Lax By The Sea
Go Hornets and Go Greenheads!
June 22, 2011 – It’s the morning after my first Greenheads game since that fateful afternoon in Hingham in 2007 when my right knee was destroyed. So, last night in Woburn my nerves were on edge when I took to the field. In 2010 the 040 ‘Heads had lost to the Bald Eagles 6 – 0 so we were all expecting a rough season opener.
A fast goal for the good guys helped calm things down. Soon after I bagged an unsettled feed from X to pop in a 2-0 lead. Damn, this is fun! Suddenly, on my first shift where I had to chase down another middie in transition my right hamstring hurt. Easing into my first full field sprint I’d pulled it! Oh no – my #1 assett, ability to run fast for long periods, was gone. On the sideline I was soon joined by Kyle who had popped his shoulder and couldn’t feel his hand. Hmm, this is what happens in the 1st period when old people play full contact sports!
Both Kyle and I were able to go back in. We only had six middies so I had to pull my weight, but only running at 50-75% was pretty underwhelming. Fortunately, there was no shortage of tired middles so I was able to do slightly more than fill space, just not a lot. The score went up to 6-3 though we had a lot penalties including two ‘too many men on the field’ technicals. I was responsible for one of those. We did score goal #6 during a 2 minute man down situation. The bad guys had an injured player acting as coach and that paid some dividends for them – particularly at the end of the game.
With 3 minutes left the score was 6-3 and we’re feeling pretty confident. With 2 minutes left the score was 6-5 and we’re feeling pretty pissed off. That’s when the hurt player coach dude calls for a stick check on Lance “FOGO” Walker’s famously illegal wand. This lead to an exchange of FU’s while it was confirmed that the FOGO stick was illegal by 1/4″ short! We were all amazed when the ball rolled out of the super pinched head so it was the 1/4″ issue that got us man down for the last 2 minutes with a one goal lead. Lot’s more FU’s were exchanged during the drama, but in the end the baldies were not able to score and were ultimately humbled by the noble Heads!
Fun was had by all and the 2011 040 season sputtered to fine start!
