by Shilo Dawn Goodson

Created on: May 06, 2011

As the girl came barreling towards me, I suddenly became very scared. This girl was huge. Being an inch short of five feet tall and seventeen years old, most people are tall to me, but this girl was abnormally tall and as she got closer to me, I knew that I was going to have to try and stop this girl resembling an NFL linebacker from getting the ball from me.

I looked towards the goal. Then I looked over at the NFL linebacker lookalike. She was the only thing between me and what could potentially be my last high school soccer goal. I wanted this goal so badly.

As the girl got closer to me, I faked to the right. She followed my fake, and I went around her on the other side. Being only a few feet from the goal, I decided to take the shot. As my foot connected with the ball, I felt something resembling someone’s elbow connect with the back of my head. As I flew forward, my head connected with the goal post and I was out.

As I became conscious again, I felt incredible pain in my nose. I felt blood running down the side of my face. I have no medical training, but I was pretty sure my nose was broken.  I heard voices all around me, but I didn’t want to open my eyes yet. I started to sit up, but I felt someone gently push me back down.

“They’re on their way with the medical kit,” I heard a voice I recognized as belonging to Samantha, our center forward.

“Did it go in?” I asked, knowing I should probably be more concerned about my face than about if the goal had gone in.

“Yes,” Samantha said, and as I opened my eyes, I could see her smiling and shaking her head as a lady showed up with the medical kit.

I winced as she started to wipe the blood off the side of my face, but I felt a certain amount of satisfaction. I might not be able to finish the game, and even if my team won the game and went on to the state finals, I might not be able to play in the game. None of that mattered right now, though. I had scored the goal.

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