Friday Night firsts

Last night I experienced a first...I cried...because we won.  I know, I know that it sounds weird.  But that's what happened.  It wasn't the first time I cried because of the result of a game, but that was because I was young...and we lost.  I've never cried because my team won.

I was at the Berkner Varsity football game against Naaman Forest High School.  The game was close, with Berkner ahead until right after half time.  For all of the third quarter, and 9 minutes of the fourth quarter, we were behind 15-13.  The offense was having difficulty moving the ball, and it seemed that after the half, the other team had made adjustments, but our coaches hadn't.  

Due to some miracle, the Rangers made it to the one yard line, but our defense (who'd played their best game ever) stopped them.  The Rangers were forced to kick a field goal.. If they'd made it, we would've been five points behind, still a possibility of winning.  However, they had a penalty that forced them back, and their kicker missed the field goal attempt.  We were still at 15-13.

Then, with 3 minutes left in the game, we got the ball at our 25 yard line.  After 3 VERY INTENSE downs, we found ourselves at 4th and 9 at our 35 yard line.  Knowing how hard they had tried to move the ball, we figured that we'd gone as far as we could, but it was over.  Miraculously though, it wasn't over yet.  

Our wide receiver hooked around the back as the ball was snapped and made his way to the outside, only to find that the defense had expected it.  He switched directions, and thanks to the wonderfully resilient, offensive line ran all the way to the Rangers side of the field and the first down.  The stands were going wild, and no one (I mean NO ONE) sat for the rest of the game.  Finally, in the last two minutes of the game, the running back found the HUGE hole made by our offensive line, and ran through it to score the winning touchdown.  After a bit of miscommunication, we ended up going for the two point conversion, and making it.  We were up 21-15 with less than a minute left in the game.  Again, the defense stepped up and shut down the offense of the Rangers.  

That was THE MOST stressful last minutes of a game I have EVER experienced.  

I cried because...

* Jason was there (but he wasn't) to see the fruits of Jack's hard work over the last few years,

* Jack (and his team) refused to give up when things looked bleak,

* I was so proud of how hard the whole team worked,

* this was Jack's first win as a varsity player,

* it was stressful.

So last night was definitely a first.  I'm sure many of you have experienced the same thing.