Dias, Eddy

## Ortiz, Steven

## Gonçalves, Kaio

## Bento, Jarrod

## Tavares, Anthony*

## Soares, Paul

## Peterson, Brian

## Tavares, Louis*

## Osei, Maxwell

## Medeiros, Andrew

## Cabral, Kevin

## Almeida, Tyler

## Bonin, Tyler

## Silveira, Jason

## Lopes, David

## Boyce, James

## POSITION AVAILABLE: Backup Goalkeeper

Everybody huddled around that list, some with satisfaction, and others with some grunts. There was a kid named Jay Bento, not Jarrod Bento, who was somewhat promised guaranteed varsity play this year. It seemed everybody's attention quickly turned to him, even though he didn't show much emotion. He just went about his way of still getting prepared. The room grew quiet in anticipation of the match, and I saw right then and there how prepared we really were.

I sat down near my locker and got myself ready. As I was pulling up my socks, Coach Mario pulled up next to me.

"Hey kiddo, how's it going?" he said

They seemed like awfully friendly words from such a stern face. He quickly let out a smile that I haven't seen before and it showed a softer side of him.

"Pretty good, sir—uh Coach" I responded nervously

"No worries. So how was Martin Middle School for you?"

"It was all right. A little disappointing because I didn't get much playing time. But, I can't complain. Coach Branco taught me a lot of things about the game and it was worth being there every second. I don't regret doing it, I just wish more came out of it." I responded

"We have a really good program here. Don't let some of the horsing around fool you, kiddo. Wait until we're on the pitch, then you'll see the true Townies" He said confidently.

Right then and there, I felt sort of an open attitude towards him. I didn't want this to be another middle school season so I couldn't help but ask him a question that's been bothering me.

"So who will be the backup goal keeper? Me or Jose Lopes?" I asked, then hesitated

"It is what you make of it. Show me you want it, and you'll have it. Now, quickly get the ball bag and get on the bus" he said

It was one of those moments that I could treasure forever. He may have just creaked open the door to being a part of the Townie varsity squad, but he didn't do it very easily. I got the ball bag, and ran on the bus.

The varsity members filled up the back, and I took a seat towards the middle with the now sad JV members. The bus ride was short, it was on the other side of town at Our Lady of Fatima high school. Kids were changing from sandals to cleats during the last couple of minutes on the bus. We had arrived at our first game, the Injury Fund match.

## Chapter 7

### Injury Fund Match

September 1st, 2005

### Tolman vs. East Providence

### 0-0-0

### W-L-T

As we stepped off the bus, another game was finishing up on the field. The team wasted no time getting prepared. Anthony strapped his gloves on, Louis strapped his cleats on, and Coach Mario strapped his whistle on. This was it, this was game time.

As we were warming up, the final whistle blew on the other game and we lined up at attention to Coach Mario and Coach John Mark.

"Boys, no more bullshit. Let's get out there and show them what we're made of. That's all I have to say" said Coach John Mark

"Everyone knows their positions. Line up for the anthem" said Coach Mario

As we all lined up for the national anthem, I couldn't help but look around at my surroundings. Everyone's mind was in that game. It's a beautiful thing if someone was ever to truly notice it. It's like looking at the warrior before he enters battle. Those kids were ready to bleed. Ready to break bones, and ready to be broken. Anything to put that ball in the back of the net, they would do it. I snapped out of my observation when applause rippled through the air signaling the end of the anthem. We lined up to shake hands, and the referee had an announcement. He was a pudgy bastard I tell you. He lined us up with the coaches next to him and read out this announcement from a little blue card:

"We here at the Rhode Island Interscholastic Sports League would like to recognize the fact of fair play. If there is any case of taunting, unsportsmanlike conduct, spitting, or violent conduct, it will result in an automatic ejection of any coach, player, or fan. Please shake hands gentlemen." He said

You could tell he said that about thirty times today because it was so half assed. We shook hands, and moved on.

The whistle blew, and Eddy passed it back to Tyler to begin the game. We usually played with 3 strikers(Eddy, David, and Louis), 4 midfielders(Steven Ortiz, James Boyce, Jarrod Bento, Kaio Goncalves), 3 defenders(Jason Silveira, Tyler Almeida, and Kevin Cabral).

The game started out really slowly with a simple possession game, but took a physical turn when one of the Tolman players landed a tackle on Eddy. Quickly, Louis was at his side to push off the defender and prepare for the free kick. The kick was about 30 meters out, and seemed a little like too much of a distance. Eddy took the kick and it clanked off the post and out of bounds.

Tolman must have used that as a wake up call, because their game changed from that point on. They were attacking through the wings and exposing our midfield, putting in several crosses into the box. We had such a strong defense, every ball was cleared out easily.

On one of their crosses, Jarrod Bento put up a huge clearance that easily sailed the ball over the midfield line. Like a bear hunting for fish, Louis jumped on that ball winning possession. He cut and weaved through defenders like a hot knife through butter. He was approaching the goal, maybe 25 meters out, when he saw Eddy out of the corner of his eye and made a quick pass. Eddy wound up and shot. The net ate that ball, and celebration erupted. The Townies had scored their first goal of the season.

Shortly after the goal, the halftime whistle blew and the boys crowded our bench, thirsty and fatigued.

"Good job boys! Good job! There's obviously some aspects that we can improve on, correct? Bento, distribute the ball better, stop playing goddamn kickball out there. Eddy, lets get some more shots on goal, okay?" said Coach

The boys gave them a nod and guzzled some water down. The whistle blew, and halftime was over. The team lined in with one change, Tyler Bonin went in for James Boyce.

The second half was mostly like the first, except the possession game was far better for the Townies than for Tolman. The passes were so fluent with each other that it was almost artistic. Louis pulled off a couple of shots, but none hit the back of the net. As I was sitting there watching, I noticed the coaches were looking at me. Out of all the goddamn times to look at me, they picked right now.

"Ruben!" said Coach Mario

I stood up at attention

"Yes coach?" I responded

"Get your gloves on, line up at half. You're going in" he said bluntly

A million and one things raced through my mind as I put my gloves on. I was waiting for the ball to be put out so I could be substituted in. I stood there sort of jumping up and down, ready to sprint onto the field when all of a sudden, the three whistles blew... the game was over. As I walked back to the bench, I saw the coaches laughing. They were amused at the fact that I got so excited. Right there at that moment, I felt like someone ripped my heart out. The Townies won 1-0 in the first exhibition match. I got out of my keeper outfit, and went onto the bus. Everyone was loud, and I was heartbroken.

That night, I got home and everyone could tell I had a puss on my face. Of course at the time, I was completely angry and pissed off. No one ever likes to admit that they are hurt by another person's actions, unless it gains attention to themselves. I got home that night and almost pretended to be a fat girl who just got dumped by her boyfriend. I got a tub of ice cream, laid on my bed, and ate the ice cream. Uncle Nuno walked into the room, he likes to cut straight to the point.

"What the hell happened this time?" He said with a half smile on his face

"Just the same old stuff. Same shit like what happened in Middle School, these coaches will never get to see me and what I'm really worth." I replied

"Well, if you keep bitching and moaning, you won't get anywhere. Keep showing them exactly what you are worth at practice, I promise you they're watching. Now give up the ice cream, you hog." He said

He always did have a way with words. I knew he was right, too. I gave up the ice cream and fell asleep watching _Family Guy_.

## Chapter 8

Today was the Freshman Orientation at school. Sort of like a pep rally for the Class of 2009. We got to meet the upperclassmen (not that they really wanted to meet us), and introduce ourselves to the faculty of East Providence High School. I went with my buddy Matt that I told you earlier about. We were just walking around, and we always have to scope out the girls, it's just natural. East Providence had a lot of girls. I think they outnumbered the guys, actually.

"Remember her, Ruben? She used to squash kids and now she's straight up gorgeous." He said

"Yeah, I remember. Talk about a blooming flower, Holy Shit!" I laughed

We kept walking around and then this girl passed the corner of my eye. I swear to you she was the most gorgeous girl I had ever seen, and I could see she was just my type. My jaw literally dropped. She was about 5'4 and had beautiful strawberry blonde hair. Her eyes were sparkling and drove through me.

"Matt, who in the HELL is that!?" I asked quickly

"That's Eddy's girl, Nicole." He said

"Are you for real? She's gorgeous, man. I've never seen a girl like that." I said with awe

"She's not too bad. Ain't my popsecos com manteiga." He laughed out loud

Real quick, before you panic, let me explain the whole "popsecos com manteiga". Matt and I are both Portuguese Americans. So some phrases you may hear are in the Portuguese language. Usually, they aren't that funny, but hilarious to us.

We spent the rest of the rally walking around. Class was supposed to resume, but we just went home. That was plenty enough for one day.

I had to get home quickly to get my stuff for practice later that day. I took the bus home and got my stuff. I returned to EPHS in time for practice.

Practice started out as it usually did. We ran. Ran some more. Then, to top it off, ran some more. I swear to you, I was getting pissed off. We haven't touched a ball in ages in that damn training session. When training was over, Coach Mario pulled us aside and had a talk.

"Hello, Boys." He greeted us

"Hello, Coach." We replied

"Does anybody have any reflections on the past match? I want to know your opinions" he asked

The group remained silent. It was hard to tell whether he was angry, happy, sad, or mad. The guys face always had a devilish smile on it, but he was a good guy. After what seemed like forever, he finally spoke.

"Very well, then. You're all free to go." He said

On the way out of practice, I felt a sense of accomplishment. You know, that walk you take after you've just done something well? That's exactly what I had felt. There were a lot of feelings rushing through me, and I have not even a clue why. I looked around; all I saw were tired faces. Nobodies mind was in the same frame as mine was at that time. I remember looking up at the huge building and realizing that my life was hitting a new phase. I saw a future in that building, I saw hope in that building, I saw courage in that building. That's just the very problem, though. It was all trapped inside that building. I wished I could have taken out that same courage, future, and hope, and turn it into something positive for both myself and for others. No one ever sees this side of me. All of this is crammed up inside of me and no one is there to appreciate it. I love this world. I really do. The different cultures, lifestyles, incomes, attitudes, it's all captured here at East Providence High School. People always say that you find yourself after your teenage years, but I'm now beginning to question that statement. I think I've found myself. I've learned from other mistakes, and I'll make other mistakes in my future to learn from. It's just a way of life. You know exactly the type of person you are from the start; it's only up to you to decide what you mold yourself into. Trust me, I'm not perfect. I'm far from it. I know what it takes to be the best though.

We got into the locker room and left to go home. There was a game tomorrow, and I was nervous as hell.

## Chapter 9

### Regular Season Match

September 6th, 2005

### East Providence vs. Barrington

### 1-0-0

### W-L-T

It was around 6 o'clock before we all filed into the locker room. It was the usual beat bumping and loud cheers. Maybe I was starting to settle in, but none of this was really phasing me. I was exhausted from the practice before. My legs were hurting, my feet had blisters, and my toes were stuck together from the constant heat. If anyone has ever tried a diet regimen, we can easily compare this to the first stage of any regimen. It was definitely the most painful stage, and required physical and mental endurance. Usually when a body goes through a lot of work, it helps you sleep. This was not the case for me. The night before, I was tossing and turning and found it hard to sleep. It was the adrenaline. The adrenaline was still rushing and pumping throughout my body. The only problem is that the adrenaline disappears when it is truly needed. My eyes are droopy and sagging, and there is not an ounce of adrenaline left in me. I was walking towards my locker when Coach Mario had stopped me.

"Jeez Louise, what time did _you_ go to bed last night!?" he said

"What time did I go to bed, or what time did I fall asleep?" I responded

"You're exhausted aren't you?"

"Yes, Coach. But I'll be fine, I promise"

"Whatever you say, Ruben"

With that, he let me be. I looked around the locker room and noticed that the other goalkeeper had not shown up. Nor would he show up, I soon found out.

"Hey, Tighty" I called to Andrew

Andrew's name is "Tightface" or, for short, "Tighty". Kind of a funny reason, too. When he does his pushups, he can honestly shrink his face to where it all goes to the middle. Therefore, it creates a tight face. Really, it shrinks.

"Sup Ruben?" he responded

"Hey, where the hell is Jose?" I asked

"He quit. Well, I think he quit. He hadn't played in the JV game or hasn't even been showing up to practice in a bit." He said

"Well, I'll be damned!" I said

"Yeah bud, looks like its all yours." He said, with a sort of repulsion

With that news, I felt my shoe size increase just a little bit. The responsibility is huge. You see, Anthony Tavares is a great goalkeeper, don't get me wrong. However, he's got the _worst_ track record when it comes to yellow cards. Rhode Island Interscholastic Sports League states that any goalkeeper that receives a yellow card, must sit out of a game for five minutes. Luckily, this hasn't happened yet, but with time, I guarantee it will. This changed my mentality for the rest of the season. I was first behind Anthony, now. If he falls, I recover. If he gets hurt, I recover. If he gets a yellow or a red card, I recover. With all this running through my mind, I nearly forgot to get changed for the game. Coach was around the locker room already, so I knew his speech was coming up soon. I got dressed for the game in a hurry. I had everything—or I thought I had everything. I looked through my locker and realized my crucial mistake. I had forgotten my gloves at home.

"Does anyone have any keeper gloves!?" I shouted out of desperation

...no answer

"Does ANYONE have any keeper gloves!?" I asked louder

"I do." said a voice in the corner

I scrambled around the corner of the locker room and saw Jarrod Bento leaning against the wall with a pair of good condition keeper gloves.

"Thanks man, I app— what's your problem?" I said

As I reached in, he pulled the gloves away.

"Hasn't anyone ever told you? Nothing in life is _ever_ free." He said

I was strapped for cash, so I made him a false promise of twenty dollars as long as he let me have them. Apparently, it was either a good price or he was in a hurry, because he just dropped the gloves and went back to the music. I got my bag ready, and Coach Mario was awaiting the team at the front of the locker room for his speech.

"Good evening, gentlemen." He said boisterously

"Good evening, coach." We all responded

"Today is a new day, as I've stated before. Nothing will come easy in this campaign. With seasons dealt beforehand, we realize that heartbreak and pain can be eliminated early in the regular season. Today is the beginning of the regular season, boys. Tonight, you decide your destiny. You decide on whether or not your season ends in October, or in November. You decide on what you want to be doing with that empty space on your trophy case. You decide how well you want to represent your school. The decision, boys, is all yours. Get out there and show them _all_ what being a Townie is all about!"

With that speech, goose bumps had risen upon all of us. The claps, cheers, and motivation were spreading throughout the room. The adrenaline was pushed back into me, and I had felt the motivation, I felt the strength, I felt the courage. I got my bag, and went towards the bus waiting to transport us outside.

We've yet to have a home game. Tonight we are traveling out to Barrington. An East Providence suburb located about 15 minutes from East Providence High School. The bus ride was short, so there weren't any shenanigans, just pure concentration. You could hear the cleats scratching the bus floor, which is how quiet it was. The atmosphere was stupendous. Tension was vibrating throughout the air; it was almost as if they were all communicating with each other without even speaking.

Once we arrived at Barrington High School, there was about twenty minutes until kickoff. We stepped off the bus hurriedly, in order to catch a decent warm-up. It was a September night, and temperatures were beginning to change in Rhode Island. The average temperature for September was about seventy-five degrees, with lows hitting the forties. As I ran to the bench to drop our stuff off, I spotted her. Right out of the corner of my eye, there she was, Nicole Allen. It was one of those moments where you just _had to_ stop and awe at what was going on. She was just sitting there, looking pretty. Shock hit me immediately when Eddy Dias went over and planted a kiss on her. I hadn't even spoken to the girl once, but I felt feelings. It's just that feeling where you absolutely _know_ that she is the one for you. It's undeniable, but irretrievable. I shook it off, for the sake of the game, and began my warm-up.

My job was to warm up alongside Anthony. However, it was more like just warming him up. I kicked the ball to him in short spurts to get him warmed up, and we got to know each other this way. He's a class act, I tell you. Funny as all hell, but as soon as that whistle blows; you know it isn't jokes anymore. The only time I ever get warmed up during these pre-game sessions, is when he gets called for the captains toss. When that happens, all the players shoot on me to warm themselves up. If I'm lucky, I save some. Most of the time, they bury it into the net behind me. The whistle blew, and we went over for the National Anthem and the referee disclaimer.

We lined up across the touch line and there she was again. Her eyes fixed on the American flag, and her lips softly mimicking the lyrics to the patriotic tune. The beauty of the flag had already put me in awe, but the beauty of her eyes set me on fire.

"What the hell are you doing" asked Danny, standing behind me

I zoned out. The anthem was over and there I was standing there alone, watching her. Everybody was at half field, if it wasn't for Danny, I would have stayed there all night watching her if I could. I went to the bench, and sat down as the match was about to begin.

Before every match, there is this pep talk that Anthony gives in the middle of the field. It usually consists of how much he wants to break his opponents legs, or how badly he wants to dropkick somebody in the throat. Yeah, that's right, the throat. I'm obviously just kidding, but you get the idea. After his pep talk is done, the referee counts the players and the whistle blows. Game on.

At first, the possession type of play was used by both squads. You can tell they were trying to feel each other out. The play was boring to be quite honest. I felt as if they were simply conserving their energy. Around the 20th minute, we started seeing the play get more physical. Some shoves, dirty looks, and cheap shots never hurt to spice a game up. The ball was being played more frequently down the touchline, and that caused some fouls. Eddy was relatively quiet this game, but Louis was gaining momentum. He was approaching their 18-yard box more vehemently than seen in prior matches. Eddy and Louis combined touches throughout the half, but none quite finding the back of the net. The halftime whistle blew with 0-0 on the scoreboard. We headed over to our corner flag for our coach to speak with us.

"Guys, it's not that bad. Keep up the pace, and you'll wear them down. Don't get stuck with your heads up your asses though if they attack down the wing. Eddy and Louis, lets make those touches count, and put them in the goal! Defense, you haven't seen much, but keep your eyes peeled. We have to use our transition game this half. Get the ball from the defense, to the midfield, to the forwards, and into the net. Four steps...all it takes. We're three quarters of the way there. Heads up, drink up, and step up." said Coach Mario

"I have something to add, too. Kaio, you're working that line well. Keep making runs. Kevin and Tyler, lets try to find him, eh? One good through ball will pick apart this defense. This game is as easy as you make it. Keep hustling, good work. Don't make me regret saying that." said Coach John-Mark

With those words, we huddled up and broke off. I could tell these guys had some venom in their eyes. They were ready to attack and make it happen. Sometimes, this isn't a good thing. It could result in disciplinary actions if we're too pumped up. We'll see how it turns out.

The whistle blew and we had thirty-five minutes to play. The strategy was different this half, on both sides, and it was easy to tell. This was shaping up to be a decent match. Barrington was on the defense. Louis and Eddy were beginning to pick apart the defense. Eddy kept the ball alongside the touch line and crossed it into the penalty area. The ball met with a solid header from James Boyce but a quick clearance by Barrington's defense. The clock was winding down and we were itching closer and closer to the shot that counted. Eddy took the ball up the field and split two defenders. Then, he passed it off to Louis and he did some damage to the defense. Louis was approaching the box when he was tackled from the side and the referee called "PLAY ON!"...and with good reason. Eddy crawled up behind the foul and sank the ball into the back of the net, a beauty of a shot that sent Pierce Memorial Stadium up into a roar.

Time was going by fast after the restart, and Barrington knew that very well. The work ethic in their midfield improved, as ours declined. They began to possess the ball more and attacked it into our half with much more intensity than earlier in the match. A Barrington midfielder was quite skilled, enough to make it within 20 yards of the box. Kevin Cabral recognized the play and slide tackled the player immediately. It was a _nasty_ foul that resulted in a yellow card for Cabral. A smaller price than he should have paid, without a doubt. The ensuing free kick was dangerous. It required a five-man wall, which was quickly set up by Anthony. The kick was soft, but accurate. It caused Anthony to react quickly, but with his athleticism, he made it look easy. Anthony stopped the ball with his palms, and quickly covered it up. His punt into the midfield led to the referee blowing the whistle to signal the end of the match.

Cheers erupted at Pierce field, our first home win, done with patience and style. A great start to the regular season. As I celebrated with the team, I couldn't help but look back at Nicole. She was cheering and doing toe touches, all that good stuff. It was almost a perfect portrait... until I saw Eddy come up and kiss her. I snapped back to reality really fast, and got back to doing what I was supposed to be doing. I'm quite the dreamer, aren't I?

## Chapter 10

It was already 6:30 AM and I was probably going to be tardy today. I was sore from last night's running around and frantic screaming. I seemed to have also lost my voice. It felt like a stone was lodged in my throat. Oh well, nothing that some cough syrup and coffee can't fix, right?

I got to class around 7:20, just in time. Mrs. Higginbotham, my first period teacher, is just a complete sweetheart. She's one of the kindest women a person can ever meet. A kind heart, and a wonderful soul. I couldn't have asked for a better start to every day of my freshman year.

