Unlike Mark Diaz, I couldn’t look away from Saturday afternoon’s boys soccer shootout between No. 2 Scarborough and No. 4 Greely. If the ground had opened up and swallowed the visiting bleachers at Scarborough High, I wouldn’t have noticed.
After 110 minutes of scoreless soccer, the two best teams in Western Class A were headed to penalty kicks to determine a champion.
Diaz, the Scarborough coach, refused to watch. Two years ago the Red Storm lost to Mount Ararat when the game went to a shootout, so Diaz knows what it’s like to have a season hinge on a guessing game played by the two goalies.
“I guess you’ve got to end it somehow, but there’s got to be a better way,” said Diaz. “So I’m not a fan. It’s too much pressure on the keepers and the guys who take them. I don’t like it as their last memory in soccer. You get to this point and that’s your last memory?”
There’s no point in disputing the fact that shootouts are unfair, so I won’t try. Scarborough finished the regular season with a 12-1-1 record and then beat Deering and Gorham (less than 24 hours before playing Greely) to advance to the Western final. The Rangers, who finished 8-2-4, knocked off No. 1 Westbrook to get to the finals.
Neither team deserved the potentially devastating fate that awaited it, but that was partly what made the shootout so enthralling.
Last-minute drives in football games are exciting. Same with bottom-of-the-ninth, bases-loaded situations in baseball. But there is nothing more nerve-racking and riveting than a shootout situation in a soccer game.
When you’re watching a shootout, there is guaranteed to be something important on the line because only playoff soccer games go further than a double overtime period. And when that shootout occurs after a 0-0 game, there is even more anticipation.
The players are tired and frustrated and nervous that they’ll be the one to miss the net or pick the wrong side to shoot to. The crowd is goal-thirsty and nervous because it cares about the players but it can’t do anything to help them.
So everyone waits as the referees gather the shooting lists from the coaches and clear the areas behind the goals. And the anticipation builds.
On Saturday, as I moved from the press box down to the field to get a closer look at the action, I was approached by Scarborough HS principal Andrew Dolloff. Noticing that I had stationed myself in front of a swelling crowd of flag-waving Scarborough students, he suggested that I find a new place to stand.
He understood the situation. He knew that the students were starving, that their anticipation was building. And he knew that I’d be trampled by a surging wave of teenagers if Scarborough won the shootout. So, I stepped aside and, after someone in the rowdy mob yelled that I was in their way, I took a knee.
Without looking at my notes, I don’t remember much about the next 10 minutes.
As a high school running back everything became a blur when I touched the football – legs and arms flying everywhere, no memories of specific plays. In the subsequent years, as I’ve switched from participant to spectator, not much has changed.
During pressure-packed situations I get lost in the moment. I was at the 2001 AFC Championship game when Adam Vinatieri booted a field goal in the snow against the Oakland Raiders, but I only remember celebrating with my friends. If I hadn’t seen the replay so many times, I probably wouldn’t remember that Keith Foulke fielded the final out in the clinching game of the 2004 World Series.
Saturday afternoon, as the temperature dropped and the sky darkened, I was lost in the moment. I didn’t have a rooting interest, but I was a bundle of nerves.
As I look back at my notes I am transported back to the moment…
Scarborough’s Taylor Sabo shoots first and he scores with a perfectly-placed shot into the upper right corner.
Greely’s Tyler O’Rouke is next; he goes for the upper right corner, but Scarborough goalie Derek Poulin times his guess perfectly and punches the ball away with his right hand.
Scarborough’s Cody Powers puts his shot into the lower right corner to make it 2-0, before Greely’s Eddie Jones makes it 2-1 by going the same way.
The Rangers have a chance to pull even when Scarborough’s Pierre Soubrier misses the net, but Poulin comes up big again by making another well-timed dive to his left. The score is still 2-1. Brent Mayo makes it 3-1 with another shot into the upper right corner, meaning that another goal by Scarborough – regardless of what Greely does – will result in a win.
The crowd begins to sense this. People can be heard talking about it. Confusion is cleared up. The anticipation builds after Greely’s Brendon Beote makes it 3-2.
The crowd is ready to pounce, the players and coaches are ready to exhale. Scarborough’s Mike Keenan is ready to shoot. He steps up to the ball, looks things over and delivers. The ball rockets into the lower right corner.
The students run wild, hoisting Poulin onto their shoulders. The most exciting moment in sports has come to an end and it’s time to celebrate.
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