Football showdown at the National Stadium
Dellwood Middle School 0
Clearwater Middle School 2
The weather was perfect and so were the playing conditions at National Stadium on December 13, 2008.
Dellwood Middle school were playing against Clearwater Middle School in the Under 13 Knockout Football Finals.
Clearwater had already beaten Dellwood during the season but this time, Dellwood were determined to win.
Clearwater had started off great, scoring the first goal within 5 minutes. After that had happened, everyone on the Dellwood team started to play better.
By the time the first half was over, Dellwood had taken a lot of shots, defended well, and were getting the better of them. Unfortunately they were still down 1-0.
When Dellwood team came out, Mr. Todd, Dellwood Middle School's gym teacher, told me to warm up.
As I was warming up, a whole bunch of things went through my mind. One of those things was how we had done throughout the season.
We had won our first game but soon after started to lose. As soon as we went into the knockout tournament, things changed. Some of the other schools didn't show up for the games, except for Warwick Academy.
Then, I heard Mr. Todd call my name. He told me what to do. When I came on, I played left-back. I played well during the time that I was on.
Sadly, Clearwater caught us on the counter-attack and scored again. That was the final goal.
When the match was over, we lined up to get our second place medals. I knew we had done well even though we lost.
Tijuan Swan, one of the players who had played the whole match said: "It was one of the best days, although we lost. Our team played well, but our strikers couldn't put the ball away."
I would have to agree with him. Next time though, when I'm an over 13, we will get that trophy back!