"Ruben, looking a little tired there" she said

"Yes, Mrs. Higg, I'm a little exhausted" I responded

"Run around a lot?"

"No, Mrs. Higg... I didn't get a chance to play. It's all right, though. I had a great time anyways!"

"Ruben, as long as you're having fun, it really doesn't matter how much time you spend playing. You'll have a great time regardless of how many times you touch the ball." She said

Now, I know what you're thinking as you read this.

"oh, she's just being nice!"

Mrs. Higginbotham isn't just nice, she's an honest person. If there is one person I could take advice from in my entire time at East Providence High School, it was Mrs. Higginbotham. Her advice was true, she would never mislead me.

Sometimes, I felt like I didn't give her the respect she deserved. She was a brilliant educator and an even more outstanding person. I have an admiration for my teachers, in ways that some kids just don't understand. It's not the greatest paying job in the world, and it's not the easiest job in the world. So I tend to ask all of my teachers, to this day, why they decided to become teachers? I get the same answer out of each and every one of my teachers:

"because I love this job."

Educators today aren't as respected as they deserve to be. They are not babysitters from 7:30 AM to 2:30 PM. They are the foundation to the future of ourselves as people, and to ourselves as a society. Anyone who can honestly deny that must not recognize the labor that is put in.

So on days like today, where I find myself sleeping in Mrs. Higginbotham's class, I feel disrespectful. She doesn't deserve that. The bell rang, I woke up. Slowly I got up and moved to my second period class. The halls of East Providence High School remind me of a painting. Not physically, but mentally. The amount of diversity that lies within these halls are absolutely outstanding. Hispanic, Caucasian, African-American, they're all found here. I learned about this type of situation from my English teacher in 7th grade, Ms. Afonso. It was called a "melting pot", basically what America is founded upon. All of us, together, in one big melting pot called the United States of America. It's a beautiful thing.

As I was walking down the hall, I was pretty tired. My hair was probably a wreck, and I had no idea if I matched or not. Usually, this was how I looked. I was always too tired to dress up, and even more tired to have the effort to explain why. I tried to move along the hallways as quick as possible, I must have been an ugly sight to these people. Of course, I'm not so lucky. As I was walking, Nicole saw me, there was eye contact. I ran into the person in front of me and embarrassed myself even more. I hope she didn't see it, though. I was flustered and my face went burning hot. I quickly went in to Mr. Keaton's Algebra class. This day wasn't exactly starting off too hot. Mr. Keaton's class is pretty awesome, though. I walked in and he had donuts sitting on a chair for us, and I'm a sucker for donuts.

"Warm-up is on the board! Get to work!" he yelled

Well, let's just say I didn't exactly get the warm-up done. It was naptime again for Ruben! I woke up, and the bell had already rung, and I was late for third period.

Good thing my fourth period was Physical Education class, or else I would have been in big trouble. I loved Physical Education, or Phys-Ed for short. All I had to do was change into some workout clothes, and play soccer for about an hour. Simple, right?

Fourth period is a different story, however. I had Civics with Ms. McGovern. Nice lady, but the year just seemed to zoom by with her. I always paid attention in her class because we always talked about current events, and I'm pretty interested in that stuff.

Fifth period came as fast as morning hit me this morning, and I was off to Art with Mr. DiGati. He was the Italian Stallion. Thick Italian accent, Naples, if I remember correctly. Brilliant art teacher, taught me some things I didn't really know I could learn!

Sixth period was Portuguese with Mr. Mello. It was weird, let's just put it at that. I speak fluent Portuguese, so the class was a breeze. Mr. Mello was a funny guy, though.

Now, seventh period, that's where the magic happens. Mr. Swan's 7th period Biology class was the reason I came to school every day. It was so much fun. Don't get me wrong though, I despise science classes. I didn't like Biology one bit, and I barely survived everyday during the studies portion of it, but there were some good people in that class that had me laughing every day. Mr. Swan made me enjoy school as a whole in just one class period.

Well, that's my day basically until 1:30 PM. The day doesn't get very interesting until 2:00 PM when practice starts.

Today's practice was relatively light and easy because we have another game soon. I'm still behind in running laps, of course. No one really picks on me about it...except for Steve Ortiz.

I'd like to call him the biggest prick in the planet but I can't really do that. I've met bigger, but he's up there. I can't really be mad at him either, he's cocky but he can back it up, so he's not really doing anything wrong. His attitude makes me feel like shit, though.

We ran a simple practice. Run, Drills, Run again, Go home. I'm glad it was that way, because tomorrow is game-time.

## Chapter 11

### Regular Season Match

### September 8th, 2005

### East Providence vs. Portsmouth

### 2-0-0

### W-L-T

Ten days into the season! I'm still alive, I'm still running, and I haven't broken a bone. In my mind, that's a great success! While in my mind I'm celebrating, in my heart I'm drowning in pain. My legs are killing me, it seems like it takes forever for me not to get sore. We have Saturday's and Sunday's off, and those are my relaxing days. Anyways, enough about my whining, today we have a game, and a pretty important game at that. We're going to be playing Portsmouth High School. This match has some significance. See, East Providence and Portsmouth always have this battle for second place in the district. LaSalle, a private school, always gets first place. Second place gets home field advantage during the quarterfinals of the playoffs. Home field advantage in high school soccer is pretty significant.

Today was the same deal as always. I put on my goalkeeper stuff, and just lugged everything around. I was pretty much the water boy, towel boy, statistician boy, timekeeper boy, everything but get-in-a-match-and-play-boy. I was actually pretty content with it. I didn't have to play, so I couldn't make any crucial mistakes. The most I could do is laugh in the locker room when Louis farted during one of coaches speeches. The boys tend to do that, I wonder if coach disregards it or actually hears it. I have a laughing problem. I will laugh at farts no matter where I hear them. I definitely shouldn't laugh during one of coach's speeches, though.

On the bus, we ran out of seats so I sat next to Coach Andrade and Coach John-Mark. It was weird hearing their conversations. They had in-depth discussions about the game at hand, and the players within it. That's when I realized I was not a very important part of this program because everyone in that bus was mentioned except for me. Kind of sucks, right? Oh well, I still was technically a varsity soccer player, so stick that in your juice box and suck it.

We arrived in Portsmouth, and this place was certainly...different. They had no cheerleaders, no fans, but a great field. The grass was cut beautifully and the players were definitely excited to be able to play on it. We got off the bus and unloaded the stuff. I took my supplies that I was responsible for and headed towards the field. Our cheerleaders were at this game, too. So that meant that Nicole was there as well. I really tried to tune her out, she goes out with Eddy, it's wrong to like one of my friends girlfriend. I couldn't help it though, I was guilty as charged. I doubt I'd ever have the guts to talk to her, but it felt good to care for someone.

Warm-ups began. Anthony and I started our regular routine. The more that I got to work with him, the better it was. We became closer and he started to understand me, and I began to understand him. Most high schools have the starting quarterback as their most popular kid. It was not the case at East Providence High School. He was by far the most popular kid at our school and he was just a soccer goalkeeper. Anthony had a golden personality, and yeah, I'll admit, he had the looks to get the ladies.

Warm-up's had ended early because the referee's were apparently in a hurry. They quickly stated the RIIL disclaimer and left for the National Anthem. Today, the National Anthem had a little bit more significance...it was our last Anthem before the fourth anniversary of September 11th, 2001 when the United States of America was attacked by terrorists. At that moment, everything was put aside by us as players. I looked in everybody's eyes as the "bombs bursting in the air, gave proof that our flag was still there", and I saw a gleam. September 11th, or 9/11 for short, was one of the saddest times in American history. I remember the sadness and pain, but I felt the patriotism afterwards. I felt such a need to fight, to defend, and to glorify our country. I was only 11 years old, and I had the mindset of a 23 year old jumping into battle. The Star Spangled Banner finished up, and they called up the names. We took the field.

I'm starting to notice a trend in the East Providence team. We always start off slow! We're lucky this hasn't bitten us in the butt yet. The Portsmouth kids were big, and they were using that advantage. They didn't have enough speed, but they easily made up for it with height. Every ball they played had intensity packed behind it. They were our toughest opponents so far. It seems like every attack they had within the first ten minutes ended up in Anthony's gloves. That's not a good thing, by the way. Eddy and Louis hadn't seen much of the ball this half, maybe a couple of touches here and there but nothing special. This was not looking good at all for the Townie boys.

Around the thirtieth minute, a score was made. Portsmouth attacked down the wing and crossed it into the box for a quick header into our goal. The goal was unstoppable, they had too much height. This was our first allowed regular season goal, and it hurt. The goal was nearly impossible to recover from, and we ended up down 1-0 at halftime. Usually, I join the team with coach to hear his speech, but I knew this one would be a pretty unhappy speech. I quickly ran to the bathroom and stayed there for the meantime. When I returned, the second half was underway. Usually what coach tells them to do works, but I saw no improvement. The transition game was awful, we had trouble getting the ball from position to position and they just kept on attacking. The Townies held them off well, but the effort was unrewarded. The game ended with a 1-0 score in favor of Portsmouth. We suffered our first loss of the season.

The bus ride home is indescribable when we lose. An utter silence, an awkward tension, and a harsh consequence to fear. The boys knew that a lot of running was in store for them the next day, it's just coach's way of letting us know what is right and wrong. Usually it is full of laughter and joy because we win, but this time there was none of that. Every face on that bus had a certain amount of blankness to it. I could've sworn there was a ghost in front of the bus that I didn't see. When we arrived at East Providence High School, Coach didn't have a speech for us. We just got our stuff and left. He did that to us sometimes. It was better for us to think of what we did wrong rather than having him tell us. It made us think, because we knew he expected an answer soon. This is why I love being a back-up, I have nothing to answer, and not a thing to explain. For once in my life, it wasn't my fault.

## Chapter 12

School the next day was a bit awkward. The days always pass by relatively fast and uneventful, so I'm not even going to mention them to you anymore. If something happens, I'll let you know. The same thing happens everyday as I'm leaving Mr. Swan's 7th period class. I bump into Nicole. She's heading to the parking lot, I'm heading to the locker room. She looks at me, we always make eye contact. It's just this kind of friendly smile.. it's really hard to explain. We've been in school for just over a week now, and I can't help but notice that every day I bump into her, I fall for her a little bit harder. Nicole is the type of girl that has shoes full of cement, because nothing can sweep her off of her feet. Not that I'm trying, anyways.

As I headed into the locker room, I noticed something different. There was a different mood, everyone looked scared.

"What's everyone's problem?" I asked Danny

"...we lost." He responded

"Yeah...and?" I replied

He gave me a look that explained exactly what he meant. This is our first loss of the season. We were going to pay for it in practice. I laced up my cleats and headed to the practice fields.

"FIVE LAPS, MOVE IT!" shouted Coach Andrade

All of a sudden, this went from an after school activity, to pure boot camp. These five laps weren't just little silly running, it was almost a full sprint for five full laps. I started to see that I was getting in better shape because I had actually lasted about three or four laps before I began to move towards the back of the line. I made it, and that was more of a workout that I'd gotten all week. We were only ten minutes into practice, and I was already feeling the heat.

"Holy crap, how much more of this?" I asked Eddy

"Don't worry about it, guy. Just do what you're told and it'll be over before you know it. Just keep on running. Don't look down, look up." he responded

Don't look up. Don't look up. Don't look up.

I can do that.

We ran 15, 30, 45 yard sprints for the next 20 minutes. I kept my head up. It worked.

We ran suicides and snake trails, I kept my head up, it worked.

With about a half hour left in practice we got a water break. I heard the guys talking. They were pointing at the woods and I was a little curious as to what they were talking about. I crept towards them and heard a little bit of what they were talking about, and I heard the same word all the time: "hills".

Coach John-Mark blew his whistle and everybody froze. He answered everybody's fear with just one word.

"Hills!" he yelled.

Everybody moved towards the hill near the woods and halted. Let me describe this hill in detail. It was about ten yards top to bottom, but the incline was probably at a 65 degree angle. It was a slow climb up, and a fast ride down. There were cleat tracks all over it, probably from last year. At first, it didn't look so bad until I looked at everybody else's faces. Everyone looked like an owl, just a blank wide-eyed stare.

"Line up! GO!" yelled Coach John-Mark

Soon, two kids raced up the hill and jogged back down. Then, another two kids raced up the hill and jogged back down. I didn't even notice we were in a line yet! Soon it was my turn and I turned on the jets. I sprinted up the hill and jogged back down. It wasn't so bad. The second time was tough, the third time was rough, and the fourth time was hell. Around the tenth round, I started hearing "C'mon Ruben!" in the background, and it kept me running. The coaches were at the top of the hill yelling, pushing us to move on. Soon, it was the thirtieth round.

"Hey Ruben, I bet you I can beat you if I go up the hill backwards" said Steve Ortiz

"Shut up, Steve. Can you not be an ass for once in your life?" I responded

I was truly beginning to hate this kid. He smirked and did his run at the same time I did, except he ran his backwards. I beat him, but he did put up a good race. Even though I won, he still made me look like a fool.

"Hahaha, you suck" he said

"Dude, seriously. Shut up." I responded

"Who the hell you talking to, you little freshie"

"You, I don't see anyone else with their head up their ass." I said

That probably set him off. He gave me a look and pushed me, but quickly did his sprint again. He didn't speak to me for the rest of practice, which was sort of like a blessing because I didn't need to hear any more of his crap.

We finished at fifty rounds. My lungs were on absolute fire. Everyone else seemed to have been just fine, but I took a beating. My legs hurt so badly.

Practice was over, and we all huddled around coach.

"Next time, you all should know what to do. Win and be rewarded. Lose and face the consequences." Coach Andrade said

I got my stuff out of my locker, and got a ride home with Kaio. That was the toughest practice I've ever had in my life, the blisters will prove it.

## Chapter 13

### Regular Season Match

September 12th, 2005

### East Providence vs. Mount Hope

### 2-1-0

### W-L-T

Tonight was our first important away game. Our legs were a simple reminder of why winning was so important, and the luxury of rest lied within our result. Mount Hope was a team in Warren, RI. It was about 25 minutes away from East Providence. This bus ride was different than most, everyone seemed awfully quiet. Maybe they were tired, or maybe they were just awfully concentrated. I hope tonight comes out as a victory for us all. I learned a good lesson the other day. If we win, we do it as a team. If we lose, we do that as a team, too. I thought I was exempt because I had nothing to do with the loss, but I was running just as much as the captains were. No more, and no less.

It was mid-September in beautiful New England. The sun is losing its heat and the moon is gaining back its cool. Tonight was a seven o'clock match, and the long sleeves came out as well as the gloves. It was always funny looking at Jarrod Bento. He always had a type of fashion statement on him. He began this trend with these mini-gloves that provided no warmth at all, but looked good on the field. He was always the kid to have his hair slicked back and ready for newspaper articles. He didn't get many articles, but he deserved more. He was a solid midfielder. He was a big kid, as well. He stood at about 6'1", and showed that in his aerial game.

Warm-ups today were necessary, and we spent about a half an hour on them. The temperature dropped to about the 50's and gave us our first feel of autumn from the summer months. It was a crisp, clean, and beautiful night for soccer.

"Breaking bones, breaking some damn bones tonight." I overheard Anthony say to Louis

They had a bond like no other, they played on different sides of the field, but their bond was noticeable. Anthony always had that attitude, the "breaking some bones" attitude. He came into the games to win. He had a hard time accepting defeat.

Louis wasn't as serious, but his heart was in the game, it was easy to tell. There were rumors that he had committed to Rhode Island College for his post-high school career.

The game began at a speedy pace. Passes were being connected, and shots were being taken by both teams. Mount Hope had a striker, he was pretty good. He weaved through our midfield and his shots were dangerous. Both teams were playing beautiful soccer, and the field was being torn up by the constant sprints and tackles. Around the 20 minute mark, the Townies had their first real chance. It started with a Mount Hope goal kick, and Jarrod Bento soared in the midfield to clear the ball towards their defensive third. Louis hopped on the ball and began working his way to the top of the 18 yard box. Louis ripped a shot off the crossbar and the ball was quickly defended and cleared by the Mount Hope defense. This quick clearance had us on our back foot and the Mount Hope striker pounced and shot the ball. Anthony was close, but not enough. Mount Hope took a 1-0 lead in the 23rd minute of play. Shocked by the goal, Anthony yelled and cursed at his defense for not paying attention and this caused me to jump a little bit. If Anthony gets a yellow card, it forces me into the game for five minutes, and I wasn't even prepared. I didn't have shin guards either. The bench quickly realized this danger and yelled at Anthony to hush. He zipped his lips and the match had started again. The Townies were hungry, not lazy. They wanted this more than anyone else. This was clearly evident in Eddy's style of play for the remainder of the half. He was playing out of position, just to win the ball. He played so low to the ground that any attempt to steal the ball would be either a foul or a miss. He played a ball down the wing and was fouled about 30 yards vertical of the corner flag, right along the touch line.

This was Tyler Almeida's specialty. I compare him to Beckham, except without as much ball spin. He has a way of putting the ball in the box with such dangerous momentum, it would make any goalkeeper check his underwear after seeing his kick. Tyler took the kick and placed it well for a Jarrod Bento header, but Jarrod put the ball well over the crossbar.

I took a quick glance at Coach Mario, he was getting clearly mad. He was red faced and tight lipped. I knew that would result in a good scolding of Bento at half-time. Coach John-Mark had a different approach. He had a disappointing look on his face, he knows we are better than this. He is positive of it.

With about five minutes left in the half, Mount Hope had another opportunity. One of their midfielders had quick pace coming down the center of the pitch and he brought it to within the 18 yard box and laid it off to the striker and the striker pounced again. The shot was too close for Anthony to do anything about, and the score quickly became 2-0.

"WHAT THE F—, guys, come on!" Anthony yelled

He held back his curse because he knew it would land him a spot in the referee's book. Anthony was upset with the puzzled defense.

The halftime whistle blew.

We all met near the bench, sat down, and awaited for coach to speak.

"Guys...Guys... You can't be serious?" he said

Coach Mario had a disappointed look now, but it was almost a mix of shock as well.

"You are winning this match. Possession, control, shots, you are all in control of it. The only skill we don't possess right now is luck. Boys, what you are doing is not wrong. We are creating chances, but we need to capitalize on these chances."

He was wide-eyed with hope, he saw the victory in the future.

"Two goals is not something that we cannot overcome, it is an easy task. We have put our skill into it, now we must put our hearts to it."

He was now speaking softly.

He left us with that statement, and Coach John-Mark stepped in to speak with us.

"Bento. What the hell's the problem?" he asked

"Uh—nothing. Just not working out for me." He replied

"You better find a damn way for it to work for you, do you understand me? We're confident in you, but you're lacking confidence. If you don't show us something, we're going to pull your ass out of the game. Lets go." He concluded

The coaches walked away. They left us an objective.

The second half was a complete turnaround. The play was getting more and more aggressive. Within the first 15 minutes, the referee had handed out three yellow cards to Mount Hope. They were getting tired, it was easy to see. Coach gave us instruction to distribute the ball, let the ball do the running instead of us. We had to be patient for this to work. As I watched on, I noticed the opportunities creating themselves. In the 65th minute, Eddy and Louis continued their magic. They played one-touch passing up front and Eddy stuck a shot into the lower left section of the net. The ball sneaked by the goalkeeper, and the Townies were one goal away from an equalizer. Eddy did his standard back flip to celebrate a goal, and moved on to restart the match. Time was running out and we needed to score again.

This time, it was Louis' turn. He weaved through the midfield and launched a 30 yard rocket that found its way to the back of the net. With 10 minutes to play, East Providence had equalized with Mount Hope.

The final five minutes were just pure war. A total of six yellow cards were handed out in these last five minutes, just for simple fouls as the referees were finding it harder and harder to control this game. The final whistle blew in the midst of all the hype, and both teams left satisfied with a draw. The excitement was breathtaking.

Coach met us before we got back on the bus to go home.

"Not bad, do that same thing earlier next time. On the bus, let's go." He said

Those brief, quick comments always got to me. I never could tell if it was good or bad. I wonder if practices are hell if we tie instead of win, too?

## Chapter 14

The next day at practice, I found myself having a hard time with focusing. Every ball that came my way, I just didn't get the proper touch on. Of course, people began to notice but only Steve Ortiz opened up his mouth.

"Ruben, save a damn ball, will ya?" he asked

This time, he did have reasoning, it just wasn't my day, but I wasn't going to let him have the best of me.

"Oh yeah? You've played every minute of every game we've had and people still don't even know your name. You score nothing, help nothing, and lose everything. Get a life." I responded

Sure, it wasn't the best comeback, I know. It was all I could think of, though. Well, apparently what I said had made him rather upset with me because all practice he shot the ball directly at me. He wasn't aiming for the goal, just right at me. Sort of like an indirect punch, if you will.

"Why don't you put it in the net instead of my hands every time?" I asked him

He chuckled and ran off.

