Have Faith and Believe
From 1918 to 2003, true Red Sox fans faced disappointment. Year after year, despite having the talent of players such as Ted Williams, Carlton Fisk and Carl Yastrzemski, they would leave their fans upset but pledging that next year would be the year when they would not lose the last game of the season.
I first learned how all my hopes and dreams for a final victory were in 1975 when the Red Sox faced the Cincinnati Reds in the World Series. Eleven years later, I was again crushed when they fell to the New York Mets. Each year, they would promise to be successful but leave us gutted. Who can forget the final games against the Yankees in 2003?
Those of us who followed the Sox before 2004 had to develop the habit of recovering quickly from the deep devastation that occurred every year in September or October.
There is not much difference between being a Sox fan over that 86-year drought and being a JV 1 Soccer fan this year, except that the devastation arrives twice weekly. Yet, we must have Faith and Believe that we will turn around in the next game.
Spirits were high during the warmup. The weather was a balmy 38 degrees, snow was falling for the first time this fall, and the boys were blasting Christmas tunes: Let it Snow. Let it Snow. Let it Snow!
We had shots in the first two minutes from Adi Lesbek and John Guillemot that were saved. Then we had a bizarre play. Henry Steffen had to come out of the box to kick the ball up the field. We failed to recover it, and New Hampton kicked it back at the goal before Henry could recover. The goal surprised both teams.
We had many opportunities to get on the board, including two Penalty Kicks, but we could put nothing in the net.
For the first thirty minutes of the second half, we continued along the same pattern. Carter Freund, Adi, Mikey Winham, and Aiden Bean all had shots.
Finally, John receives the ball deep in the corner and chips it in the middle. We saw this same chip on Saturday against Cardigan, but in that game, the ball bounced off the far post. This time, the ball curved in before the far post. It was an incredible shot!
This play was enough to get the boys motivated, and three minutes later, Mikey sent a long ball up to Adi, who tipped a finesse shot past the goalkeeper to put us ahead. John had an attempt to go one-on-one with the goalie, but this time, his shot deflected off the top bar. Two minutes later, there was a melee in front of our net, and New Hampton tied things up.
And this is when the wheels fell off.
With fewer than sixty seconds left in the game, we again found the ball in front of our net. New Hampton took advantage and put in the winning goal. We lost again.
So, we must rally and say, “Wait ‘til next…game! We Believe. We have Faith”. A team with this much talent needs to believe that they have the capacity to pull off a season-ending, not unlike the Red Sox finally did in 2004.
