Settle the Score by Alex Morgan Page A

adrenaline before. This was it! The championship! And now that I knew that Zoe and I would always be friends, no matter what, I could concentrate on the game.
    So I was a little disappointed when Coach Darby didn’t put me in to start. She didn’t send Jessi in either. We sat on the bench and watched the first quarter, but I tried not to get too freaked out about it. I knew by now that Coach Darby had a plan in mind.
    Jamie, Kelly, and Sasha started as forwards, and Jamie was on fire. She got the ball away from one of the Gators and charged down the field, making a goal attempt in the first two minutes of the game! The Gators’ goalie blocked it, but Jamie was right back on the ball. She passed it to Sasha and then got clear for Sasha to pass it back to her. When she aimed for the goal a second time, the ball whizzed past the goalie’s outstretched arms.
    Jamie had made the first score of the game! Jessi and I launched off the bench, cheering and whooping for her. I could hear Emma, Frida, and my whole family screaming “Go, Jamie!” from the stands. Jamie flashed me the biggest smile ever as she took her place back on the field. She was the only one to score during the whole quarter, and the Griffons were up by one.
    In the second quarter Coach Darby replaced the whole front line with me, Jessi, and Mirabelle. I knew that between the first three starters and us, we were probably the six strongest players on the team, and I wondered what Coach Darby’s strategy was going to be.
    I was so pumped to be on the field! When the quarter started, I got control of the ball. Right away Grace and another Gator were on top of me. I turned my back on them to avoid them and dribbled to the left, but I couldn’t shake them. At the same time I kept my eyes open for my teammates, to see if I could pass.
    Jessi ran into my line of sight, and I kicked the ball right between the two Gators. They weren’t expecting the move, and Jessi took the ball down the field.
    I charged down after her, and Jessi passed it back to me. I saw Zoe rocketing toward me, and I got rid of the ball really fast, sending it to Mirabelle.
    Mirabelle took it to the goal line and then passed it back to Jessi before the Gators defenders could steal it from her. Jessi sent it flying into the goal. She scored! Now we were up by two points!
    A few minutes later Mirabelle had a shot at the goal. This time the goalie caught it. Then the goalie stood there, scoping the field as she decided who to pass it to.
    â€œHey!” Coach Darby called out. “That’s more than six seconds! Come on, Ref!”
    The goalie’s mistake should have been called a foul—and given us a penalty shot. But hearing Coach Darby, the goalie quickly tossed the ball back into play, and the ref didn’t call the foul.
    â€œUnbelievable!” Coach Darby fumed, and I wasn’t too happy either. The last thing we needed was a ref who wasn’t paying attention.
    The Gators were still down by two points, and they started fighting back hard. They kept passing the ball to Zoe, who did her thing of zigging and zagging past our defenders. She made the next score of the game against Zarine at the goal. I wasn’t happy about that, exactly, but if somebody had to score against us, I was glad that it was Zoe!
    The first half ended with a score of Griffons 2, Gators 1, so we were a pretty hopeful team as we regrouped on the sidelines.
    â€œJamie, Sasha, and Kelly, you’re back in,” Coach Darby said. “Devin, Jessi, and Mirabelle, stay limbered up. I’ll be putting you guys in last quarter.”
    I nodded. She did have a strategy, just as I’d thought. I anxiously watched the third quarter from the sidelines. Would the Griffons keep our lead?
    The answer was—no. Jamie scored again, but the Gators scored a whopping three goals.
    â€œMan, their coach must have given them some pep talk,” Jessi whispered to me.
    So the