It may not seem like much at all, but man, I really disliked him at that time. All he was doing was being a jerk because everybody else found it funny...except for Nicole.

As we were leaving practice, she bumped into me. My face was burning red because she actually came and talked to me.

"Hey Ruben" she said

She came up so jubilantly, like a cheerleader would. I tried to play it cool so I asked her what her name was as if we just met.

"It's Nicole, very nice to meet you!"

"So how did you know my name?" I asked

"Well, you and Maxwell are the only freshmen on the team, so I figured I'd say hi." She said

"Oh, okay. Cool." I responded

"All right, see you later." She said, and left

As I would say in a chat room, "OMG". I can't believe that just happened. She randomly just came up to me and I blew it, trying to be the cool guy and all. I'm such an idiot. I must admit, though. She looked a bit cuter up close than from afar.

I continued to the locker room and Danny caught up with me.

"Dude, you got beef with Steve!?" he shouted

"Not really, he's just being an ass a lot. I don't like him and he doesn't like me. No big deal." I said

"No way, it's way bigger than that! Everyone can see it, you always look at each other weird and crap." He said

Danny ran off to the showers and it made me think about the whole Steve situation. I don't really know how I'm getting away with it. Steve is a senior, and I am a freshman but nobody says a word whenever I try and punk him. I ran up to James Boyce who was walking in front of me.

"Hey, James?" I said

"Hey Ruben, what's up?" he responded

"Nothing, just had something on my mind. You saw what happened in practice, right? How did I get away with it? I was talking so much junk to Steve Ortiz and no one really did much." I said

"Dude, that was _awesome!_ " James said

I looked at him...rather dumbfounded, to be honest.

"Everybody hates him, Ruben. He's so stuck up, and nobody has ever had the guts to say anything to him because he's a good player." He said

A part of me felt a little accomplished at that moment. I thought it was pretty awesome that I was the first one to give him a problem. He is a good player, I just try to make him feel like he isn't.

When we got back into the locker room, Coach Mario called a team meeting. This was rare, he usually didn't speak to us before or after practice.

"Boys, this weekend we have a special event going on at East Providence High School. We have the annual alumni game for the seniors and past alumni of East Providence High School. Some of the greatest players I've ever had will be attending. I have Steve Moura coming as a goalkeeper as well, so you should all be ready. That's all I have to say, game tomorrow, be ready." He said

It really is funny that he mentioned Steve Moura. First off, let me explain this guy. He's quiet. Very quiet. However, he is one of the best goalkeepers that East Providence ever had to offer. Coach Mario took one of the biggest risks of his career by benching Steve Moura when Anthony Tavares entered East Providence High School his freshman year. Anthony performed well, but not at championship calibur. Some argue that Steve Moura could have taken them there, but it's one of those "what if" situations. Theres always that tension when those names are heard. A lot of people had respect for Steve, but Anthony wouldn't be what he is today without the three previous years of experience.

I've never heard of the alumni game, but it sounds pretty cool. Coach did post a bulletin saying that it was optional later in the day, so I took the choice not to attend. I probably wouldn't get to play, and it was on a Saturday. I enjoy Saturdays, so no thanks! Plus, we have a game tomorrow. I've got other things to be worried about.

## Chapter 15

### Regular Season Match

September 16th, 2005

### East Providence vs. Cumberland

### 2-1-1

### W-L-T

Friday night lights. Friday night lights _at_ Pierce Field. This was going to be good. The matches between Cumberland and East Providence had always had their history. First off, both communities are of a heavy Portuguese culture. Second off, the players were all teammates with each other in their respective club teams. Finally, this was promising to be one of the best games of the year. Single-handedly, without a doubt, a thriller.

As we headed onto the field, we felt the tension. Usually, there are laughs among the players during warm-ups and such, but there was nothing but firm faces. We haven't won a game in a little while, and it's about time we have. These Townies wanted it. These Townies needed it, especially in a tough division one.

As we commenced warming up, I noticed one of Anthony's club teammates was on the Cumberland squad. His name was Josh Sousa, and he had University of Rhode Island written all over him. The kid was a college scout favorite, and so was Anthony. The two play club together, and they know each other very well. I always had wondered what that felt like, to be rivaled against someone you may care about. On weekdays, they are enemies, but by weekends, they are teammates. How do you handle that, in any aspect of life?

Coach Mario did something rare and pulled me aside before the game started.

"Ruben, I need you to be prepared for this match." He said

"Wha—why? How? WHEN!?" I responded

I was so nervous, I felt that lump in my throat. This is a top division one game, why would he be saying this?

"Don't worry about it, just don't have your head in your ass for this one. Be on your toes." He said, then left

With that statement, I was just about ready to puke. This wasn't even a big deal, he probably wouldn't put me in, but just to know that he would _consider_ it is a big deal. I took the rest of warm-ups very seriously. I was cut short by the referee when he asked our teams to get ready for the National Anthem.

We lined up, with each team facing each other. I saw Anthony look right into Sousa's face. It wasn't a friendly look, either. I knew he meant business and it was comforting knowing that. If I had a choice of playing or scrubbing benches, I'd scrub benches. That's how nervous I would be to enter this match. It may not seem this much, but East Providence and Cumberland have always fought for the second seed in the playoff run. LaSalle always took first, but we'll talk about them later.

As we shook hands prior to kickoff, Anthony gave Josh a quick slap on the butt and ran towards his goal. It was game-time.

The referee blew the whistle, and the match had begun. It was a quick intensity that fueled the fire that we all expected soon to erupt. The match began as intense as it would remain the entire match. The home crowd here at Pierce Memorial Field had gotten into it fairly quickly and the attitude was also set quickly. Every play to the ball, by both sides, was ferocious and done at no mercy. The skill of Josh Sousa was shown quickly into the match. It was easy to see he was the dominant one on the Cumberland side. His moves were similar to Steve Ortiz's but his speed was similar to Eddy's. He was quick stepped, and a smart mover on the field. Most of his skill came from off-the-ball running and movement.

Around the 15 minute mark, East Providence had their real first chance. A quick play through the middle of the field by Steve Ortiz set up a quick opportunity for Louis Tavares. Louis took a shot, and it sailed wide.

"Son of a Bitch!" he screamed

The referee came over and addressed the foul language immediately. He had given a yellow card to Louis which forced him to leave the game for the time being. He was substituted by Maxwell Osei. I was excited to see Maxwell play. He was a freshman, as I was, and we played middle school together. I was curious to see how he would fare.

Coach Mario was clearly upset over Louis' yellow card as he scolded him on the sideline. Max stepped in for the first time, and match had restarted. As much as I hate to say it, Steve Ortiz had a damn good game. He kept creating opportunities throughout the midfield. At the 20th minute, he created another dazzling play up the field and gave a quick pass to Maxwell. Maxwell didn't really know what it felt like to see a soccer ball on this type of field or something because he really hit the crapper with his shot. It sailed wide and high, in fact, almost looked like he saw a UFO in the sky and tried to hit it. Yes, it was _that_ bad.

Play continued, except in Cumberland's favor this time. The ball was played up their wing, and it seems to be a weakness for East Providence this year, as they keep getting burned on the outside flanks. The ball continued to creep towards Anthony and finally Sousa ripped a shot to the lower right. Anthony used his quick reaction and tapped the ball safely out of play with a diving stop.

"Not in my house! Oh no, not here!" yelled Anthony

This was significant, because Anthony rarely boasts in the middle of a game. We can only hope he lives up to it as frequently as his behavior may suggest. The ensuing corner kick went wide, and East Providence gained possession once again. This time, play was well-rounded by the Townies. Kevin Cabral began the play by using the flank and passing the ball to James Boyce before Boyce gave the ball up to Eddy Dias waiting at the top of the field. Eddy showed his athleticism with ease as he received the ball and quickly shot it, giving the Townies a 1-0 lead early in the match. This was just what East Providence had needed.

The crowd erupted with celebration, and as much as I like Eddy, I always got a little jealous whenever he scored or showed off. It always reminded me of Nicole, and how I could never ever be like Eddy. As Eddy did his usual back-flip celebration, I cringed in jealousy. This wasn't fun to watch, but I had to enjoy it because we took a lead in an important match.

I don't know if we thought we had it too easy, or something like that, because the game seemed to be lopsided for the rest of the match. We lost our intensity after that goal and the pressure by Cumberland was unstoppable. Sousa kept creeping closer and closer to a goal. In the 50th minute, he received that goal with a header from his teammate. This made Anthony upset, as you could imagine.

"Guys, what the F—udge." He yelled, stopping himself from the obvious cussing he was ready to do.

As he began that sentence, I picked up my gloves out of pure instinct. I had a fear he was going to receive a yellow for his actions. The referee kept quiet and the Cumberland coach went insane with protest. I got nervous, in my head saying "Shut up! SHUT UP!" to the Cumberland coach. Luckily, the referee stood by his word and no further action was taken.

The rest of the match just became a war. The game was at midfield for the rest of the match which only meant one thing...fouls. Every tackle seemed to be a leg-breaker and it was easy to see the officials were losing control of the match. During one play, Eddy was slide tackled by a Cumberland player and Eddy reacted by pushing the Cumberland player. The tackle was worthy of a push back, but also a red card. The Cumberland player was sent off for violent conduct, and Eddy was cautioned for his reaction. By the time a substitution was to be made, the referee had blown the whistle for the matches end.

As exhilarating as the match was, I was still disappointed in a couple of ways. First off, I had to watch Nicole on the sideline all night, so that forced me to miss some of the action. Also, Josh Sousa scored on Anthony and I know that was a blow to his ego and confidence. We could only see where this would take him.

Overall, Coach was pleased with our performance. During his speech he emphasized what we did right, but he also made it very clear that a tie is not a win, therefore, it's just not good enough. He sent us home not with high hopes, but also without low heads. We walked off of Pierce Memorial Field with chins up, but still hungry for that win. We are on a three game winless streak now, just waiting for it to happen. The schedule doesn't get much easier over the next few days so it really has to be pulled up out of nowhere. These boys have the capability of doing it.

Now, the reason why I speak so much of how they feel and their attitudes or emotions is because that is what bases how this team does throughout the year. Confidence is needed throughout the season, and if you don't have it, you won't succeed. I kept a tiny note in my locker of one of my favorite quotes to explain an underdog season like this:

We must accept finite disappointment,  
but we must never lose infinite hope.  
-Martin Luther King, Jr.

Enough said.

## Chapter 16

The next day at school was terrible. I found out that I was failing two subjects, Algebra and Civics. At first, I found it hard to believe, but when the teachers showed me my test scores it was easy to see. I never let myself fail in school, usually I'm only at the brink of a C or a D. This news put me in a bad mood for the rest of the day.

If there's one thing that you need to know about me, as a person, is that I have two sides of me. I do, I admit it, not many people like to admit that. I look for acceptance in any way that I can, kind of the reason why I joined East Providence soccer anyways. I look for it in a positive way, not for attention like most people do. I try to get along with as many people as I can. That's why I find it so hard to see why I can't get along with Steve Ortiz. I don't hate many people, but him and I just don't match up. He's a cocky arrogant bastard, but damn, he is good at soccer. I can't hate him for that, and he has all the leverage in the world against me for that one.

I was walking down the hallway to 7th period today, and I happened to bump into Nicole.

"Hey Nicole" I said

"Hey babe!" she responded

Wait a minute, timeout, YES, she did say "BABE!". These are just one of those tough moments in a young mans life where he can't figure out what's going on. Did she like me, or does she call everybody that? I hate when things like that confuse me. I bet you'd like to know the rest of that conversation, but truth is, I wouldn't know what to tell you. I lost concentration on trying to think about what she said and how she meant it that before you know it,

"Okay, see you later Ruben" she said

Well, I don't think I could have messed that one up more. She probably told me something important. She can't leave out little "Babe!"'s like that. I felt like a little kid at the ice cream truck, you know, with that jaw-dropped look? That's how I was. I wasn't sure if I was flattered or pissed. Babe can mean a lot of things. I took it in two ways, she either really called me babe because she liked me _or_ she just thinks I'm a little kid and decided to call me that. See? It's little things like that in which I happen to overanalyze. I can't help it though, sorry.

I walked into 7th period and was greeted by Mr. Swan.

"Ruben, what's going on with the grade, man?" he said

"Oh no, not your class too?" I said, with a look of despair and disappointment

"Ruben, you're slipping, and you're slipping badly. This is a grading period, and you have a 60 in my class!" he said

"I know, sir. I've just been so busy with soccer and other stuff that I guess I haven't really been thinking about school much lately." I responded

Oh, and that was actually a very honest answer. A lot of kids blame extra curricular activities for their shortage of school interest, but I was being honest. I happen to like school a lot, but time just wasn't working out for me.

"Well, Ruben, I don't know what to tell you buddy. Maybe it's time to get some priorities straight and give up soccer for a little while?" he said

"No way! I can't, I have a lot going for me" I responded, kind of hurt by his suggestion

"Take your pick, school or soccer. You don't seem to be able to handle both very well. That's not good, but it's also not my responsibility to keep your stuff together. The grading period ends next week. You have exactly six classes to get your grade up, or else I have to report it to the Athletic Director to suspend you from soccer. Get your stuff together, Ruben. Sit down, I have to start class" he said

Well, would you look at that? A week! I can't do _anything_ in a week, especially not Biology class. All those x and y chromosomes, man, I just don't get that crap. I promise to you, that's right, you, the one reading this page, that I will never be able to go into a science based career. I guarantee it. God bless those of you that can do it, it seems like a different language to me. Except... learning a different language is a bit easier.

I've got a week to get my stuff together, and I can't do that with soccer in the way. I need to come up with a plan or something. I went to Matt for some help after school. I caught up with him in the hallway shortly after class.

"Hey bud." I said

"Hey, wanna go to Dunkin' Donuts and then my house? I want some coffee." He said

"Sure, but listen, I need your help." I said

"Oh shiznit, did you mess something up?" he said

"No—yes. How the hell did you know?" I said

"It's easy to tell. The hell did you do now?" he responded

"Man, I'm failing three classes, but I really need to boost up my grades. Mr. Swan said that he's going to report me to the Athletic Director if I don't raise my grade up to a 70. I have a 60 in Bio." I said

"Yeah, so what's the problem?" he asked

See? Only Matt would come up with a response like that. He knows I always have some deeper problems, like all my problems have layers or some crap like that.

"Well, how do you think I could manage that? I have soccer and all that. There's never enough time to do any of that stuff." I said

"So....don't go." He said

"The hell do you mean "don't go"? I have to" I said

"No you don't. Take a couple of days off, say you're sick, and then be caught up in those couple days. It's easy." He said

I wish I had a simplistic mind like Matt did. He always thought the clear way, and that's why I ask him for stuff like that. Instead of cheating, or figuring out some stupid way to do it, he kept my mind straight.

"All right, coffee's on me" I said

I went home after that and whipped out the textbooks. Looking at them just made me want to puke and give up school. I looked at the chapter references and all that, and it worked, for every class except Biology. I just _don't_ get this science stuff. We were learning DNA at the time, and to this day, I still don't know what DNA means. I know what it is, of course, but not the literal meaning. It was moments like this that made me feel terrible. It was just one of those days, you know, the one where you study so hard that you fall asleep with your textbook, almost looking like you love the subject so much that you just want to...well, sleep with it.

So that's what I did. I got some Z's, but no A's in the process. Talk about being a procrastinator, eh?

I woke up the next morning and I began to get ready, then all of a sudden I look at my clock.

8:29!? Oh no, I missed the bus. I didn't even care so much about soccer as much as I cared about school right now. This was my first missed school day _and_ soccer practice. Basically, I've got some explaining to do. Good news though, I caught up with all my work. I can only hope to be passing by report card time.

I slowly snuck back into bed when I finished around noon so that no one would notice that I didn't go to school. It didn't work, and I ended up getting grounded, but it was worth the try. I spent the rest of my day studying and waiting to see what I had in store for me tomorrow because I knew I had a lot of stuff to make up. I hate making up work, because it's just a step in the wrong direction. I feel that once a day is missed, I'll always be a day behind everybody else and that is a terrible feeling! Oh well, got to live with it, I guess.

## Chapter 17

I went into school today and it wasn't all that bad. It seemed as if no one noticed I was gone. My teachers were impressed that I had caught up with some grades and such. I ended up pushing some grades up, enough to not be suspended from athletics. I wonder what I had missed in practice. The day went by smoothly, also I was fairly rested from all the sleep I was able to catch up on. Today was going to be a good day.

As the time passed in the day, my mood remained the same, I was pretty happy. In Civics class I met this girl named Laura Spurlock. I don't talk much in school, but she sure was good at talking. She was extremely good looking though, so it didn't even really matter how much she talked.

"Ruben!" she said

"uh..yeah?" I responded

I wasn't very used to people talking to me. I know, kind of weird that I'm writing a book and all that and I didn't talk? I was relatively quiet, I was surprised she even knew my name.

"Where were you yesterday?" she asked

"Sick. Didn't feel like going to school." I said

I was trying to be all cool. You know, make up that "too cool for school" attitude. It didn't work because she didn't seem all that impressed.

"Oh, well...that's cool?" she said

At that moment, Ms. McGovern walked in and the class hushed. I kept looking at Laura, I even considered being interested in her instead of Nicole. I just didn't see it working. Plus, Nicole's a freakin' sweet heart.

At the end of the day I went to soccer practice. I walked into the locker room and immediately went to the Coach's Office to explain my absence.

"Hey Coach" I said quietly

"What's up, Ruben?" he responded

"Oh, nothing. Listen, yesterday I wasn't feeling very well. I had to take the day off from school. I don't have a doctor's note or anything, I'm just letting you know that I was sick." I said

"Don't worry, kiddo. We only did basic things" he said

Well, I was pretty cool with that! He didn't even say I had to make anything up. Then, all of a sudden I got a weird feeling. Does it mean I'm not important? I turned right back around and spoke with Coach.

"Coach, are you sure you don't want me to do anything?" I asked

"Uh...yeah, pretty sure. Why do you ask?" he said

"well, I don't want to be let off easily. If I have to make something up, let me know." I said

He nodded his head and I went to my locker. James Boyce came up to me,

"Hey Ruben!" he said

"What's up, Boyce?" I said

"Dude, word through the grapevine is that you want to fight Ortiz?" he said

I became wide-eyed!

"Hell no! He'd kick my ass! I don't want to fight him. No, squash the beef right now." I said

"Hey man, it's your deal." He said, and walked away

Oh great. I thought I was having a good day, and then this happens. I don't want to fight him, but I wouldn't mind giving him a piece of my mind. I can't fight him, absolutely not. He'd kick my ass. Without a doubt, one hundred thousand percent, I would lose. I still think it's funny that people would take it seriously if I ever did say that.

We ran onto the soccer field for practice to start. You know, I began noticing a difference in me during this practice. My legs don't always hurt as much, and I'm not always fighting for water. This wasn't so bad after all. When we ran our laps, I was in a decent spot, no longer in the back. When we did our sprints, I was putting up some good competition to the other boys. When we played, yeah, I was still pretty damn bad. Oh well, I couldn't help that. A 14 year old against 18 year olds definitely isn't in my favor, nope. I was beginning to think that maybe, just _maybe_ , I had underestimated myself. My Uncle Nuno always told me I could do it, but I never once believed him. Now look at me, I'm running laps with the older guys, I'm caught up in school, and I'm in the best shape I've ever been in. This is pretty awesome!

*sigh*

It wouldn't last long, of course. Steve Ortiz just had to open his mouth.

"Oh my God, damn, you know we're doing bad when Ruben is keeping up with us" he said

I just kept running. I didn't even pay attention.

"he sucks so bad, look at him." He said

He was only doing it for attention, I wasn't going to succumb to it. Not this time.

"A goalkeeper who doesn't even play, what a waste of _life_." He said, smirking

Okay, that did it.

"Shut up, I hate you so much. You're only doing

this for attention and nothing else. You're a loser, nobody likes you. You can kick a ball, I admit that. I never said you were terrible, but honestly, adjust your attitude. You're a pain in the ass and everybody knows it! You are the lone reason as to why I hate coming here at 1:30pm _every day._ Just leave me alone, and I'll leave you alone." I screamed at him

He came up to me real close.

"Then fight me." He said, tight-lipped and hot in the face

"I'm not fighting you. I don't fight" I said

"Bitch." He said

"Shut up, Steve. Just keep practicing." I said and walked away

He turned my shoulder around and made me face him.

"Bitch." He said again

This time I didn't turn around. I just walked right through him bumping him on the shoulder. A couple of "oooooo's" came from the players, and then Coach came. I admit, he came just in time, I was about to get my butt kicked. We continued practice and all throughout the time I could tell Steve was pissed because he didn't get a shot at me. I was quite glad he didn't get a shot at me. The team would hate me because he would get suspended, and I would hate myself for being in the center of all this drama.

