Friday, November 25, 2022

Class M State Championship Game

After the first game of the season, as Emily and I were walking to the car, her coach was chatting with her about being moved up to Class M. She said something like "I've looked all these teams and we can beat every one of them. But I want Mercy in the finals." Mercy is the all girls Catholic school just down the road from our house, the school that our girls *should* have gone to, but didn't want to. There was no doubt that Emily wanted to play Mercy too, but it was so far away and things would have to line up perfectly, so we never gave it another thought.  
Fast forward two and half months - NWC and Mercy were on opposite sides of the bracket, so if they were going to meet in the tournament, it could only be in the final game. Although Mercy had a scare in the quarterfinals, they survived to play on, and put their worst game behind them. So, on November 19th, the two Catholic schools met in the Class M State Finals.


Starting line ups taking the field and being announced. This is the second year in a row that the state championship games were played at Dillon Stadium, home to our semi-pro team. Another club teammate of Emily's played for Mercy and she knew and/or played with/against every member of the starting lineup.





Emily defending against an All New England player - that she's known since they were in preschool together.
After an offensive onslaught that lasted more than ten minutes (which a Mercy parent later told me was the most incredible effort he'd ever seen against their team), NWC scored, off of a beautiful header from a freshman. Mercy's goalie is a two time All American, so they knew that scoring was going to be difficult, making this goal even sweeter.
It was 1-1 at the half and stayed that way until there was less than 20 minutes to go - Mercy struck for a second time to make it 2-1. With 10 minutes left, a Mercy forward (who was named game MVP) deftly fielded a ball around Emily and the two raced more than 50 yards down the field to the goal. Emily caught her, but couldn't get in front of her and the score was 3-1. It was brutal to watch. After playing her best game only a few days earlier, Emily played an average game in front of a thousand people, many of whom she knew. 
When the game ended, she just sobbed.
The NWC defense, after not allowing a single goal in the entire tournament, let in three in one game.
Even Kennedy couldn't stop her tears.

It was a particularly hard night and few days. She didn't want to go to school on Monday because she was so embarrassed and upset, but made it through. Last year, the girls knew they would have another shot, but this time around, I don't think that they will get back to the tournament, never mind the finals game. They will be moved up yet another class for the tournament and they are losing one of the best players in New England - a special player we have watched in awe for three years. The hole she will leave will be impossible to fill.

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