Rain clearing, Reunion, and Restraint Marked Our Second Match With Newport
Jay Gatsby, on the morning before reuniting with Daisy, miserably watched the rain pour down on the fresh cut lawn. The weather did not bode well for his plans.
This morning of Parents’ Weekend was overcast and the rain started with earnest as we skipped over and meandered around puddles on our way to class. There was a nervous tension amongst the coaches that the rain would continue throughout the afternoon and spoil our reunion with Newport.
It was just over a month ago that we met in Newport to play our first game of the year. We did well and left with a 4-0 victory. The competition was well matched and the Tiger’s goalkeeper foiled many of our attempts to increase our total score. My hope for the day was to follow up this exciting win with a repeat performance. But as always, literary characters tap me on my shoulder and whisper their wisdom in my ear. It was Nick Carraway who reproached me for such arrogance, just as he had Gatsby: “You can’t repeat the past.” But I wanted to believe in Jay’s dream, and so I incredulously cried back his words, “Can’t repeat the past?.....Why of course you can.” Today’s game would teach us who was correct.
In addition to being a soccer game, today’s match (along with every other on campus) was a celebration of life within the long fought battle against cancer; therefore, every player was sporting a pink uniform shirt to support the Play for a Cure. We were like Finny in John Knowles’s novel A Separate Peace, who donned his own pink shirt: “This,” he then answered with some pride, “is going to be my emblem...to celebrate.” And so the lower fields were filled with the vibrant pink of our uniforms, socks, and hair.
As the start time arrived, the 70% chance of rain had not appeared. Just as it had in The Great Gatsby when Daisy and Jay finally met, the rain had stopped. After winning another coin toss, we started. Immediately, Newport gained the ball and moved it into our end and took a shot on Jimmy; he stopped it and kicked it back to half. Levy Byrd took control of the pass and moved into Newport’s end while Ethan Levine kept in step. Levy sent the ball to Ethan and, with a swift cross in front of the net, we were on the boards with less than a minute of game time spent. Almost immediately, Levy took another drive up the middle and wove his way through the defense before kicking the ball into the far corner. A couple of minutes later, Phil Kessler sent a long cross from the corner that Alex Ives received in the box and finessed in for number three. In fewer than five minutes of play, we were up 3-0. This game was different; for one thing, the goalkeeper was not the same player who had shut down so many of our shots before. The word was that he was out of the game with a mild concussion.
Again the Wildcats took control of the ball and Phil, in a duplicated move, drew the defense out of the box toward him in the corner before he sent a lofting cross to Levy who drove the fourth point in from just outside the eighteen. It was then Levy who dumped the next drive over the heads of the defense so that Ethan could show off his demigod prowess by racing past them, controlling the pass, and tapping the ball into the net.
Only seven minutes had lapsed.
A line change brought similar excitement. Alex Wesoja complemented Phil’s left side drives with his own down the right. He beat two players and sent a cross into the middle that the keeper was able to control. Alex Ussler followed up with a blast from the eighteen that was also stopped. Arthur Hwang, through his classic, fancy footwork, controlled the ball before chipping it into an awaiting Alex Regnery who headed the ball into the low corner.
Lest you think all the work was with the offense; several players in the backfield also showed off their talents. Parker Hall had an outstanding afternoon. He was quick, but knew when to hesitate and when to attack. His smart patience allowed him to shut down every attack that entered into his area of the field. One of note was a one-on-one that looked as if he might not gain control; however, at the last second the winger let loose a cannon. Parker spun in full flight and deflected the blast with his back, and thus thwarted the advance. It was a creative defense that worked. In addition Jay Cogan, Nate Wilson, Tommy Jenkins, and David Hahn successfully kept the shots on Jimmy Tokanel to a minimum.
With minutes left in the half, Alex Wesoja drove up the side and into the corner. He saw Ethan inside the box and sent a beautiful lofting cross that Ethan expertly pushed in with the side of his foot to earn a hat trick for the afternoon.
So at half with seven goals to our credit, we ventured down to the end line to plan our strategy for the second period. Coach Custer’s speech was pointed: he stressed character and sportsmanship; respect and competitive fair play. It looked as though we were probably going to win, but he explained that the next forty minutes would test our abilities in these areas.
“Restraint!” I heard whispering in my ear. Another literary figure was tapping at my shoulder. It was the voice of Charlie Marlow from Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, and he was looking at our boys “as you would on any human being, with a curiosity of their impulses, motives, capacities, weaknesses. Restraint!” Could we do it I wondered. I looked at our boys at rest, listening to Coach. Would they follow his sage advice? Marlow’s voice harped, “These chaps too [have] no earthly reason for any kind of scruples. Restraint! I would just as soon have expected restraint from a hyena prowling among the corpses of a battlefield.”……….Marlow’s assessment of our players didn’t quite fit with those of our own lot, so I forced him back into that morass of fictional characters who inhabit my mind. I had full confidence that our squad would follow the Coach’s directives.
And my confidence was well placed. Although we continued to make drives up the field and take shots, we were conscientious. Five minutes in, Alex Ussler was able to beat the defense on one drive up to the right corner and crossed it to Alex Regnery who just missed the goal with a header. Arthur, on his drive, paused just long enough to see Regs who was set up again inside. Arthur chipped a pass and Regs put in his second header for the day.
The skills of working as a team were evident this half. It was fun to watch the give- and-go of Adam Kitchen and Regs and Arthur and Alex Ussler. Jay and Tommy got a chance to work in the midfield and they did a great job. Patrick Zhou was wise in the box and knew when to come out to shut down drives. David Hahn was bolder than usual and tried his hand at not only challenging the ball, but also dribbling through the defense. Robert Raymond on defense used his speed and foot strength to set up our offense. Andre Schirding played up front and got past the defense on a dump-and-run, but had his sweet shot stopped by the Tiger’s goalkeeper. Then Phil Kessler set Andre up with his own cross, but this just skipped wide of the far post.
With less that three minutes to play, Sawyer Constantine, after getting a hit to the ribs, took our direct kick from about thirty yards out. What resulted was a shot I wish we had on tape. He perfectly sent the ball up over all the defenders and the keeper and into the top corner of the far post.
As we gathered at the end, wearing our pink “emblems,” to congratulate each other on a successful day, the words of Nick Carraway held more truth than Jay Gatsby’s. You can’t repeat the past, but what you make of the present will determine what sort of team you are. I’m proud to say that these young men performed admirably today.