Practice went on normally and I kept my distance from him. I don't know how long I can do that though, he's been hounding me since the practice. We have a game tomorrow, so he should have his mind on other things more important. At this point, I kind of just want to settle things between him and I, but I don't think it was worth it. He wants to be like that, fine, I don't care. I'd rather not jeopardize the team just to have a measly little scrap with him.

## Chapter 18

### Regular Season Match

### September 20th, 2005

### East Providence vs. LaSalle Academy

### 2-1-2

### W-L-T

If there's one thing you need to know about East Providence High School, it's that we hate our rivals. Sometimes it's just a dislike, but other times it's more of a hate. Each year, in every sport, we clash with them. We lose almost every time, but it's not really fair for them to even be allowed in our interscholastic leagues! First off, they can recruit, because they are a private school. A bunch of rich jocks, you know? In football, we have an annual Thanksgiving Day game with them. It's always snowing, it's a lot of fun, but we _always_ lose. One time we'll win. Now, the same thing goes for soccer. The last time LaSalle won was when our Assistant Coach, John-Mark, played here. That was in the early 90s. Needless to say, we're currently in a drought. Their team was undefeated this year and in top-form.

When we arrived at LaSalle Academy in Providence, I had nearly gasped. This place was _stunning_. They had the sprinklers on at the football field and groundskeepers on the grass courts. They had separate fields for every sport! That was hard to come across in Rhode Island. Usually, the football field serves as a Lacrosse, Soccer, and Field Hockey field as well. These people were legitimate in their spending, the place was beautiful. As I stood in amazement, the others stood in what looked like to be fear. Coach rarely speaks to us before games but he huddled us up and spoke with us shortly before warm-up.

"Fear is not your enemy. It is your motivation." He said

I looked around, I still saw fear.

" _FEAR_ is not your enemy! It is your motivation!" he yelled

Players were stunned at his screaming.

" _FEAR IS NOT YOUR ENEMY! IT IS YOUR MOTIVATION!"_ he yelled louder

The blood was rushing. All it took was two sentences for him to wake us up. He nodded and we moved towards warm-ups. This was one of those games that I knew was too important for me to be a part of so I kind of just laid back during warm-ups. Anthony looked really good during warm-ups, and I hope this was a good sign. This was Anthony's seventh try to beat LaSalle. We face them once more during the latter part of the season. No one expected him to beat them as a freshman, same as being a sophomore. For junior year, the expectations had risen, and now during his senior year, only a win would be acceptable. He knew that very well.

Right before the whistle blew, Anthony huddled everybody up as one last chance to get pumped up.

"It's been a decade. _A DECADE._ We have a chance to make history, so let's do it. Don't wait, this is our chance now. We're not at Pierce, big deal, let's beat them where it hurts, at their house. Townies on three!" he said

As we broke the huddle, I took a look at him. He was nervous. It was so easy to tell. Of all the people to have pressure, he was the one. He can't afford a loss. His brother, Louis, might be feeling the pressure too considering he has never scored against LaSalle.

As I headed over to the bench, I spotted LaSalle's coach. This guy, let me tell you, he's something else. He has that cocky image, sort of like a Steve Ortiz type of deal, you know? He always had this damn lollipop with him, it just added to that image. He was a professional coach of a Division II team in Rhode Island, R.I. Stingrays. He was pretty good in his youth, too. He partnered up with a lot of people, and it was easy to tell that Coach Andrade and he were rivals.

The whistle blew. Play had begun.

LaSalle was a very well-rounded team, but they had one player who stood above the crowd. His name was Dom Pertrarca, and I always thought he was the son of our local meteorologist, but he wasn't. This kid was big. He had the speed of Eddy, the skill of Steve, but the body of Hulk Hogan. He stood tall above everybody and he had repeated awards to his name, including a spot on the All-Division and All-State team. He was the major threat to the Townies in this match.

East Providence always had the tendency of starting on their back foot. We always were a second half team, and this definitely hurt us during this match. LaSalle used the center of the field rather than the wing and attacked in separate waves. One wave after the other, it was attack, attack, and more attack. Within the first ten minutes, Anthony had at least seven saves. He was definitely on point, but the more they shot, the better they got. Confidence was shattered in the first fifteen minutes. This would be one of those good opportunities in soccer where if we could use timeouts, it would definitely help us out. We were like a bunch of chickens with no heads, just wobbling around.

Sure enough, in the 25th minute, they struck. Pertrarca shot a ball well outside the box and it took a deflection off of Kevin Cabral and went into the back of the net. 1-0 LaSalle.

Play restarted and I do believe it was the first time Eddy and Louis had touched the ball. Louis tried to do one of his miracle plays, you know, where you shoot it from 50 yards away? Let's just say it doesn't work, and even the LaSalle crowd began laughing. We were losing this game mentally, not physically. We were faster and somewhat stronger, but they had such good technical play that it was impossible for us to utilize our skills.

Five minutes after they scored, they had another opportunity in which they capitalized on. This one didn't take a deflection, it was a clear 20 yard shot from Pertrarca that found the back of the net. 2-0 in favor of LaSalle.

"Close up the space, don't give him any room!" yelled Anthony

He had the look of desperation on his face. The helpless kind of look, and so didn't the rest of the Townies. Even the coaches seemed to have given up, we were only 30 minutes into the match. This was going to be a problem, every time we lose it seems to be over some sort of confidence issue on the field. People start pointing fingers at each other and then you begin to hate your teammates. It's an interesting chain reaction.

The LaSalle crowd was roaring. In your mind, I want you to picture this. Pretend a bunch of rich people in their royal chairs(bleachers) sipping on tea and crackers. That's the way we felt about them. They were just so rich that it wasn't even _fair_. They'll all end up being doctors and crap and we'll be city workers. It's like two different social classes.

Needless to say, LaSalle used this energy to just shut down the East Providence defense. Attack after attack, East Providence's percentage of stopping them was lowering. A mere three minutes after they scored their second, they scored their third goal. Pertrarca sailed in a cross that was capitalized by a LaSalle teammate. 3-0 in favor of LaSalle.

The halftime whistle couldn't have come any sooner. Every single head was hung low as they approached the bench for the coaches talk. No one wanted to hear it, and I don't think Coach wanted to speak. I'm usually right about these things, evidently so. We got there and he gave us some pretty simple instruction.

"Get some water. Get back on the field." He said

It was well-understood what he meant. This doesn't mean he has given up on us, he is just disappointed. He knows we can do it, but we don't think we can. This game is just so mentally established, we never started on the right foot. You can tell a lot about these Townies by their faces, and each was staring at the ground. This was kind of the good part about not playing. I had the chance to look around at everybody and figure out how we were going to do. If I wasn't playing with these guys, I would still be in the stands, I loved watching them in middle school. This is just like a VIP pass, you know?

As the second half kicked off, we were just being lazy. It was evident that this half just had to end, and it had to end soon. Every ball we had we just kicked into the stands, hoping to waste time. This is a good time-wasting strategy, but definitely not a good defensive strategy, of course. In one play, around the 60th minute, Steve Ortiz got slide tackled pretty hard. At that moment, some pushes lead to shoves and before you know it, three yellow cards were issued. Eddy, Louis, and Steve Ortiz all received yellow cards. All three had to be substituted. A little part of me had that whole angel and devil on your shoulder thing going on. I was so happy he got tackled, but pretty pissed that he got a yellow card. Anyways, the mandatory yellow let Maxwell Osei play forward again and I was happy because he was representing the freshman class.

In the 65th minute, we got a clear free kick about 30 yards from the box. Tyler Almeida put it into the box and the keeper was almost stunned, this was the first time the ball had reached his box. The keeper fumbled the ball and Maxwell took the rebound and scored! Of all the people, Maxwell scored! I was so ecstatic, that I jumped up! I forgot we were still losing 3-1, so I did look kind of foolish.

"Sit down, Ruben." said Coach

I was red faced, but so happy.

We had a little break of luck and a little break of momentum, but like all things, it didn't last long. In LaSalle's first possession after the goal, they scored again with Pertrarca leading the way. It was his third goal of the night, giving him a hat-trick. Anthony was embarrassed, and this was definitely not good. 4-1 in LaSalle's favor.

"Blow the damn whistle, already." said Coach

That was pretty much the attitude from all of the Townie boys, we had enough. This was too much in one game, it'll last in our minds.

The referee blew the whistle and the game ended. Cheers erupted from the LaSalle group as they had beaten their Division I rivals 4-1. Coach had no words for us, and we packed up real fast. Newspaper journalists wanted to speak with Coach, but he was so mad he denied comment. He usually always at least gives credit to the winning team, but tonight he had no words. I caught him taking a glimpse at the LaSalle coach. He was celebrating with his team members and all I saw from Coach was a simple shake of the head. I feel like that little kid who just disappointed his Father.

"On the bus." He said

Sometimes, even the simplest of words hurt.

## Chapter 19

At practice the next day, it was silent. You could hear the dirt being kicked up by our cleats, that's how quiet it was. Coach was running a very tight and strict practice. There was no breathing room until about an hour in when he finally let us grab a drink and stretch. As we stretched, the guys began to speak.

"..that was embarrassing" said Anthony

"Yeah, 4-1 man, I can't believe it" said Jason Silveira

"Can't believe we let that happen" said Eddy

Seemed like everyone honestly couldn't believe that we had lost that badly. I don't know what happened either. I left the game with a positive note because of Max scoring, but that was me just being selfish. The team lost. We lost. I lost. Not only was the LaSalle game an emotional blow, it hurt our chances at the playoffs as well. 2-2-2 is not a good way to start the season. Usually, it takes about six wins to advance into the playoffs, and we only have eight games remaining. We can't afford many more ties or losses. Fortunately, our schedule seems to be heading into an easier direction.

The conversation between the players quickly ended when Coach came in and began circling around us.

"Four to one" he said

Everybody looked at each other, with their heads hung low.

"Three goal difference" he said

Once again, everybody paced around.

"A freshman had to score" he said

The suspense he was building up was beginning to get more and more intense.

"Ashamed?" he asked

No one was really sure who had to answer that question. Everybody kept their mouths shut.

"IS ANYBODY ASHAMED OF THEMSELVES?!" he yelled

The sudden tone of his voice stunned everybody. As a true captain, Anthony stuck up his hand. Soon after, many followed.

"That will _never_ happen again. Understood?" he said, back in his normal tone of voice

"Yes, Coach" we all replied

We continued running after he was done speaking. I always wondered why he did that, it confused me so much. He would be calm, then angry, then calm. Don't let me make you think he's a bad guy, he's one of the greatest guys I've yet to meet in my life, but his behavior sometimes confused me. His coaching style was effective, though. I've never had so much respect for an individual until I had met him.

The rest of practice was surprisingly easy. Maybe we were expected to lose? That's the way it seemed, dare I say. His tone was unexpected to all of us. He just left practice. He didn't really dismiss it, he just left. Needless to say, we got the hint and headed to the locker room.

It was an early ending to practice, so me and the other kids that can't drive just kicked a ball around in the hallway. We were having fun, and other people joined in. Soon enough, it turned into an all-out indoor soccer game in a narrow school hallway. We were having so much fun then all of a sudden, someone grabs the ball.

"I'll be sure to let Coach know about this" the man said

The man walked away and took our ball.

"Who was that?" I asked the guys

"Oh, damn" said Danny

"Well, who was it?" I asked him

"That was the Athletic Director" he responded

Oh, we were in some deep trouble. Needless to say, the first thing we all did when we realized who it was, was run. We ran into that parking lot so fast, that I had left my backpack inside my locker and didn't even care. I didn't want to get in trouble. This was the only memory that I had with Danny. He played on the Junior Varsity team. I wish I got to play on that team, it seemed like more fun. Anyways, I'm just glad I didn't have any homework that night because that backpack sure did stay inside that locker for the night. I hopped a ride with Danny's Mom and left the high school.

## Chapter 20

### Regular Season Match

### September 22nd, 2005

### East Providence vs. Chariho Regional

### 2-2-2

### W-L-T

Originally, this game was planned to be a blowout in our favor. Chariho is one of those teams that has their years, and their games. They're really just unpredictable. Chariho is located in Charlestown which is in the southern part of Rhode Island. To many of you readers, 45 minutes may not seem like a long ride, but it definitely is to us. It takes about an hour to get from the northern tip of Rhode Island to the southern tip of Rhode Island, so this game was literally "across the state". The ride gave us plenty of time to think. I sat next to Max on the bus on the way to Charlestown.

"Yo, Maaaaaax" I said

"What's up?" he said

"Nothing, man, I'm so happy that you scored. You're putting a good name to the Class of 2009 when you do things like that. Think about it, Max. In about two years we'll be captains of this team. Imagine that!" I said

At this time, Max's English wasn't all that fantastic, but he spoke it pretty well, considering he was from Ghana.

"Yeah, that's cool" he said

"I was so pumped for you, dude. Do it again tonight" I said

"I don't know. Coach doesn't put me in many times. He is afraid to put me on the field" he said

"Yeah, I'd say the same, but you actually have skill. Haha, I don't have much to my name. I'm kind of just on the roster. I'd rather be playing Junior Varsity" I told him

For the next couple of minutes he just stood quiet. He was always like that, just a quiet kid. I took this time to look at Nicole. For away games, the cheerleaders came on the same bus as the players, so she always sat next to Eddy and made out with him and stuff. It was uncomfortable to watch, it made me jealous as all hell. They were the only couple on the bus all the time so everybody looked at them. Maybe I should like another cheerleader? There were some other cute ones on the squad. There was Kelley, Emily, Pamela, Meredith, man, the list goes on. The only one that truly caught my eye was Nicole, though.

"Hey Max" I whispered

"What?" he said

"Take a look at her" I said and pointed at Nicole.

"So what?" he said

"Uh...what do you think of her?" I said

"Not my type" he said

This kid was as cool as the other side of the pillow. How could he just look at her and not feel the same way I did? How come it seemed _nobody_ felt the same way I did?

"Why isn't she your type? She's beautiful" I said

"Let's just say I like brown sugar" he said

Oh man, this kid was funny too. I thought that was so funny, it sent me laughing hysterically. I have this problem where once I'm laughing, I _can't_ stop. The whole bus ride I had short bursts of laughter. Max just kept his cool. This kid was great, I sure am glad to be friends with a guy like him.

We arrived at Chariho Regional High School around 6:00 in the evening. This place was confusing and weird. It had what seemed to be a turf field across the street from it, and hay everywhere. This was the countryside, and I've never seen it until this day! I'm used to buildings, and city-like landscape. The population must've been really low because the middle and high schools were both in the same building. It gave off a weird vibe, kind of scary. Maybe it's just because I'm 14 years old.

We began warm-ups as normal. Chillier temperatures were arriving in New England and the need to get warm and stay warm definitely presented itself. Hot chocolates were being passed out in the stands and the cheerleaders no longer looked sexy because they had their jackets on. Nicole still looked good, of course. The coin toss soon occurred and play was about to begin. We all surrounded Coach waiting for him to speak.

"What are you all waiting for?" he asked

Everyone stared at each other blankly.

"Uh..." said Anthony

"On the field, you know the drill" said Coach

They ran on the field, did their on-field huddle, and play had begun.

When the whistle blew, we had the strongest start that I've seen all season. Eddy and Louis were working so well together, the vibe just felt great. Chariho wasn't that great of a team, their playing style was just annoying. Most teams made attempts at playing the ball but all they seemed to do was kick the ball out of bounds. Any touch they got was a 40 yard blast up the field that we just took control of. Soon enough, we had begun to gain control of the game.

Around 15 minutes into the match, the first blood was cast. Eddy and Louis were working their defensive third and in a brilliant play, Kaio Goncalves came sprinting up the field and played a wonderful cross into the net. This was Kaio's first goal of the season. It was a magnificent one and the Brazilian was radiant with joy. It's been a while since we've scored first in a game, especially this early.

The goal seemed to have just taken the life out of Chariho. Soon enough, they went from a poor team to a lazy team. They had one good player, though. According to Coach, he wasn't originally from Chariho. Chariho was predominantly the farmer boy type of school, but this kid was one hundred percent city slicker. He had flare with the ball, but no one to share the flare with. You almost felt bad for the kid. He was like a Kobe without the Shaq. The peanut butter without the jelly. Anyways, you get my point. The kid was pretty damn good, but he couldn't do it all by himself. It did take two defenders to stop him throughout the night, but it was well done by Tyler Almeida and Kevin Cabral. They shut him down

effectively.

We did have problems shooting throughout the half, though. We got plenty of great shots but most just seemed to miss by a small margin, just shaving the post. This built up frustration between Eddy and Louis and some pointed fingers. Halftime seemed to have come really early, considering how much fun we were having out there.

Coach pulled us in for a talk. He didn't seem mad, nor did he seem thrilled.

"Guys, this isn't bad at all. You just have to keep working. I hate to keep bringing it up, but LaSalle beat us 4-1. That game messed up our goal differential very badly, and we need to make up on goals. 1-0 is not acceptable in this match, we should be pounding on this team. Eddy, Louis, Kaio, I want goals from each of you in this second half. Let's go guys, you've got this!" Coach said

For once, it seemed like we were pretty happy leaving the halftime session. No heads were hung low, and everyone kept smiling with adrenaline rushing through their veins.

The whistle blew for the beginning of the second half and play continued just as last time. Chariho got the kickoff and did the famous "stupid play of soccer". Basically, they just kick it to the goal right from the starting spot at half field. Anthony gave a little chuckle as the ball reached him. He gave it a monstrous punt up the field and Louis pounced on it. He spread the field to Kaio, then Kaio put in a left-footed cross to Louis and he headed it home.

That's right, about 45 seconds into the second half the Townies struck again. It felt so good to be the dominant team again. Chariho's players began to fight with each other, one kid even left the field and got a yellow card for leaving without the referee's permission. It feels _so_ good to be the team that causes another squad to self-destruct.

Soon after play restarted, we got kind of laid back. We began to play possession just to toy with them and kill time. The one player that was good from Chariho didn't really appreciate this. He was chasing the ball like a chicken with no head. Soon, he got really pissed off and slide tackled Kevin Cabral when he had possession of the ball. The tackle was violent, and it caused some sparks to fly. Everybody got tense to see what Kevin's reaction would be. Fists were clenched and teeth were gritted.

"No sweat" said Kevin

This was definitely a sigh of relief not only to myself but to the coaches as well. Something very bad could have erupted from that tackle, but Kevin handled it like a pro and kept cards from flying. We can't afford anymore yellow cards or else the league will begin to suspend some players.

With the free kick ensuing the foul, Tyler Almeida kicked it down the flank of the field and Kaio was able to grab control of it. His style of play looked so good, he almost had a sort of grace to the way he touched the ball. He was able to get a cross into the box and Eddy volleyed it into the back of the net. A third goal was exactly what the Townies needed. The goal looked so good that Eddy just had to do his back-flip celebration. It was an away game so the crowd was silent, but if this was a home game it would be going crazy in the stands right now.

The Townies are in business this season. Especially with this nice win at Chariho.

## Chapter 21

We're just racing time. Shortly before practice started, Coach Andrade pulled us in and explained to us the upcoming playoff situation. We sat at 3-2-2, which was good enough to cast us at 3rd place in the division standings. We were at the halfway point in the season. Seven games completed; six games to go. We were at a good pace, but not good enough. LaSalle and Barrington are both atop us in the standings, which is going to lead us to have a couple of must-win situations against them. East Providence always has a terrible tendency to be a first-half-of-the-year type of team. We always start off strong, but tend to finish weak.

As great as the playoff situation seemed, it was actually pretty difficult. We had the hardest second half schedule in the league and Coach knew that very well. Last year, and for the past two consecutive years, he's been knocked out in the first round of playoffs. He brags to many that this is the best squad he's had in years, it would just be fantastic to prove him right. With that said, we headed off into the practice fields.

We must have done something really brilliant the past game because this practice was as easy as it gets. Sure, we ran our laps in the beginning, but I was getting used to them. Usually they're followed by a ton of drills and such, but we just had a scrimmage. It was probably our first scrimmage of the year. We went over tactics and such, well, _they_ went over tactics. I kind of just lied around because I'm not really involved with what they do. I just drifted off to another net and kicked the ball into it. I won't lie to you; it made me feel like a complete idiot and loser. Sometimes, I don't feel like I am a part of the team, but I know that I am. Coach tells me I am, my teammates tell me that I am. So _why_ does it feel different? I just don't get it. I know, I'm a freshman, and I know, I'm not the greatest on the field, but what I also know is that I put out some of the best effort when I'm out there. Hopefully someone recognizes that. If they don't then we've got trouble for the future.

Finally, when practice had ended and we had permission to be dismissed, Coach approached me.

"Keep working at it, Ruben" he said

"Yes Coach" I responded

He must have been able to tell by my facial expression that I wasn't exactly too happy to just sit around and kick the ball into the back of the net repeatedly.

"Listen, little things you do like that will make you a better player overall. Crawl before you walk, and watch before you kick. You'll be in there before you know it. Keep your head up" He said

"Yes, Coach" I responded

I still wasn't exactly too happy. His advice did kind of help me realize what was up, but still, it made me upset that he didn't include me in practice. He could have just left me there without approaching me, so I guess he does have good intentions with what he's doing.

