“Come on, Janine, look alive out there!” George yelled. Minutes later, Forsythe scored a second point when Janine let another shot slip past her into the net.
By now George was running up and down the sideline, encouraging the girls. But Kate did next to nothing. She sat, strangely quiet, on the players’ bench.
“George really puts on a show out there,” Bess said to Nancy. “Watching her is worth the price of admission.”
“Right now she probably wishes she could go out there and play,” said Nancy.
Gradually the Pineview team started to come alive. In the closing seconds of the half, they finally scored, cutting the Forsythe lead to 2-1. The girls seemed a little more spirited as they came off the field, but Kate was very rough on them.
“I don’t know what’s happening to you, girls. I see selfishness out there. A lack of teamwork. You’re not the same team I coached at the beginning of the season. If you play this way in Canada, Pineview will be the laughingstock of the competition.”
Some of the girls looked at each other. A few nodded in agreement. Others acted as if they didn’t care.
“Well, if you girls don’t care,” Kate continued, “I don’t, either. Do whatever you want out there during the second half. I’m going back to the bus.”
With that, Kate left the circle of players and walked across the field to the bus. The girls were stunned as they watched their coach leave. No one uttered a sound. Finally, George walked to the center of the circle. She looked around at the downcast group. The Forsythe team was already coming back onto the field.
“Are we going to blow a whole season because no one feels like playing?” George yelled. “Or because we’ve got other things on our minds? Apparently Coach Boggs thinks we are. How about proving her wrong? Any athlete worth her salt knows that no game is easy. But she also knows she has to put her personal feelings aside. She has to go out and play her best.”
The girls looked at George. They were listening carefully. George smiled at them. “I want to see some tough defense,” she said. “Crisp passing. And good shots. Let’s show them why Pineview is going to win the Canadian Cup!”
George’s pep talk seemed to light a fire under the girls. They jumped to their feet, screaming, “Go! Go! Go! Go!” all together. The starters took the field.
Janine walked slowly toward the goal. One of the other girls ran past, put a hand on her shoulder, and said, “Come on, Janine, let’s see a little hustle.”
Janine raised her head and broke into a brisk trot to the goal. She smoothed out a small dirt area in front of the net and finally looked ready. Shortly after the start of the period, she made a beautiful diving save to her right, grabbing the hard shot in midair. She landed with a thud, but bounced right back up and booted the ball half the length of the field.
A teammate caught the ball and headed it toward the opposite goal. A Pineview halfback picked it up and passed it to a forward who tied the game with a hard shot into the right-hand corner of the Forsythe net.
To their credit, Forsythe didn’t give up. The game stayed tied until the final two minutes, but the battling Forsythe team wouldn’t quit. When one of their forwards got past Leslie Phillips and came in on goal alone, it looked as if they might get the winning tally. But Janine took three quick steps to her left. She dived to the ground and just managed to get her fingertips on the ball to knock it away. Then she leapt to her feet and again threw herself on the loose ball before a Forsythe player could reach it.
Janine had made a brilliant save. She quickly threw the ball up the middle to one of her halfbacks. Another quick pass and Paula LeGere had the ball again on the right side. She launched a centering pass to about forty feet in front of the goal.
Celia Warren settled the ball after one bounce. She made a perfect pass to Denise Rogers. Denise took the pass and blasted the winning score into the left corner of the net. Pineview had won the game, 4-3. But they’d made what should have been an easy game into a fierce struggle for survival.
Clinching a spot in the Canadian Cup Tournament seemed to change the team’s mood completely. There was shouting and singing on the way back to Pineview School. The moodiness of the earlier trip and the near-accident were almost forgotten. The only unhappy person on the bus was Kate Boggs.
“I let them down,” she said to Nancy. “I let my own feelings get in the way of my coaching. I’ve never done that before. That only proves that getting out is the right decision after all. If George hadn’t talked to them the way she did, I don’t know if they would have come back.”
“Don’t be so hard on yourself,” said Nancy. “It’s been a rough few days for everyone.”
“It’s been more than a few days,” Kate said. “I know we all make mistakes, but some of us regret them more than others.”
Nancy looked at the coach, confused. Was Kate Boggs admitting to something? It was impossible to tell.
When the bus rolled into the Pineview parking lot there were banners everywhere:
Canadian Cup Champs
Good Luck in Canada
Let’s Win the Big One
The Cup or Bust
It looked as if the entire school had gathered to meet the team. The students had prepared a surprise victory party in the gym. There were refreshments, a sound system blaring rock music, and a huge poster with all the scores from the season’s games. As the girls jumped off the bus, they grinned and shook their index fingers in the air, the traditional sign meaning, “We’re number one!” The teachers and students clapped and cheered. The school was certainly behind its soccer team.
The team members’ faces shone as they entered the gym. “All right!” one of them shouted to the others. “Let’s party!”
Suddenly Kelly Lewis appeared in the doorway. She wasn’t smiling. She hesitated, like an unwanted guest waiting to be invited inside. As the girls noticed Kelly standing there, the mood of the party started to swing down once again.
Leslie Phillips was the first to go up to Kelly. “What happened to you?” she asked her friend.
“I missed the bus,” Kelly said. “I’m sorry. But I’m glad you guys won.”
Several other girls walked up to Kelly. They pulled her into the gym. But it was obvious that tension was in the air once more.
Nancy looked over at Janine. She’d been happy coming back on the bus. Now she was no longer smiling. She seemed to be shrinking away from everyone.
Before anyone else could say anything, Kate Boggs reappeared. She had been down in the equipment room. She saw Kelly across the gym floor and gave her a cold stare. Then she walked quickly toward her.
“Young lady,” Kate said, “you owe us all an explanation. And it had better be good.”
“I missed the bus,” Kelly repeated. “I’m sorry.”
“ ‘I’m sorry,’ isn’t good enough,” Kate snapped. Her voice echoed in the suddenly quiet gym. “You let this team down. One of the most important games we’ve ever had and you missed the bus. I want to know why.”
Kelly look at her coach. She was on the verge of tears.