I was the last one in the locker room after the practice session, and what I found in the locker room made me kind of surprised. I found a pissed off Coach and an even more pissed off Athletic Director.

"Anyone who doesn't drive, come here. NOW!" said Coach

Danny, Maxwell, a couple of JV players, and I approached him.

"Anyone want to explain this?" he asked, as he pulled out a soccer ball that the Athletic Director has

"It was an accident" said Danny

"What was an accident, though? _How_ is it an accident to go into a school hallway and play with a ball. You could have broken something expensive, and I tell you what, it would have came out of your pocket, no one else's. This wasn't an accident, you thought of this. I expect better decisions out of you boys. Go home" he said

He kind of let us off the hook. The Athletic Director looked kind of upset that he didn't suspend us or something, but it wasn't that big of a deal. I think he scolded us just because the Athletic Director was there, I don't think he wanted to waste his time with it that much. I let it be and went home. I was kind of tired, even though I really didn't do much. Tomorrow is an important match against Coventry. They're not that great of a team at all, but they can pull some surprises. It's at Coventry's home field, which is terrible. They play in what looks like a backyard with rocks and sand. They also don't have night lights so the game is at three o'clock. It's going to be a long day.

## Chapter 22

### Regular Season Match

### September 26th, 2005

### East Providence vs. Coventry

### 3-2-2

### W-L-T

I was in Mr. Swan's class until about 1:05, 25 minutes before school ended. Today's game was at Coventry, and they don't have lights. The game was scheduled for 3:00 so the intercom system came on and announced:

All Soccer Players Report to the Locker Room

I took that announcement and ran! Most of the team was already there, so they must've been let out early. I felt as cool as the other side of the pillow when I saw all the kids walking through the hall and I knew I wasn't in school anymore. Coach wasn't there yet so the locker room was out of control. Jason Silveira was already blasting the stereo, no one was really paying attention to getting ready for the game. This made me kind of worried as to whether or not we had the right mentality for this match.

Just as I'd expect, Coach walked in and got red-faced.

"Turn that down!" he said

All of a sudden, it was all quiet.

Everyone was ready at about 2:00 and we headed off to Coventry. No one was in the mood to play. Even Anthony had this type of look that he just didn't want to go. I was just kind of in an _eh_ type of mood. This wasn't good going into this game.

We arrived in Coventry with only 15 minutes until game-time. This place was complete _trash_. It had about only 20 percent of the field covered in grass. The rest was covered in sand, rocks, dirt, and even glass. The goals didn't even look regulation size, but we can only imagine that it does. The nets were orange and scrappy and there weren't any lines drawn on the field. This was just going to be a complete nightmare.

We didn't even get a chance to warm up because as soon as we were on the field, the referee's urged us to begin the game due to lack of daylight. Anthony groaned at the thought of not being able to warm up and everyone was certainly feeling rushed. The anthem played and the game was about to begin.

Coventry didn't exactly have the best players. They had a pair of twins on the team, they were solid, but not really a threat. They looked flimsy and non-aggressive. Now I could see why we weren't exactly too worried about them. They were laughing and just goofing off during their warm-up. It still seemed like a pretty legible threat to me, though.

The game begun and Coventry was immediately on the back of their heels. Eddy and Louis seemed to immediately pounce on them and Coventry didn't really resist. Within the first 15 minutes, East Providence had about six shots...but none went in, that is the problem. The thing with Eddy and Louis is that they get frustrated very easily. So every missed shot damaged their confidence for that game and they get very angry at themselves and other people for that.

"Put the ball in the net!" shouted Coach

Every shot that we missed seemed to hurt more and more because Coventry just laughed. They were officially in our heads. They were digging us out from the inside, and doing it brilliantly. Around the 25th minute, Louis had missed a shot and yelled out a cuss word.

"Hey, you! Come here!" shouted the Referee

The two referee's running the match were Michael Forte and Timothy King. I knew them personally and found their refereeing to be good. Louis should have received a yellow card for his cuss, but they let him go with a verbal warning.

The very next play, Louis missed a shot and yelled out a cuss word again. This time the officials weren't so lenient.

"Go, get outta here!" said the Referee

"F—this man, you suck" said Louis

"Louis! Get off the field!" shouted Coach

"You guys suck, all of you, stupid ass Coventry people, who the hell are you? Go to division II" he said

"Louis! Get off the damn field!" shouted Coach again

This right here was a pure example of self-destruction. Louis was extremely lucky that he didn't get a red card for cussing at the Referee. With the yellow card came the halftime whistle as well. The team gathered in.

"What the hell are you guys doing?!" said Coach

Everyone just kind of looked off into space.

"Louis, you shouldn't even be playing in this game. Maybe they do belong in Division II, but we're tied with them so that puts us in the same boat! You criticize but don't give results. That's a good captain? You're sitting out the rest of the game, and I don't want to hear a damn word out of you or anybody else. Playoffs are almost here and you want to ruin it this far down the road? Sit down and take your stuff off, you're out for the half. Maxwell, you're in the game" said Coach

The words were harsh, and Louis had a red face of embarrassment. Coach's words were true, however. A captain shouldn't be the example of behavior like that. It is true that Coventry hasn't even entered our 18-yard box this half, but we haven't capitalized on any of our chances either. In Coach's eyes, the score represents how you play, not the amount of shots that you put on target.

In the second half, the same type of trend was shown. Maxwell was in the game so I was on my tip-toes waiting and wanting for him to score. This kid was an inspiration.

The game continued on its normal trend. Eddy was taking shots about every five minutes but each and every one of them sailed over the bar or wide of the post. Eddy maintained his cool, unlike Louis. Maxwell didn't exactly play very well. He wasn't aggressive enough. Every time somebody got close to him, he cringed and gave up the ball. This further inflated Coventry's head and gave them a shot of confidence.

With about ten minutes left, Coventry began to enter our half of the field. They barely made it into our defensive third but it made us begin to play a bit shakier. As time progressed they got closer and closer. With five minutes left, they took their real first shot of the game. It went right into Anthony's arms, but still made him sigh because he knew they were coming. Coventry is the type of team where a tie counts as a loss, and a loss counts as hell. Maxwell took the ball up after Anthony punted it down the field and he had a good shot on goal, but the keeper saved it. Out of frustration, Eddy just had to react.

"Pass the damn ball!" shouted Eddy

"Put one on net and maybe I will" said Max

"You son-of-a-bitch—get your ass over here" said Eddy

The Referee stepped in before anything could happen and gave Eddy a yellow card for his cuss. I took a glance over at Coach and he just shook his head in disappointment. To add insult to injury, Coventry took the ball up the wing and crossed it into our box. Anthony was able to clear it out, but to a Coventry attacker. This shot was just a complete prayer, maybe 45 to 50 yards away. Needless to say, it found the back of our net. Coventry took the 1-0 lead and the game. The whistle blew immediately after the goal.

Coach didn't even speak to us; he just headed to the bus. Today was definitely just one of those days where nothing seemed to go right. In fact, nothing went right. Literally.

## Chapter 23

Needless to say, today's practice is going to be hell.

"You ready for practice, man?" I asked Danny in class

"I'm not going" he said

"What the hell, why not?" I said

"I'm sick of paying for their mistakes. I like my legs, thank you very much. Coach never plays me, I get promises and all that but Max plays? The hell has Max done?" he said

"...scored a goal" I said

Max is a good kid. I'm going to stand by him. Danny's a good kid too, but you can't discredit Max's goal.

The bell rang just in time and I got out of that situation. It was time for practice; I can't even imagine what was in store. I think Danny is a bad influence because all-of-a-sudden I didn't exactly want to go to practice either. I'm a team member, though. Lose as a team; win as a team, right?

When I got to the locker room, everyone was already putting on muscle relaxing lotion and the room smelled like hot mints from their ointments. They were getting prepared for hell, it seemed to be.

Coach walked in and got ready for practice, too. I don't know why, if all he was going to do was make us run. Maybe he's got to look good while doing that.

The beginning of practice was run normally and efficiently. We ran our regular amount of laps and then continued on to other things. Coach put lots of drills in that required, of course, running. The running seemed to go by pretty quick because he did give us water breaks. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, maybe I'm in better shape? Haha, I doubt it.

I think the thing that hurt the most about our practice was the fact that Coach didn't speak to us. Sure, he gave our drills and such, but he usually talks to us. Words of encouragement, you know? He always does this. He pulls that "I'm not mad at you, I'm disappointed" type of deal on us. It's like every time we lose, he acts like that Father who just found out his daughter lost her virginity. Odd way to think about it, I know, but still.

Practice ended a bit early and I ran into someone I liked very much.

"Ruben!"

"Hi Nicole" I said

Oh man, I was blushing like crazy! _She_ came up to _me._ That's right, I'm just the man.

"How's it going?" she said, with a smile so wide

"Oh, not so bad, just got out of practice" I said

"Yuck, yeah, I noticed" she said

I was all dirty and muddy from practice, so that's why she said yuck. At first, I thought she was talking about my face. She better not have!

"Yeah...." I said, making it pretty awkward

"So, how much have you played this year?" she said

"uh...not much...like about zero minutes" I said

Wow, look at me, I'm the man, right?

"Oh well that's not too bad! You're a freshman still. At least you have the chance to be with them, not many people do" she said

"I know, but it just feels as if I'm being lead on, you know? I don't know, sometimes it doesn't feel as if it is worth it" I responded

After that we just walked with each other until we got back to the locker rooms.

"Thanks for the walk" she said, and smiled

She was about to walk away, but I just had to hold her back.

"What's up with you and Eddy? How long have you been dating?" I asked

"We've been together since the beginning of summer...we've broken up a couple of times. Why do you ask?" she said

"Well, never mind. You're cute, that's all" I said

Okay, that right there took a lot to say. It may seem like nothing, but I've been holding onto that statement for weeks now. It did feel pretty good to tell her, but then again it worried me.

"Aww! Thank you, sweetie. I've got to go home now, though. I'll see you later" she said and walked away smiling

I don't even know if that went well, or bad, or whatever. All I know is that it felt damn good to get it out. I went back into the locker room, got my stuff, and went home.

## Chapter 24

### Regular Season Match

### October 6th, 2005

### East Providence vs. Barrington

### 3-3-2

### W-L-T

Earlier in the year, we defeated Barrington at our home field. This time, there's a much different setting, and a much different story. We were going to play at the Eagles' home field. They are known for their crowds and the excitement they bring to the game. I'm not really sure how good we'll do under that sort of pressure, because we've never been under that kind of pressure. Pressure is what you make it, not what it resembles. During the Coventry game, we didn't really handle pressure very well.

The Barrington Eagles seemed to have a new player. We hadn't seen him earlier in the year and this kid looked pretty damn good. He didn't really look like an attacker, maybe a midfielder or a defender. Either way, Coach brought him up before the game had begun.

"Listen up boys, see that kid over there? He's _good_. He was out earlier in the year due to suspension but now he is back and he is pissed. He won't score goals, but he will stop them. Eddy, Louis, Steve, and possibly Max, you _have_ to find a way to get past him. There is no such thing as a one-man defense. Make it happen. Also, don't you dare pull the crap that you guys pulled at Coventry. Never again, understand boys?" said Coach

"Yes, Coach" responded the team

Remember how last game I was telling you about our team mentality? It's completely different now. The confidence was bursting throughout the warm-up and I could tell we were ready. More ready than last time, rather. Chins were up, attitude was present, and the tempo was smooth.

The referee blew the whistle and had an announcement. We all gathered 'round.

"Good evening, gentlemen. We understand that there are playoff implications riding on this game..." he said

Before he could even finish, confused faces were shown on everybody. I don't think anybody, from both teams, had any idea that there were any playoff implications. Immediately, Coach was on the phone with the Interscholastic League. The referee finished the talk and we headed back to our benches before the anthem. Coach had just finished up his phone call.

"Boys, the official is correct. That game in Coventry really messed us up. There are some playoff implications. According to the League, we have to at least tie this match to survive our district. Reminder, our district consists of Barrington, LaSalle, Mt. Hope and Cumberland. The top two dogs make it. If we lose, we are out, simple as that. Go out there and show them what Townies are made of!" he said

If there is anything that can pump us up, it's fear. The fear of loss is not greater than the fear of disappointment. Not making the playoffs would be a complete disappointment to us, our school, and our city. The Townies don't disappoint, end of story.

The game began and a sense of intensity was immediately felt. Whether it was the crowd or the situation, it definitely heated up that game in the cold fall night.

The Townies began the game strong, which doesn't occur that often. Eddy and Louis began the game strong but they ran into Barrington's new player, I just call him Steely because he is like a wall of steel when playing defense. This kid could _play_. Eddy is quick, but not quick enough. Louis is skilled, but not skilled enough. During the first 20 minutes, all of our attacks were stopped by Steely. Unfortunately (in my eyes), it came down to Steve Ortiz. Coach recognized that Steely had been trained to shut down speed and skill but possibly not technique. That was Steve's trademark.

Steve and Louis switched positions, and I wondered how that would fare out to be because Louis had never played a midfield position, always striker. Coach's decision, as always, began to pay off. Steely didn't really recognize the switch, so it kept Steve's side of the field relatively open. Steely was just one of those players that didn't really analyze the game, but kept up the concept of it. He thought too generally, and that's not good enough to beat a pack of Townies.

While Eddy and Louis were being shut down, frequent passes were made to Steve but his type of style worked 25 percent of the time. It took many attempts until the 40th minute, he finally took a shot. Although he missed, it was a good sign. It bamboozled the defense and all of a sudden Steely wasn't all that big. That shot was just about as good as scoring a goal. We drew in the halftime whistle with that shot.

"Bring it in boys, good job!" said Coach

Everyone was ecstatic. This whole game is becoming a total team effort. I know I don't talk about the defense much, but they're definitely holding it down back there too. Tyler, Kevin, and Jay Silveira all made a hell of a defense. We had a couple "Steely's" of our own.

"Alright boys, here's the deal. You're doing exactly what their coach didn't want you to do. You're picking them apart, piece-by-piece. The defender is confused, Steve, you have to strike soon. Let's use that momentum we just gained to put it in the back of their net. Let's go!" he said

He had a lot of charisma right now. He was pumped up, and seeing Coach pumped up made us pumped up. We were _so_ ready. It could be done, especially with our newly found energy from the sideline. The referee blew the whistle and they headed back towards their positioning.

Once the second half began, a new energy was shown. It seemed as if this was a new team. As much as I hate to compare it, we were playing like LaSalle. The ball was moving and transitioning so smoothly, it was amazing. Eddy and Louis found their rhythm, and as much as I hate to admit it, Steve Ortiz did too. His technique worked perfectly on their defense, even Steely. It only took about five minutes for us to strike again. Eddy and Louis worked up top on some quick passes and a quick dish to Steve let the Townies lead 1-0.

Steely apparently got pretty upset at this and began cursing at his teammates resulting in him getting a yellow card. This opened up a window for the Townies, since Steely had to be substituted. All we had to do was keep the ball in bounds so that he couldn't substitute back in. The only person capable of doing this was Steve. Every ball was played to Steve and carefully not put out of bounds. We kept possession for a whole three minutes without going out of bounds. Steve eventually got the ball again and scored. The technique worked and put the Townies up 2-0.

The rest of the game went according to plan and got pretty boring so I'll admit it, I just kind of stared off at Nicole for a while. It was one of those stares that could've lasted forever and I wouldn't mind. She was doing toe touches and all that stuff so it was a pretty sight to begin with. Her looks and beauty made it all even better too. Eventually after a couple minutes of staring, I realized she was making eye contact with me. This bench gets awfully cold; I could've used her company. She just gave me a smile and kept doing her thing. That's fine; it didn't really bother me much. At least she gave me a smile. I always feel like I might just get somewhere with her.

Needless to say, the game ended 2-0 and it was another win in the books. This one was much-needed and helped out our playoff situation heavily. It always seems that the Townies find that last breath of air deep into the season. This situation is no different than past years.

## Chapter 25

The next day before practice, we were let into the locker room by Coach early. He was never there that early so we knew something was going on. He let us in and walked slowly towards the bulletin board in the locker room. He simply pointed to the board then walked away. The board read:

Barrington Times: SPORTS

Townies Escape Eagles

Can Mt. Hope Finish 'em?

Story Inside

"Again? If we lose we're out?" said Kaio

"That's right" said Coach, creeping out of the corner.

Everyone had that "not again" look on their face.

"The division is the toughest that I've ever seen it. We have no room for errors, it's self-explanatory. Win, we stay in the hunt. Tie, we are hurting our chances. Lose, we are out of the hunt. It's all up to you. Do what you have to do to make it happen. Let's go, on the field" said Coach

Everyone knew what was coming; a hard game against Mt. Hope. They were good, we tied with them last game. When we faced them we had to hustle hard to get the tie with only five minutes left in that game. Everyone was going to have to work hard, a total team effort.

"How come we've got the worst luck?" said Anthony as he laughed it off

These guys just must be used to pressure. I can't imagine laughing this off. I don't really have an impact on how the team fares, so I don't even feel much pressure. These guys have all the pressure on them, but they're used to it. Maybe it comes with age; I don't find myself ready for it.

Practice was relatively easy, probably because of the fact that we had games almost every other day now. Sore legs definitely aren't needed on game-days. I'm glad we have a coach that recognizes that. Some coaches throughout the league work their kids to the bone every day. Sure, it teaches discipline, but our kids can do very well without extra running.

The topic of practice definitely seemed to be Mt. Hope and how to beat them. We rarely go through schemes and plays during practice, but this time we did. Coach definitely had something up his sleeve for this game. Once again, I was just left kicking a ball around while they worked their plays. It was pretty depressing. I should learn not to mind it, especially this deep into the season. Coach spotted me with about 20 minutes left in practice.

"Ruben! Come here!" he yelled

I sprinted to him. I am never asked for during practice so this was pretty exhilarating.

"Get in the other goal, we're scrimmaging" he said

Something as simple as that made my heart race. We never do full scrimmages, we usually use a half of the field just to work on Anthony. I felt like I was in a real game. I didn't really know what I was doing due to lack of experience but my team did pretty good! I didn't necessarily have any saves because I had a good defense but I was pretty sure my presence was somewhat felt. I wish there was more time in practice because I definitely enjoyed it today.

"Good job, bud" said Anthony as practice ended

It felt good to see that somebody was watching. We headed out to the locker room and eventually home. Our next game will prove challenging, but I know we can be successful.

Success is my only mother—wait...

too much Eminem on my mind.

(That was random, eh?)

## Chapter 26

### Regular Season Match

October 8th, 2005

### East Providence vs. Mount Hope

### 4-3-2

### W-L-T

It was blistering cold as we arrived to Pierce Field. My toes were freezing cold to the point where I questioned if they were still there or not. Mount Hope was late to arrive to the field so we were courteous and gave them an extra 15 minutes to warm up and get their stuff together. This game was so important; I can't even stress it enough. The situation was the same as previous matches; we cannot lose. It simply wasn't an option. Although we had won four games so far, we lost three and tied two. We have only gained 15 of 27 available points. If there's one time that the Townies play excellently, it's now. Whenever pressure is applied, the Townies strive.

The newspaper photographers were lined up around the touchlines. Pierce Field was packed and ready for what should be a very entertaining match. Everyone knew this match was bound to be war and the pre-game definitely built up to that emotion. It was about 35 degrees outside on a cold autumn night. The grass had dew dripping off its blades. The goal posts were shining with a little bit of frost on them. Every player was wearing long sleeves and gloves. I even saw Jarrod Bento in the locker room putting on some warming cream on his feet and hands. Whatever works, I guess.

The referee pulled us in and gave us the "we know what the situation is" talk and let us back to our benches shortly before the National Anthem. It turns out that Mount Hope is in the same exact situation that we are in. If they lose, they are out as well. This is almost like a do-or-die playoff game. The referee blew the whistle and the game began.

For a game of this stature, the play quality was poor. Passes were being missed, players were running slowly, and emotion just wasn't there. This occurred for both teams. The only factor in which we can blame is the weather. It was really blistering cold. I wish this page had a secret little compartment that I could just shoot out a blast of cold air so you could feel it, but that's in the next generation of books, I assume. Players were cramping up due to lack of hydration and the whole place was a mess. Nothing really interesting happened until the 10th minute. It was nothing astounding, but Steve Ortiz and Kaio Goncalves worked down the line and Steve crossed a ball in for Kaio, but he missed it. Oh well, at least we had an opportunity.

"Next time!" yelled Coach

He was relatively calm pending the situation. Last time we played this team, we were down a goal or two around this time. Luckily, that wasn't the case at this time.

The game slowly but surely began to heat up. Players were beginning to slide tackle, run hard, jump higher, and push themselves farther than they had earlier. The game was beginning to mold itself.

Mount Hope began to build up momentum around the 20th minute. They were connecting passes and I believe this was the first team that was definitely more fit than us. LaSalle was fast as well, but they relied more on skill and technique. The Mount Hope players were just running like machines and it put a lot of pressure on our defense.

Tyler Almeida isn't that talkative on the field. He's the quiet player who did what he had to do, when he had to do it. He worked hard all year, and his statistics show for it. He's a great kid to have on the field at all times. This game meant a lot to him, though. He was looking to be captain next year and I guess this is the game he started to show it in.

"Get up the field, GO!" he yelled

The field nearly got silent. This was the first time anyone has heard him speak all year. Even Coach turned and looked surprised at him. The midfield stopped and looked stunned.

"You heard him! Keep running, go!" said Coach

With that said, they pushed up with speed and intensity. Thanks to the words of Tyler, we were able to build up a counter-attack ultimately resulting in a short free-kick outside of the 18 yard box. This kick was the perfect opportunity for the Townies. There was only one question...who was to take the kick? It was definitely between Eddy and Louis. While the defense was setting up, you saw them bickering. Each one wanted the chance at that glory and close kick. They both felt strongly about who should take the kick. Ultimately, seniority wins and Louis was elected to take the kick. He wound up and nearly took the cover off of the ball, but he hit it too high. The ball soared over the crossbar. While running back, Eddy gave him that "told you so" type of look. The good thing is that they both moved on and kept playing.

The ensuing Mount Hope possession would prove to be a killer for us. They came up the middle of the field and split Steve Ortiz, which doesn't happen often. This left the defense on their back foot. They kept connecting passes and confusing our defense until they finally got a shot off. The shot by Mount Hope was incredible, but the save by Anthony was spectacular. He dove off of his line and saved the ball with a quick swift lunge in mid-air. Pierce Field erupted at his athleticism and he had definitely saved us there. Immediately after the save, the referee blew the half-time whistle.

"Bring it in, let's go!" yelled Coach

The guys looked tired. Steam was rising from their heads and their breaths resembled the air of smoke. The night air was light with no humidity and the boys were in need of hydration.

"Get some water and listen up. Not bad, guys. Not bad at all. This is an even game and we're not in the crapper like we were last time. It's a bit _nippy_ outside, I know that. I'm cold as well, boys. You've got to grit your teeth and keep working. Is that understood boys?" he said

"Yes Coach" we all replied

"Good, then there should be no problems. Eddy, Louis, put the ball in the net. Tyler, I don't know where that yell came from but keep it coming, I like it. Midfielders, get the damn ball to the forwards. You hear me Bento? Ortiz? Alright, let's go. Townies on three!" he yelled

" _1-2-3 TOWNIES!"_

Whenever Coach has that sort of charisma, it makes me feel good. It gives us that peace of mind needed for the rest of the game. It's coming down to these 40 minutes left and how we would capitalize within them. This will prove testing, but worthy.

When we stepped back out onto the field, Mt. Hope's defense had changed. They opted to go with strength rather than speed. This was a gamble on their side and our coach was certainly looking for some capitalization. The half began with the same intensity as the first. Everyone knew what was riding on the line and the play was showing of it. Every ball was fought for so hard that it had suddenly become a midfield only affair. The forwards and defense never really got any touches. Each team held possession for about 15 seconds and then gave it up. I've never seen so many ups and downs on one field! This type of play continued on for approximately ten minutes!

"Move the damn ball up the field!" yelled Coach

He was annoyed at seeing the style of play and switched some positions up. He switched the flanks of the field and the inner-positions. He did what he could, but this type of play seemed almost inevitable. Sure, it's cute and all that but the Townies needed results, anything less than a win could compromise the season.

The Townies were playing hard throughout the half but so did Mount Hope. They played relentlessly and the signs of wear began to show on us, unfortunately. Slowly but surely they were attacking our defense and before you know it they were getting shots on goal and we were put on the back foot. Anthony seemed to be making save after save after save.

"Get the ball out of here!" he constantly screamed

"Anthony, relax!" yelled Coach

You could see the nerves on both of their voices. Each was worried about what was to come. Our defense could only hold them for so much longer. Soon, it just wouldn't be enough. Mount Hope had an attack in which they had finally capitalized on. Don't ask me how it happened, I was too heartbroken to even look or remember it. 1-0 Mount Hope.

## Chapter 27

The ride home was quiet. We weren't used to losing, not at all. Especially when it counted the most, this one hurt. No one was really certain what was to happen to us until Coach reported the scores in once we got back to the locker room. The standings show a good chance of us being out with only four wins out of ten games. Of all the disappointed faces, Anthony had the worst. He was biting his nails and kind of rocking in his seat. Everyone was anxious, and not in the good way. This just wasn't turning out to be the greatest bus ride ever.

Once we arrived at the school, we all exited the bus quietly, not a peep. Coach exited last and followed us in. Inside the locker room, everyone just threw their stuff down and huddled around Coach as he sat down and made the call to the league.

"Yes, I'd like to report a score" he said

Everyone looked around.

"1-0 in favor of Mount Hope" he said

Some sad, angry, and disappointed faces looked down in disbelief that we had lost. The game seemed so close and definitely within our reach.

"Can I have a playoff update please?" asked Coach

This was it...the next five seconds were grueling.

"Mmhmm.. I see" said Coach

Everyone took that deep breath.

"Thank you sir, have a good night" he said

Coach hung up the phone and looked at all of us. His facial expression remained the same no matter what he told us. It was hard to tell what he was going to say, but he put it very simple:

"Out" he said

Immediately, Anthony erupted in tears. _Tears._ Soon, Louis followed as well as Eddy. These were the team leaders, with their faces flowing with tears. It was now evident and easy to see who had their hearts within the team. One by one members of the team began to cry. This wasn't simple crying either, this was all-out bawling. I was so fazed by the moment that I just looked around. The guys were just flooding the locker room in tears. They were still in their game uniforms and pure disappointment was shown on their faces. I had never seen anything like this. It began with just depression but slowly settled into a team effort. Anthony began giving hugs to some team-mates and soon after, everybody was hugging each other while they were crying.

"I love you, man" said Anthony to Eddy

"Why'd this shit have to happen!" said Eddy

The hugging lasted so long, I really just sat down by my locker and watched in amazement. Soon, they began coming up to me. I believe I was the only one not crying. Not that I didn't feel an emotional attachment to the team, but I was just so amazed by the disappointment these kids had. Anthony came up to me while he was crying.

"You're next man, you're the next one to fill these shoes" he said

That one statement made my emotion show. Soon, I was crying too. This may sound dumb, but this was the first time I've ever truly felt that I had belonged on this team. Everything was put aside, all our differences. Even Steve came up to me while he was crying.

"I'm sorry man, I didn't mean to give you so much crap" he said

We settled it over a handshake and moved on. Soon after, everyone began to file out of the locker room. Those without emotional attachment, such as the JV kids had already left. I stuck around because I needed a ride and I went with Andrew Medeiros. He spoke straight to the point on the ride home.

"The whole damn season, straight down the damn tube" he said

It was sad but true.

## Chapter 28

The mood was somber the next day. The season wasn't even over yet, but to know we were most likely out of the playoffs was a dagger to our hearts. It was a tough pill to swallow for everyone. Everyone always thinks football is so much better than soccer that we don't even matter, but that's not the case at East Providence High School. Soccer is a dominant sport in our area and we could tell that we disappointed many people that day. It's always hard to look someone in the eye after you promised them something and gave them nothing. This was especially true when speaking to Coach Andrade. He expected the world and more from us, and we couldn't even give him a spot in the playoffs.

Practice was the quietest it's ever been. The drills were done lazily and no one was really in the mood to do it. At one point, everyone just kind of stopped caring. Coach noticed this right away.

"What the hell are you guys doing?" he asked

Everyone looked at each other; no one really noticed we were doing anything wrong.

"Look at you guys, lifeless and grieving. If there's one thing you play for, it's pride. You play for pride before anything else, including championships. Pride is the only thing you have with you all the time, unless you lose it. To me, it looks like you have all lost pride in what you are doing. We have two games remaining; each of them could change up the playoff picture. Get your heads up and work, no more of this nonsense!" he said

"Coach is right, guys. We're playing LaSalle and Portsmouth. If we walk away with points, who knows, right?" said Anthony

A sort of invigoration spread through the team. This was Coach's sneaky way of telling us we still had a chance. He was right about the pride talk, which was absolutely true. In many countries, that's all there is to play for. There might not be that light at the end of the tunnel, but you'll always have your pride and integrity. Without that, you're lifeless and there's not much left to go out and start playing for again.

The rest of practice was a complete flip-flop of how we started. Everyone was giving it their all and for that hour and a half, everyone felt that playoff breath, just for a second. The Townies play best when it looks the worst. Every single player on this pitch felt that we had the opportunity to win and creep up on the playoffs.

Practice ended early due to rain and everyone was shuffling into the building rather fast. As I was going inside, I ran into Nicole in the weirdest of places. She was outside in the rain, crying.

"Are you okay?!" I asked

"Oh Ruben, it's nothing...really" she said

"C'mon Nicole, I'm not dumb. What happened?" I said

"Eddy...kind of...sort of...broke up with me" she said

Now, I know, this is wrong of me. However, at that moment, I swear I was the happiest man alive. I had that kind of gleam in my eye that I could've just kissed her. I opted not to, of course.

"Why are you smiling?" she asked

"Who? Me? Nope, I'm not smiling" I said, still smiling

"You think this is funny?" she asked

"No, not at all. I obviously like you, so this is good news for me. I'm just trying to make you feel better; I thought a smile would help. Come on, get the hell out of the rain. Let's go inside" I said

We ran inside, and it was pointless now because we were both soaked.

"You okay?" I asked

"Yeah, I'll be fine. Thanks so much, Ruben. You're a great kid" she said

"Oh, no problem" I responded

She left, but not without planting me a kiss on the cheek. Man, I got so _red_! I felt my face burning hot as she walked away. I had that little grin on, it made me look super immature. Oh well, I got a peck from Nicole, I call that progress. I do feel bad that she was crying, though. She shouldn't be crying, she's just too beautiful for that. I tried my best to make her feel better, but now that I look at it, I was being kind of selfish with my response. I couldn't help it. I've got to stop thinking about her, though. There's a huge game tomorrow.

## Chapter 29

### Regular Season Match

October 12th, 2005

### East Providence vs. Portsmouth

### 4-3-3

### W-L-T

This has to have been the coldest night ever. It was raining, but not only raining. It was sleeting, but not only sleeting. It was snowing, but not only snowing. It was windy, sleeting, snowing, and raining. This was a _deadly_ New England mix. Portsmouth has very nice facilities, though. They beat us last time 1-0. This time, we had to force a much different result. When we got into the locker room, everyone was already freezing.

"Holy crap! I need to get warm!" shouted Kaio

He ran over to the sink and turned on the hot water.

"What are you stupid?!" Tyler yelled

"No, my hands are freakin' cold man" he responded

"You're going to get frostbite. Just turn on the cold water, it'll still seem warm to you because the temperature of your hands is much less than that of the water" said Tyler

Tyler was a smart kid, thankfully we have him around. He's definitely the brains of the team. Kaio could've gotten frostbite right then and there.

Coach was outside with the other Coach trying to figure out if we were going to play this game. Apparently, it was so could that the lights were frozen and couldn't turn on. It was probably about 15 degrees tonight, no word of a lie. Coach came back inside.

"Put your cleats on, we're playing" said Coach

"Aww, Damn it!" said Jarrod

Coach approached him very closely and gritted his teeth.

"Pride, Bento. Pride" he said

Jarrod got real tense and immediately hustled to put his cleats on. Thankfully, I'm a goalie so I kept warm. I had my goalkeeper pants, shirt, and gloves on. I was still pretty cold at my feet, though. The rain was soaking through.

"Alright guys, listen up" said Coach

Everyone turned and faced him. All of a sudden, temperature just didn't matter. It was game time.

"I know it's nippy out there. I know it's freezing out there. I know this game will hurt. I know that some of you may come out injured. This is a risk that you all are willing to take. When you put the pen to the paper before the season started, you stated your pride down for me. That's all I care about right now, show me that you have some damn pride. They beat us last time, they will not beat us this time. Is that understood?" said Coach

"Yes Coach" we all responded

"Good, now get out there and show me what Townie Pride is all about!" he yelled

Everyone was pumped up. As soon as we left the doors to go outside, the pumped-up-ness just kind of disappeared. It was freakin' _COLD._ The shivers began fairly quickly and I know that's a sign of pneumonia. The warm-ups lasted about 10 minutes, no one wanted to be there, including the referee's.

The whistle blew and the match began. From the sidelines, it was painful to watch. Both teams were afraid of getting hit with the ball, that's about more painful than a slide tackle right now. The ground was frozen and played like cement, the air was icy and hurt our faces, and the wind was blowing all of us over. This game was getting to be more and more painful.

Only 20 minutes in did the action begin to heat up. Get it, heat up? Corny joke, I know. Anyways, we seemed to be on the upper hand. We had possession, even though after every pass we made someone said "OW!". We reached the point in the game where pain didn't matter anymore simply due to the fact that everyone was numb. Eddy and Louis began getting more and more touches to the ball and even took a couple of shots, both sailing wide.

"We got this, man. We got this." said Louis

The Portsmouth players still seemed too shocked that they were even playing. The Townies were beginning to wake up. The pressure was mounting and before you knew it, the Townies had the advantage. All it took was a couple of passes in the midfield and a strike from Eddy. 1-0 Townies. Usually, there are celebrations following the goals, but everyone just ran back into their positions and awaited the referee's whistle. Portsmouth was too shocked to be playing this game and we knew it. We had to take advantage of the opportunity while we had it. I looked over at Coach and saw him smile because of the quick thinking of the guys on the field.

Eddy and Louis continued their path during the rest of the half. They each had good shots on goal and one of them even hit the post. The Portsmouth defense was getting mad at their goalkeeper for not diving.

"Have you ever dove on cement? I'm not doing that crap, screw that." he said

"SUB!" yelled the Portsmouth Coach

They put in another goalkeeper; obviously the one that was in net didn't exactly feel like doing much.

Shortly after their substitution, the referee called for halftime.

"Good! Good! Bring it in, hurry. Quick halftime so we can get the hell out of here!" shouted Coach

Everyone was shivering. Sweat was frozen on their foreheads and steam was rising from their heads.

"Ahh, damn, I can't take it Coach" said Kaio

"You got to have guts right now, Kaio." said Coach

Kaio simply nodded and followed his orders.

"Boys, we're halfway there. If we beat this team, it gives us the biggest playoff opportunity. We _need_ this win. This _is_ our playoffs, gentlemen. Now, about the game, their goalkeeper is out. The Coach lost faith in his team, now we need to capitalize on that. We don't have much time until they wake up, I can tell. Eddy, Louis, Steve, Kaio, I need one in the back of the net. Give me _one more._ I know it's cold, but let's still give it our best shot. You've got to have guts to play this game, lots and lots of guts. Let's go, Townies on three!" he yelled

1-2-3 Townies!

I knew right then and there that we had this game on lockdown. Everyone was ready, it was easy to tell. The half began with the same intensity as the first...none. Both teams were still afraid of the ball and it was hard to get the game going. Time was passing fast, though. As Coach predicted, the Portsmouth side was certainly beginning to wake up. They had a quick attack down the wing and got a shot on goal. Luckily, it soared over the crossbar.

"That was way too close..." said Coach

For some reason, we just couldn't get the ball up to the offense. For most of the game, Eddy and Louis were just standing up top. At one point, Eddy began running in circles just to keep feeling in his feet and ankles. This game was grueling and punishing. Around 30 minutes into the second half is when the fun began. A Portsmouth player began to make a run into our box and he was tackled by Tyler. The Portsmouth player screamed bloody murder but Tyler just stood his ground.

"I didn't even touch you!" said Tyler

Either way, the referee still blew the whistle for the foul.

"It's in the box!" yelled a Portsmouth player

It sure was damn close, but luckily the referee called that it was outside of the box and not a penalty kick. This kick was really close, in fact, too close for comfort.

"Three! I need three people in the wall!" yelled Anthony

Nobody volunteered for the job. The ball would hurt too much.

"Grow some balls and get in the wall!" said Tyler as he stepped in to make the wall.

Jay Silveira and Kevin Cabral joined him to create the wall. The Portsmouth player wound up and shot the ball directly into Kevin.

"Ow! Whoa, holy shit!" said Kevin

Kevin immediately got yellow carded for language and this outraged our Coach.

"He just got hit with a frozen ball, what the hell do you expect him to say?!" yelled Coach

Kevin was still down with pain.

"Someone call an ambulance or something" said Kaio

"No, no, I'm fine!" said Kevin

He struggled to get back up but he did and went to the sideline because of his yellow card. There was only five minutes left and we definitely need Kevin in there to protect the goal. Portsmouth realized the time issue and began firing attacks. One wave after the other, Portsmouth attacked deeper and deeper each time. Our defense had a simple mentality, clear it out as far as you can. Every time that one of our defenders touched the ball it ended up in the stands or 50 yards away.

"Referee! How much more time are we going to play?!" shouted Coach

The game was scheduled to end a minute ago, and the referee had apparently added extra time without telling us.

Portsmouth didn't stop attacking; they got in two more waves. Tyler cleared the ball out and yelled in frustration.

"Blow the damn whistle!" he yelled

The referee smiled and didn't blow the whistle. This was getting to a point that wasn't fair. I understand, maybe his toes were numb, but his brain too?

Portsmouth got another shot on goal but Anthony stopped it. He only touched the ball once this game, and that itself was a mini-victory. He punted the ball up far into the air and the referee finally blew the whistle.

Everyone began celebrating and cheering but quickly ran into the bus. I was the last one on the bus because I had to bring the water and stuff.

"Oh my God, turn the freakin' heat on!" said Kaio

The bus' heater was on full blast and it didn't even feel like it. Everyone got snuggled in closely and got curled up into a ball. The ride home was quiet because no one knew the playoff picture. This win definitely did help, though.

## Chapter 30

When we walked into the locker room the next day, there was a newspaper article taped to the wall. Everyone huddled around to read it. Of course, I'm so short that I didn't even bother trying to read it, but I got the hint right after everyone was done reading it. LaSalle lost a game. They lost a game for the first time in two years. It may not seem like a big deal, but LaSalle's loss blew open a huge playoff spot in Division I. The playoff race was tied in so many ways that it just came down to one thing; LaSalle has to win against their next opponent in order for us not to make the playoffs. Maybe it's our lucky day, because their next opponent is none other than the Townie of East Providence.

This presented us with a chance at direct revenge. Finally, we didn't have to worry about what other teams did, this was in our hands. Of all the losses this year, this win would redeem them all if we could accomplish it. Even a tie gives us the chance of making the playoffs. We don't want a tie, though. We want a win; a cold, hard, beautiful win.

Coach entered the room and noticed that we had read the article. He called for our attention and we all sat quietly and listened.

"You know...this is one of the beautiful things about this sport. All season long, people's opinions are built on assumptions. Everyone assumed that we were out, everyone assumed that we didn't really have it in us. Everyone assumed that LaSalle wouldn't lose a game all year. You know what I say about that, boys? I say _damn_ the assumptions. I say _damn_ the critics. I say _damn_ the non-believers. Tomorrow night, you boys will be presented with an opportunity that you could nurture for the rest of your lives. Tomorrow night will be the night that I have been dreaming of for over a decade, we will prove victorious. This sport is so beautiful and it is for this very reason. All it takes is 90 minutes to find glory. We can all do it, but we need to do it together. For all the Ronaldinho's out there, remember, individualism requires unity. We can't do it by ourselves. I need you all to call upon your classmates, parents, teachers, and peers. We need to fill Pierce Stadium tomorrow night. We need LaSalle to be blinded by our strength and deafened by our crowd. I say we make history tomorrow night. The latest numbers show that we make the playoffs with a tie, but we can't just settle for that. Today, practice is canceled. I have taught you all that you need to know to be successful. Get people to the game, give yourselves 24 hours to think about what your destiny is as of tomorrow night. Whatever you decide, make it happen. 90 minutes, one field, one ball, 11 brothers." He said

He walked away smoothly and away from the locker room. I'd say it was a good two minutes before anybody moved or said a word.

"That's it. This is it, guys, this is _it._ " said Anthony

Everyone just stood still. It was in our hands, I couldn't believe we didn't have practice. I understand the complications, but never would I have imagined that practice would be canceled.

With no practice to attend, and no ride to go home, Danny and I went to a burger joint across the street to talk. When we got there, I found out why our JV team lost just about every damn game. The place was _filled_ with our team just eating burgers and fries.

"Daaaaaaamn y'all!" I said

They all laughed.

"Woops, you caught us!" said Ravy, a Junior

Eventually they told me that this was their "spot" after school and before practice. I don't know how these damn kids survive practice without cramps. It was funny though. They seemed like a good ol' family. Everyone was eating, having a good time and without worries. I thought about what Coach told us and I stood on top of a chair and made an announcement.

"Hey guys, listen up. Coach canceled practice today so we can get the word out about our game tomorrow. If we win or tie, we make the playoffs. This is it, guys! Next year, most of us will be teammates and we're all Townies right now. We need to communicate with our school to jam-pack Pierce Field tomorrow. You guys with me?" I said

I had some deer-looking-at-headlights-looks, but other than that I got a good reception.

"Yeah, hell yeah, we'll help" said Ravy

I was going to go sit down with Danny but my Aunt Liz showed up from nowhere to pick me up.

"Hey Danny, I gotta run, my ride is here. Need a ride?" I asked

"No thanks, I'm all set" he said

"Okay, see ya" I responded

My Aunt Liz works hard and across the state. She's a travel agent and she gets out of work late. Most of the time, I don't even see her when it's still daylight. It was good to see her come up and get me.

"Hey, I thought you had work?" I asked

"I did, Lucas is sick though. I heard you needed a ride so I knew right where to find you, the burger joint" she said and laughed

"Ha-Ha-Ha, very funny" I said sarcastically

"How come practice was canceled?" she asked

"Oh, Coach wanted us to spread the word about tomorrow night's game. It's pretty important" I said

"I can't make it..." she said

"I know, you work hard...I don't blame you" I responded

"I still feel bad. When work slows down, I'll be sure to come out and watch you" she said

Now, a part of me felt bad for two reasons. Reason one, I don't even play, so she's not exactly missing out on much. Reason two, it's a high school soccer match, she shouldn't feel bad.

My Aunt Liz has been providing for my family since she was in her early teens. She made our family's transition from Portugal to the United States an easier one and we all owe her for it. Everyone in my family had a specific role to take care of when we came to America. When we came to America, my Mother had to stay in Portugal. Her role in helping out our family was to take care of and provide for me. Don't get me wrong, everyone provided for me. My Uncle Nuno, my Aunt Ana, my Grandmother, my Great-Grandmother, my Uncle Claudio, and many other people all had a hand in helping out. She always was there for me on another level though, and I can't repay her for that. So to have her sit here and tell me she feels bad that she can't make it to my game kind of makes _me_ feel bad. I just decided not to talk about it further in the car. She knows how I feel no matter what.

When we arrived at my house, she had to go back to work.

"Hey, thanks for picking me up" I said

"No problem, honey! Love you!" she said

"I love you more!" I responded

I quickly shut the door so she couldn't say "Nuh-uh!" and deny that I loved her more. It was kind of a game that we played all the time. I do love her more, though. . She's getting married soon, which means I'll have less time with her... ***sigh*.**

I got inside the house and just kind of plopped on my bed. Sleep is good, really good. You know what beats sleep? Naps at four o'clock, oh _yeah_. Tomorrow's a big day, maybe I'll use this time to dream of that glory Coach was talking about. We'll see.

## Chapter 31

### Regular Season Match

### October 14th, 2005

### East Providence vs. LaSalle Academy

### 5-3-3

### W-L-T

The night was cool. Not freezing like the Portsmouth match, tonight was manageable. Once we arrived at Pierce Field it was evident that our advertisement of the game had worked. The place was so packed that people began sitting on the track in order to watch the game. The LaSalle fans had their own section and everyone was ready for the game to begin. The LaSalle players looked intimidated, and we kept our game faces on. Everything was going completely as planned. I loved every second of it.

We were all pumped up, of course, but we could tell who had all their heart in it the most: the seniors. They were all exuberant in their pre-games, and all of them were focused. This game was epic. Everywhere you looked, cameras were there. There were news reporters, journalists, scouts, and sponsors at every corner. I was almost a little worried that we wouldn't be able to hear ourselves. The pre-game warm-ups seemed to go by fast because before I knew it, it was time for the game to begin.

We won. The coin toss, of course. 

We were defending east first, giving us the wind in the first half. It plays a major part here at Pierce Field because we are in a stadium with an open top; the wind circulates heavily inside of it. It may be gusts of four miles per hour on the outside, but inside it could reach ten miles per hour. Pierce Field seemed to amplify everything tonight, from the crowd noise to the wind; it had its share of play. Tonight finally _felt_ like home field advantage.

It was kind of ironic that it came down to this, the maroon of LaSalle to the red and white of East Providence. The biggest rivalries came into play when needed most, and this was the type of drama that some people might just make a movie or write a book about (ironic, eh?).

The night was getting colder and anxiousness was building up inside of all of us. Nervous looks were exchanged with confident looks, and we seemed to have our mentality changed every game. I think we have the right mentality for this one. Coach brought us in for his last words before the match had begun.

"Bring it in, quickly, quickly. Alright boys, this is it. If I'm not your inspiration, look at the environment around you. College coaches, parents, friends, teachers, everyone you know is here to watch you. It's all in your hands. Remember, it only takes 90 minutes to achieve glory. Glorify yourselves today as winners, and tomorrow as champions. Townies on three!" he said

1-2-3 Townies!

As the teams were lining up, the referee's took Anthony and Dom Pertrarca from the other team aside and spoke to them. I was close enough to overhear the conversation.

"Listen, we know what's at stake" said the Referee

Both guys were looking at each other in the eye; they didn't even look at or pay attention to the referee.

"Tonight we'll be watching and enforcing the fouls more carefully. Play the ball and behave yourselves. The consequences are a bit more severe this match. Shake hands, and let's go!" said the Referee

The guys shook hands, one of those firm may-the-best-man-win handshakes. This was going to be an _intense_ match. The teams got in their positions and the whistle blew.

"Let's go, boys!" shouted Louis

I'm pretty sure he said more after that but I couldn't hear a damn word anyone was saying. The place was so _loud_. I kind of had this funny moment where I said something out loud and tried to see if I could hear myself. Soon after, I had one of those moments of random silence and I happened to yell out something funny like "Donkey Peanuts" or some crap like that and it was really embarrassing. I think the only one that heard me was Max because he just kind of gave me this blank stare. Inside, I was dying laughing, but I kept a straight face on the outside.

The game was just as intense as everyone expected. Tackles were flying, freezing sweat was dripping, and words were said that shouldn't have been. Within the first 10 minutes we seemed to have frustrated LaSalle with our midfield play. Dom Pertrarca slid for a ball, missed, and cussed out loud. Immediately after that, the referee came over and gave him a yellow card.

"What the—why?!" said Pertrarca

"I told you, none of that!" said the Referee

Usually, referees ignore little cusses like that but they were being strict and serious tonight. Pertrarca walked off the field to serve his suspension. These next couple of minutes was going to prove vital for us. Pertrarca was their main weapon in the midfield. Now that he's been neutralized for the time being, all we had to do was keep the ball in play and hopefully get an attack.

"Attack the ball!" yelled Coach from the sideline

Steve Ortiz had the ball originally and he quickly spread the field of play with a pass to Kaio and from Kaio to Eddy. Eddy saw an opportunity and shot the ball. Even though the ball sailed wide, it was a shot of confidence to us. LaSalle was beatable, we knew they were. This just went to further prove it. Pertrarca came back in with a sealed mouth, I'm assuming. One more cuss or yellow card and he was kicked out of the match, and even more importantly, the playoffs. I'm sure the LaSalle coach made it very clear to him.

The rest of the half was played mostly at midfield. We were the only ones to have an attack that half, even though it was unsuccessful. The rest of the first half remained quiet as far as important plays. The referee blew the whistle to signal halftime and we all moved in to listen to Coach.

"This isn't bad. Eddy, you should've sank that shot" said Coach

"I'm sorry, guys" said Eddy

"No need for regrets. We just need to make it happen. That goes for all of us. Defense, I know it's been pretty quiet, but don't let your damn guard down. Keep working as hard as you've been all season. We're so close, I can feel it. We need to keep the work up, let's go!" said Coach

Coach seemed so excited, like a little schoolboy during recess. We could tell the emotion was too much for him to hide. He always kept a stern face but he was walking up and down the sidelines biting his nails this game, and we could all tell he wanted this win so badly. The second half began.

LaSalle had changed up their attacking strategy. They put Pertrarca more towards the defense and I think this bamboozled our defense.

"What the hell, Ortiz, do you got him?" said Kaio

"Hell no, I ain't no defender" said Steve

"He ain't no attacker now, either" said Kaio

"Aww damnit!" yelled Steve

He quickly covered his mouth in hopes that the referee didn't hear him say damn. The referee heard him, but apparently "damn" wasn't an offense. Steve got lucky that it came down to a judgment call from the referee. He got even luckier that the referee felt the way he did.

"Oh, so he gets away with it and I don't?!" shouted Pertrarca

That obviously angered him and he was out for a little revenge.

Whatever plan Lasalle had come up with at halftime, it was working for them. They were attacking more than ever and somehow Pertrarca kept sneaking in for some strikes to the ball. We were barely 10 minutes into the second half and Anthony already had four saves. LaSalle's early performance shut down our offense and our crowd.

"What's going on, guys?!" shouted Anthony

He was getting pissed off and everyone saw what was coming.

"Anthony, don't cuss" said Tyler

"Whatever man, I ain't gonna" said Anthony

Play continued and LaSalle just kept on doing their thing. Every play they were having was getting shut down by our defense one way or another. Most of the time it was Anthony stopping them, but they were still getting stopped nonetheless. With every shot they took and missed, they got more frustrated. They were beginning to self-destruct. Coach saw this and made a bold move.

"Max, get up. Listen, they're not expecting you out there. They're used to seeing the same faces. I need you to go in for Ortiz, he's being useless out there" said Coach

"Yes sir" said Max

Once the substitution occurred, it was very evident that Coach's plan worked. The LaSalle defenders were double teaming him thinking that he was some sort of superstar when all Max had to do was give it to an open Louis or Eddy. The first couple of times Eddy got the ball close to the goal but was quickly swiped by the LaSalle defense. The LaSalle defense quickly figured out that Max wasn't all that skilled and they went back to covering Eddy and Louis. Coach substituted Steve back in for Max.

"Good job, Max" said Coach

Max looked pissed. He just realized he was used for a decoy rather than a player. He didn't like that very much. He took off his cleats as a sign that he didn't want to play anymore that match.

LaSalle kept on attacking our goal. Pertrarca had a run all the way from defense to our goal box when Tyler slide tackled him immediately. The referee blew the whistle and the kick was just outside of our penalty area.

The stadium went into an uproar in disbelief that the referee made that call and so didn't Anthony.

"You've got to be _shitting me!_ " yelled Anthony

The stadium got quiet, real quiet. Everyone knew what was coming.

"Sir, don't, it was an accident" said Anthony

The referee didn't even verbally respond, all he did was pull out his card and sent Anthony to the sideline.

"Sir, he doesn't have to come out! You don't have the spine not to call that, that call was ridiculous. You're a disgrace!" yelled Coach

All of a sudden, I felt eyes burning on me. Everyone came to the realization before I did. I had to enter this match as a goalkeeper for the Townies. I didn't really respond to the situation. I sat still with my eyes wide open looking across the field.

"What're you waiting for?" said Coach

He was speaking quietly. Or maybe he was speaking loud and I couldn't hear him very well because my damn knees were knocking against each other.

"It's going to be alright, Ruben. Get your head in the game, I'm going to buy you some time. Hurry up." said Coach

Coach stood up and began yelling at the referee. His conversation lasted a good five minutes until the referee had threatened to kick him out if he heard another word. Right before play started, we all huddled in as a team. I almost pissed myself, I was so nervous.

"Guys, please, protect me" I said, begging

"Don't worry about it, just do your damn thing" said Tyler

"Damnit man, Ruben, you better not mess up" said Steve

He never was afraid to let his feelings be known.

"Just protect me guys, protect me. I don't belong here, we all know that" I said

"You wouldn't be here if you didn't deserve it, stop sounding like a dumbass" said Tyler

The referee blew the whistle to put us on the field. I ran back to the goal area and I had a moment with myself to think about what was going on. The lights at Pierce Field shone brighter tonight than I had ever seen. The crowd was booing and part of me thought it was because I was in goal but then I remembered they were pretty mad at the referee for kicking Anthony out. This is what I've been dreaming of for the past three months. This is the moment I've been waiting for; I just really wish there wasn't a damn free kick right outside the box coming in towards me.

Tyler set up the wall quickly, a five-person wall, just to make sure the ball didn't come into the goal. The referee blew the whistle for Pertrarca to take the kick and I just held my breath and hoped for the best. I heard the kick of the ball but I didn't see the ball until it curled over the wall. I saw it going to my right and I just dove with all my might, stuck out one arm, closed my eyes, and held my breath. I landed without the ball making contact with me. I was laying on the ground and I slowly opened my eyes and looked to see where the ball went. The ball was about 20 yards behind our goal, they missed the kick. I let out a sigh of relief and had enough.

"When does Anthony come back in?!" I yelled

"Thirty seconds, shut up" said Tyler

I was acting like a baby, so they were treating me like one. It was pretty funny kind of. Tyler took the goal kick because I wasn't strong enough to kick it up to the midfield. LaSalle tried their best to keep the ball in play to avoid Anthony's substitution. They kept it in for what seemed like forever, and then Kaio finally kicked it out of bounds. That's it, my time was up. Two minutes and thirty two seconds. That's how much time I was in the game, and I will never forget it for the rest of my life. As I came back to my bench, I noticed my hands were shaking. I was _still_ nervous. I walked by the bench and all of a sudden I kept hearing my name.

"Ruben, Ruben, Ruben!" shouted Nicole

I looked at her, I couldn't speak, I was too nervous.

"You're my hero! I love you!" she yelled

I stood still, and at that moment I was pretty damn sure this whole thing was just a dream, it had to be. She blew me a kiss and I simply walked away smiling. By the time I got back to the bench, it turns out the final whistle had been blown. The final score was 0-0, we made it.

Celebration erupted throughout the stadium and there was a huge pile at the middle of the field of all our players. LaSalle was mad that they hadn't won in three games and they quickly packed up and left. Everyone was on the field celebrating and I just sat down on the bench like I had been doing all season. I kind of liked it here, on the bench. I saw the field in two perspectives for the first time ever tonight, and I can't decide if I'm happy or sad about it. I watched everyone celebrate until it was time to go. Something was bittersweet about tonight. Half of my face was smiling and the other half was frowning. Tonight was a good night; I'm just going to miss nights like these.

The team loaded up and got on the bus. On the ride home, there was about 100 cars following the bus back to the high school to celebrate. They were honking, cheering, making lots of noise and it was fantastic. Everyone was so happy, we made it into the playoffs! What a way to get in, too.

When we arrived, Coach didn't let us off the bus just as we arrived. He stood in the middle of the aisle and waited for our attention.

"Guys, I know I'm probably not going to be able to get a hold of you once we get out of this bus. Just let me say that I am _so_ proud of what you have accomplished tonight. You proved everyone wrong, and there is no better feeling than that. Everyone worked hard, _everyone_. From Eddy and Louis holding down the offense to Tyler keeping the defense in shape. Even Ruben! Ruben, you might want to check your underwear, I don't know. I've never seen anyone so shaky!" said Coach

The team immediately started laughing and I laughed with them. I wish someone recorded it to see exactly what I looked like because I know it was something ridiculous.

"Alright boys, go out and have some fun. You all earned it. I'll see you at practice" said Coach

He opened up the door and we all began to file out of the bus. The celebrations were wild, tons of people were outside to greet us. We celebrated in our playing uniforms until late that night. I got a ride with Kaio to go home early, I was so tired. Tonight was a night that I will never dare forget. Days like this just make me want to find out what tomorrow has in store for me.

## Chapter 32

The playoff schedules were released the very next day. Coach brought us in to tell us who we would be facing tomorrow in the first playoff match-day.

"Alright, if I had to pick who I would want to play first, I think I would have picked who we got. We're playing Coventry" said Coach

Now the first thing on everyone's mind was where we were playing it. Coventy had the _worst_ field known to mankind and we do blame our loss on their field.

"At home" Coach added

Suddenly the room went loud with cheers. We knew they were beatable, especially on our turf, which has proven to be vital to our success as of late.

"We can do this, guys. I know we can" said Louis

The team nodded their heads in agreement.

"Now let's go get ready to show them we can!" shouted Anthony

As everyone headed out to the practice fields, I stayed behind to talk to Coach.

"Hey, Coach, do you have a second?" I asked

"Sure, what do you need?" he asked

"I just wanted to thank you. Last night was a very memorable moment for me and I'll never forget it" I said

"You don't need to thank me, Ruben. You earned it. Nobody handed you anything" he said

"I know, but you didn't have to put the gloves in my hand last night, you could've gotten someone else" I said

"No, you're my backup goalkeeper. If I were you, I'd get used to those lights. For the next three years, you've got some pretty big shoes to fill" he said with a smile

I can't believe it! He pretty much just named me next years starting goalkeeper.

"Get out there and practice" he said

I ran out of the locker room with such excitement that I almost slipped and fell. Coach laughed as I ran out.

I do have the worst luck, though. As soon as I got outside, it began to pour and practice was forced to be canceled. I had a lot of energy to waste and I hate having cooped up energy. When we all got inside, Coach just briefly let us know what was at stake tomorrow night and he dismissed us. Maybe it's a good thing not to have practice before the game. I mean, that's what we did last time and it worked pretty well, right? I don't really mind the sitting around all day and getting homework done deal so I wasn't going to fuss about it. Neither did anyone else, most people were still tired from yesterday. It was an exhausting night so it was really good to have another day to catch up on lost rest. Mother Nature and luck seem to be on our side as of late. Hopefully that doesn't go away anytime soon.

## Chapter 33

### Playoff Match-Round of 16

October 16th, 2005

### East Providence vs. Coventry

### 5-3-4

### W-L-T

The air was mild and revenge was brewing. The last time we faced Coventry they had a lucky goal and I was sure we weren't going to let that happen twice. There are many differences between that game and this one. For example, we have _grass_! We don't have to play on rocks, dirt, and glass like we did at Coventry. The field was in good shape and we weren't frustrated. I've been saying it time and time again; the Townies do their best when it couldn't seem to get any worse. All we need is that playoff breath and we're good to go.

Anthony and the other seniors looked pumped up to be where they were. Pierce Field was crowded, not so much as the LaSalle game, but still enough to make a lot of noise. Tonight had an eerie feel to it and everyone had this gleam of confidence within them. Coventry didn't look so hot. Their warm-ups consist of sitting around and juggling a ball. There was only so much time for us to prove ourselves and tonight was the night. Coach brought us in before the match had begun.

"Boys, this is it. This is what you've been working for. Remember that newspaper article I put on the wall? Well now look around you, they're _all here_. They all want to see you lose so that their predictions can stand true. Tonight we will continue to do what we've always been doing; winning. We will prove them wrong. We will prove the other team wrong. We will prove any predictions wrong. We will prove _ourselves_ right. Let's go, Townies on three!" said Coach

1-2-3 Townies!

The game began with a good stride. We had obvious possession throughout the whole match. The midfield quickly became a crucial part of our attack and we were going to have to utilize that. As I was watching the opening moments of the game, I noticed Nicole was approaching me. My heart kind of sped up and then I had to calm myself down. She approached our bench and sat next to me.

"Hey Ruben" she said in a slow tone

"Hey, what's the matter?" I said

"Oh...nothing" she said

"C'mon, don't lie. Tell me, I'll fix it" I said

"Eddy and I are back together" she said

I looked at her with my eyes gazing. I slowly turned my head away from her and looked straight ahead at the field in front of me.

"But Ruben, listen..." she continued

I just kept looking straight, ignoring her.

She kept talking. Quite frankly, I didn't want to hear it. I knew this was going to happen. I can't just open myself up to someone so fast. I mean, how stupid was I? This girl is a couple of years older than me and I have no chance. A part of me kept looking straight ahead to ignore her...but another part of me looked straight ahead because I had a huge lump in my throat. I'm too young to fall in love. This can't be happening, no, no, no.

"...and that's why you should keep talking to me Ruben..." she said

I looked at her for what seemed to be forever. I gazed into her eyes and just tried to build up enough courage to say anything. I took a deep breath and muttered three simple words.

"I love you" I told her

She looked down to the ground and then looked back up at me.

"Please go" I said

She held my hand for a couple of seconds and left. In that cold winter night I sat on the bench alone. I never had her, but I sure felt like I did. Every time I thought about letting her go the lump in my throat got bigger and it was getting harder to breathe. I let one big sigh out and along with it came a tear. I gritted my teeth and looked ahead at the game.

I don't want her.

I don't need her.

Why is there a frozen tear rolling down my cheek?

I shook it off and looked at the scoreboard. I had missed just about the first half of the game because I was just about ready to die. The referee blew the halftime whistle and it was still deadlocked at 0-0. They all looked pretty tired so as they headed towards the bench I handed out water.

"Lemme get that" said Eddy

I looked at him. He was the epitome of the word jealousy at that moment. I shot a look out of my eyes and glared at him. I had nothing against _him_ but so much against him.

"What the hell's your problem? Gimme some water man, I'm thirsty" he said

I threw the bottle at him and he caught it. I felt so defeated. I was handling it very immaturely; I didn't need anybody to tell me that. I guess that's the "ups and downs" that Coach told me about the other day. I mean, one day I'm on the field playing against our rivals and another day I'm just a measly little water boy sitting on the bench.

"Guys, we have the midfield on lock. Keep that shit up!" said Anthony

"He's right, boys. We need to find a way to penetrate their defense. Here's the plan...Steve, attack the middle. Kaio, attack the left. Louis, attack the right" said Coach

"What about me?" said Eddy

"Not tonight, Eddy. You haven't shown me much the first half. I want you to distribute the ball to these guys" he said

As Eddy frowned, a wicked little evil smile sprawled across my face.

"The hell you smiling at?" said Eddy

I didn't think anybody saw me. Uh-oh...

"uh, nothing" I said

The whole team looked at me; I'm usually not a topic of discussion at halftime.

"Everyone pay attention. You all have a job on the field. If we complete our job then we move on to the quarterfinals tomorrow. Understood? Let's keep it up!" said Coach

With that, we were dismissed. This game has just been completely awkward for me. I like Eddy, he's a good guy. Now he probably hates me. Oh well, what's important is that we win. Nothing else really matters at this point for both Eddy and I.

The midfielders definitely listened to Coach. All that was noticeable in the second half was the constant quick passing. Every pass crept us closer and closer to our opponent's goal. Steve was leading the attack without a doubt. Kaio and Louis were supporting him all the way down the field. It wasn't long before the Townies could capitalize on this. Kaio took the ball all the way from midfield and crossed it to Louis who laid it off to Steve. Steve struck it first-time and sunk it into the back of the net. Pierce Field suddenly shook with applause and this is the kind of attention that Steve thrives off of. He ran into the crowd and started flexing his muscles and all these weird celebrations.

"Get back and play the damn game, Ortiz" said Coach

Steve ran back after realizing he looked like a complete fool in front of everyone. Now this game turned into a defensive effort.

"Kaio, Louis, stay back in the midfield. Steve, stay up, you're the lone attacker!" said Coach

Basically what this did was add two more defenders to our team. There was absolutely _no way_ that this Coventry team would even get a shot on goal tonight. All of their attacks were being shot down in the midfield and they couldn't even put forward a solid attack. Soon this began to wear on Coventry. They were making stupid mistakes and fouls until they finally...well...gave up! Every ball they were kicking became a 40 yard shot on goal which was easy for Anthony to handle every time. This strategy of their just sucked up the clock and favored us. The Coventry coach didn't do much of anything to help the cause; he sat down and watched the time pass.

Before you knew it, the referee blew the whistle and the match had ended. Cheers erupted and Steve immediately ran towards the media. He is so egotistical, it's amazing. He must have done about five interviews before Coach finally plucked him from the cameras. Steve just stood there with his arms crossed and probably was boasting about his goal to the media and not giving any credit to Kaio and Louis for creating the goal for him.

"Step one, done" said Coach

Everyone began giving high fives to each other and then Coach continued his speech.

"Step two, three, and four await us" he said

It got quiet. Everyone knew he was completely over this game and was looking forward to our next game.

"Boys, this is a playoff schedule. The days are growing colder and the nights even more so. They are really packing in all the games in order to avoid blizzard like conditions. The next playoff game is tomorrow against Cumberland. Just remember, no fear. We do not possess fear. Get some rest tonight, eat well, do your homework, and wake up early tomorrow. The game is at 11 o'clock in the morning. Townies on three!" said Coach

1-2-3 Townies!

I'm not exactly sure how I felt about the playoff schedule. I like to sleep. Scratch that—I _love_ to sleep. As we were packing up our stuff and exiting Pierce Field I noticed Eddy kissing Nicole. I kind of just froze for a moment. I can do better than that; I don't need to be toyed with. One day she'll see and it'll just be too late. In fact, I can't wait until that day. I love proving people wrong. She was dead wrong to pick him over me. I don't know what she was thinking. I'll admit, I speak a tongue of jealousy but I have my reasons. This is the last that I'll look at her but it won't be the last of her and me. This just kind of has to be one of those "to be continued..." type of things

## Chapter 34

### Playoff Match-Quarterfinal

### October 17th, 2005

### East Providence vs. Cumberland

### 6-3-4

### W-L-T

We almost never have any day games. It's hard to break away from the normal. In fact, we've had one day game this season. It was against Coventry and we had lost that game. Today we didn't have any home field advantage. In fact, neither did Cumberland. We played at a neutral location. I guess both Coaches wanted their game at home and the league just decided to put it at a neutral location.

Today we faced Josh Sousa and his Cumberland squad. The last time we played them it was very difficult because of Josh. Anthony and Josh had a rivalry but this tops it off, this is playoff rivalry. This is do-or-die, sink-or-swim. Both Anthony and Josh understood that. This wasn't just going to be a walk in the park.

Coach brought us in for our pre-game talk.

"Fear... what is fear? Can anybody tell me?" asked Coach

He looked around and no one responded.

"Perfect answer" he said

"No one should know what fear is, we do not have that trait as Townies. Everywhere I go people ask me 'what's a townie?!' and all I can tell them is that I have a fine group of young men to represent that. A Townie can't be represented in words, only in actions. When you open the door for an elderly lady, you are a Townie. When you get great grades, you are a Townie. When you help someone, you are a Townie. A Townie is a limitless description of a person with good character and good goals. Today we just meet another challenge, boys. Today we face a team with a great capability of knocking us out of these playoffs but we must meet these challenges" said Coach

Kids were nodding their heads up and down; there was adrenaline and electricity flowing through this huddle. Even I had a tiny bit of a tingling sensation.

"Let's go out there and continue to prove everybody wrong. Townies on three!" said Coach

1-2-3 Townies!

Coach spoke very clearly about fear... but the only one I saw with fear in their eyes was him. Everyone else looked confident. He paced up and down while biting his nails. He's never like this, he's never scared.

"We've got it, Coach" I said

He looked at me, stopped biting his nails, and sat down calmly.

"Thanks, Ruben" he said

Maybe it's because this is the closest he's been to a championship in years and he wanted it so badly. It was so close that he could practically feel a championship trophy in his hands.

The referee blew the whistle and the match had finally begun. It was a physical match-up, that's for sure. Almost immediately, tackles began flying and words were being shared. Some referees tolerate it and some don't. For some reason, these referees were being very tolerant of it. Some of the nastiest tackles I've seen all year were happening on this field, from both teams.

"Calm down, play your game!" yelled Coach

There was no form or swagger to how our team was playing. We had some sort of rhythm but it wasn't getting us anywhere. Same was the case for Cumberland. The good thing we can take out of this is the fact that Josh Sousa was practically neutralized by Tyler Almeida. For the whole first half Cumberland only played the ball to Sousa and Tyler was always right there to stop him. Tyler is a great player, he's quiet, but he's great. It was hard to see if anybody was going to score at all because most of the play was occurring at midfield, hence why the game was so physical.

The Townies got their first lucky break shortly before halftime. Sousa was getting so frustrated with Tyler Almeida that he finally had an unnecessary foul. He pulled on Tyler's shirt so hard that he actually ripped it. The referee saw that as aggression and immediately gave Sousa a yellow card. This was a _stupendous_ advantage for us because not only was he already yellow carded but now he has to change his whole style of play in order to remain in the game. He couldn't be as aggressive or as tough as he always was. Also, while serving his suspension it opened up a brief window of opportunity for us. There was no pressure coming up the field so it gave us a brilliant chance to attack. Kaio and Louis seem to be working very nicely together lately as they both connected all the way up the field. Their teamwork led to the Townies first shot on goal by Eddy. He ripped a shot with laser-like abilities but he shot it right to the goalkeeper. He slammed his fist in frustration and quickly moved back to the field of play.

Sousa was put back in but not without a good talk with his Coach. His playing style was toned down considerably. He was not tackling nor attacking as aggressively as before and this only made Tyler's job a little easier. He was easy to contain for the rest of the half. This game was about as tight as it could get and it remained that way until the halftime whistle. Everybody gathered in and listened to Coach.

Coach remained silent and still. He looked around at every one of us and gazed into our eyes.

"I see hope" he said

He kept looking at everyone.

"I see an opportunity. The only problem with that is the fact that I'm not on the field. _You_ need the be the ones to see the opportunity" he said

He continued looking at everyone closely, he was examining for fear, and it was easy to tell.

"Not one of you look scared...that's about the best thing you guys have going for you. Keep your heads up and before you know it we'll be out of here and ready for a semi-final. I have no technical advice for you guys today. Keep doing what you're doing, it's working, I believe in it and I believe in you. On the field, move it" said Coach

Everyone slowly got up and headed back towards the field. It was easy to tell that everyone was beginning to get tired. They've played 120 minutes of soccer in the past 12 hours and it was beginning to show. Cumberland had a full weeks rest before playing us. This was going to come down to the wire.

The second half began and Cumberland looked like a whole new team. Sousa was put in the midfield instead of forward and he wasn't our biggest threat all of a sudden. It became the _four_ forwards that Cumberland put up front to attack that became our problem.

"Damnit, we can't do this by ourselves" said Tyler

"Kaio, Louis, move back to defense!" yelled Coach

By putting Kaio and Louis on defense it added a little more pressure on the four forwards to score but hardly gave _us_ a chance at attacking either. Cumberland began their attacks wave after wave. Each time that they failed they came back harder and closer to our goal.

"Tyler, don't let them through!" shouted Anthony

"I know, Anthony! It's getting hard though!" yelled Tyler back to Anthony

All it took was that small conversation to show one thing that the Townies hadn't had all game...fear.

The fear was beginning to settle in and at the wrong time too. Cumberland had plenty of time to score still and we were starting to get put back into a corner. It's not like we can escape with a tie today, either. Today _had_ to have a winner, by any means necessary. If we couldn't find a winner in regulation then it moves on to penalty kicks.

As the half moved on and our defense was getting more and more worn out, Cumberland was finally getting decent shots off, shots that Anthony actually had to make decent saves in order to keep them out of the box.

"Get the ball outta here!" yelled Anthony

He was getting more and more frustrated as the time kept going. He maintained a look of unhappiness throughout the match, he was nervous but now he is scared. Fear is spreading through the Townies and that was exactly what Coach was afraid of. Fear is our worst enemy at this point.

With only ten minutes left in regulation, Cumberland began to turn up the heat. They were getting a shot off every couple of minutes and each time they shot the ball I closed my eyes and hoped not to hear cheers from their bench. Due to the fact that it was a neutral location, there weren't many fans here at all. There were some Mothers and Fathers but no one from each school showed up to support them. It was kind of sad to see.

Finally after 80 minutes of play the referee blew his whistle to signal the end of the match and this match was coming down to penalty kicks.

"Captains, come here please!" shouted the referee

Anthony and Josh approached each other and shook hands.

"It's been hard fought but now we need a winner. Captains, get a five-player list from your Coaches to decide who will be taking the Penalty Kicks. The kicks will begin in two minutes. We also need to flip a coin to decide who will shoot first. East Providence, call it in the air" he said

The referee flipped the coin as Anthony called heads. The coin landed tails side up.

"Cumberland will shoot first, thank you gentlemen" said the referee

Coach already knew what to do. In fact, he had this list pre-planned. He handed me what looked to be a two-week old piece of paper. It was all crumbled up and had the ink splotched everywhere throughout the paper. He had names scratched on and off of it with little notes written to the side. I took a quick glance at who would be taking these final five kicks of this match. His list seemed pretty fair and not the least bit shocking.

## Shot-Takers

  1. ### Eddy 3) Kaio

  2. ### Louis 4) Steve

### 5) Anthony

For those that don't know, penalty kicks are quite simple. It is to see who can make the most kicks from the penalty spot in a best of five format. Each team kicks once per round in five rounds. The winner after five rounds wins the match. It's simple.

The first player to step up for Cumberland was number 13. He was a skinny and frail kid, didn't look too strong. He stepped up to take his shot. Anthony looked deep into him to find out where he was kicking this ball but came up with nothing. Cumberland sunk in their first shot.

Up came Eddy to take his shot. He looked ready but he was slow to move to the spot. Eddy always looked calm; he never really showed that much emotion. He knew the responsibility of taking Penalty Kicks because he usually takes them during games. He just might be our best kick taker.

He stepped up to the ball and delivered a hell of a rocket past the Cumberland goalkeeper. He simply turned and smiled. It was all tied up again.

Up next was one of Cumberland's most dominant players other than Josh. This kid was huge, about six feet tall if I had to guess. I know, six feet may not be much to everybody, but in soccer that's huge. He looked intimidating but not to Anthony. Anthony looked him dead straight in the eye. The Cumberland player stepped up to take the kick. He wound up and hit the ball so hard that I had to blink from reaction. I looked to see where the ball was and it was _not_ in the back of our net but 20 yards away from it. The Cumberland player had missed wide of the goal!

Our players began to cheer and the hope of the win was getting closer and closer. Up next was Louis. As Louis went up to take the kick he looked at Coach. I wonder if he questioned Coach's decision. Coach looked at him and gave him a nod. Louis was afraid. It was easy to see because he was shying away from taking the kick. He took his sweet little time in placing the ball and the goalkeeper had all the time in the world to get inside of his head. Louis took a deep breath and ripped a shot...right at the goalkeeper. The keeper saved it and the Cumberland side began to cheer. The score remained tied.

Louis walked back with his head hung low and nearly in tears.

"Relax...its okay" said Coach

The next Cumberland player walked up to take the shot. He looked good. Anthony tried to figure him out by moving left and right before he took the kick just to cover as much space as possible. The Cumberland player didn't even acknowledge Anthony. He simply stepped back, waited for the referee's whistle and took the kick. He nailed it into the lower right portion of the goal sending Anthony diving the other way. Anthony yelled out in frustration and what seemed to be our advantage quickly turned into our disadvantage. Cumberland was winning the penalty kicks by the slim but sure score of 2-1.

Kaio stepped up to take his kick. He is the only left footer on the team so his spot in the kick taking process is surely because of that reason. A left footer usually throws a keeper off balance and is almost a sure scorer. Kaio stepped up and took his kick further proving that theory. He sunk his kick into the upper left of the goal. The game was tied back up 2-2. The tensions were getting high; it was coming down to these last couple of kicks.

Oddly enough, the next match-up was goalie versus goalie. Cumberland's goalkeeper was the next to take the kick. Usually when a goalkeeper takes a penalty kick, it is out of sheer power. They basically practice their goal kicks into the net and that is their form of a penalty kick. This goalkeeper was much different. Anthony was expecting a hard high shot but this keeper just swiftly tucked it into the lower left of Anthony. This further led to Anthony's frustration. Cumberland took the lead, 3-2.

Steve Ortiz was next to take the kick. I can't imagine how badly his ego would be shot if he missed this. It's kind of a win-win situation, except I sincerely do wish that he makes it. He never really looked into the keepers eyes. He stayed staring at the ball and he knew what he wanted. He got what he wanted. He drilled the ball in to tie the score at 3-3.

This was it; this was the last round of kicks to be taken. Cumberland saved their best for last...Josh Sousa. Once again, it came down to the same theme that had been going on that entire match. It was Anthony versus Josh all over again. They are teammates outside of high school soccer but on this field today, it was strictly business. Just as Sousa was about to take the kick, he stopped in his tracks. He mumbled a word to the referee and slowly approached Anthony. He stuck out his hand and they shook hands. It was probably one of the greatest signs of respect that I had ever seen on a soccer field, it was brilliant. As they walked away from each other, he came in and got ready to take the kick. If Anthony saved this, the Townies would be one score away from winning. Sousa wound up to take the kick and kicked a screamer to the right side of Anthony. Anthony took a quick dive and got his hand to the ball. The ball smashed from his hand to the post...and in. Cumberland took the lead 4-3.

The emotions were drained off of our faces as soon as that ball trickled in. Anthony gave it his all and nearly won that battle. He stayed down on the ground in disbelief that it went in. Sousa went over to him to help him up and gave him a quick slap on the butt in good sportsmanship.

It just had to come down to this. The last person to take the kick was Anthony. As he walked towards the penalty spot he all of a sudden had changed perspectives. His objective was to put it into the same net he was trying to defend so valiantly moments ago. He took off his gloves and rolled up the sleeves of his shirt. He looked back at us and took a deep breath. He was nervous; he didn't want to be the reason why we couldn't advance. He turned and faced the goalkeeper. This goalkeeper had scored on him earlier and now would be a perfect time to avenge his defeat. Anthony put the ball down and kissed it. He slowly backed away from the ball. The referee blew his whistle and Anthony continued to stall. Finally, he ran up to the ball and hit it with all his might. I didn't have my eyes open when this happened because of nervousness but when I opened them I saw one of the saddest sights possible. Our leader, our captain, our hero was down on both knees in disbelief and tears. The ball was saved by the goalkeeper and this was the end. The Townies had lost by a score of 4-3.

Cumberland began to cheer and they piled up on top of each other as we solemnly headed towards our goalkeeper to help him up. Tears weren't being shed on our part except for Anthony. We did the best we could do and I believe everyone knew that.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry!" said Anthony, choked up in tears

"No, no, relax...relax" said Coach

Everyone was gloomy and there were barely any words spoken as we headed towards the back of the bus. These are just one of the moments inside of this beautiful sport that is undefined by writing. The emotion of being heartless and torn apart isn't something you can read about but you must feel it. The Townies left with pride and dignity, and no playoff loss could ever take that away from us.

## Chapter 35

Today was the awards banquet at our school. All of the fall sports were invited to accept their letter recognitions of being involved in a varsity sport. Each sport's coach got to come up and give a short speech about his team and hand out the certificates. I couldn't believe I was at this event. It was mostly filled by football players but soccer was there as well. Today was the first day I've seen my teammates in over a week since we lost the playoff game. Everyone was still bitter about it, it was easy to tell.

After sitting through about an hour of boring speeches by the 30 billion football teams we apparently had, it was finally time for Coach Andrade to come up and speak about our team.

"Courage" he said and looked around at the audience

"Courage is what it takes to make non-believers believe. Courage is what it takes to make champions. Courage is what it takes to present opportunities. These boys had nothing but courage" he said

The audience began clapping.

"Townie Pride is a definition we use everyday to describe our actions within this very building. From every good deed to every assignment, we do it with pride. Not with just any pride, Townie Pride. These young men are fine examples of what hard work is like. Each and every one of them displayed heart and courage on the field. Tonight, I'd like to thank them for what they have accomplished. The events that took place this season taught us all something. I'd like to present this year's varsity letters to the 2005/2006 Men's Soccer team!" said Coach

We all stood up to receive our certificates and were greeted with applause. As I got my certificate, Coach shook my hand and gave me a gentle smile.

"I told you it'd be worth it" he said

I took his words with joy and lined up for a picture. As the lights were flashing I couldn't help but think of what the future had in store. Either way, I would do it with Townie Pride. I would do everything from this day forth with Townie Pride, and I won't live without it. It will be a principle for everything I do. I want to be able to die however many years from now with a heart that will live on forever...the heart of a Townie.

### Note from the author

(12.21.08)

I'm four days away from Christmas. Four days, that's it. I'm in shorts, a t-shirt, and sandals. Needless to say, I'm no longer in Rhode Island. A lot has happened since the end of that season. My very inspiration to write this book came from not being able to continue high school as a Townie. As I progressed in school after that soccer season, my grades became better and better. I looked to further my education rather than my athleticism. I moved to Charlestown, Rhode Island for my sophomore year. It was one of the hardest moves in my life, but it definitely set up the foundation that I needed to continue to strive. I later was presented with an opportunity to move to Houston, Texas and attend Kingwood High School. Kingwood High School is a very achieving school and they set my future up one assignment at a time. I'm about to finish high school, I'm entering my second semester in my senior year. East Providence was a long time ago in my life, but I must admit that a part of me lingers to be there. I miss the spontaneity of it all. The random pick-up games, the culture, the diversity. Sometimes you just have to sacrifice one great thing for greater things.

When _The Heart of a Townie_ released, great things came from it. _NEVER_ in my life would I have expected that much of a turnout of sales. I am not a writer, I am just a teenager. After I'm done typing this up, I'll be right back to texting and laying down on the sofa. It doesn't take a special person to do special things. I hope this book inspired people to think outside of the box and find great ways to express themselves. It doesn't have to be writing, it can be poetry, music, art, etc.

If you're young and reading this...stop. Put the book down, and create your own story. It's great to read about people but the best story in this world...is _yours_. You'll learn more about yourself with a pen and paper than you will with anything else.

-Ruben Rodrigues

Published 2008

ISBN: 978-0-557-00572-7

The right of Ruben Rodrigues to be identified as the

author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance

with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be

reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or

transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical,

photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written

permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorized

act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal

prosecution and civil claims for damages.

Printed and bound in the United States of America.

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not,

by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out,

or otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior consent

in any form of binding or cover other than that in which

it is published and without a similar condition including this

condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

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