ANOTHER SATURDAY, ANOTHER LOSS

We played our third ball hockey game today. It was against a frat team. I made sure to tell a few of our newer players that it was a frat. You gotta be prepared for anything against frat boys.

Our entire team showed up for the game. There were lots of spare bodies. We even had a ringer for the game. Arash’s brother came to play goal for us. He was awesome. I played one shift during the first half because there were so many lines to cycle through. It did not help that guys were taking marathon shifts. One of our best players also had only one shift.

At the end of the first half, we were behind 5-1 or so. Suprisingly, there wasn’t as much body contact as I had expected. Aseem got our first goal. He pinched in from the point on an awesome play and was left alone in front of the goal.

The second half was where it got chippy. I was going for the ball, and this guy behind me stuck out his stick and I stepped on it. I went sliding on top of the ball. Dude behind me then grabbed his stick and started cross-checking me on the ground. I grabbed his stick to remove it from my back, and when I got up, the ref gave me a penalty! Two minutes for holding the stick! What the hell? What about the cross-check? I swear the ref had some funny dealings with the frat team, because they didn’t get a single penalty for their stick work.

I sat for two and luckily they didn’t score. Everyone started getting into it at this point. The frat boys were fond of shoving you into corners if you were the first one in. Nic was having this great battle out front with this guy. Of course, the frat guy slashed him but the ref didn’t notice.

Steve said he was gonna fight a guy, but we had so many guys he didn’t get back on for another shift.

The game ended like 10-2 or something. Aseem notched our second goal on another beauty of a play.

So, we’re not the best team in the league, but guess what? We maybe not the worst either! Check out the standings. In Pool A, the Law team has a huge negative goal differential just like us!

In the grand scheme of things, it’s still fun to go out and get some exercise. It’s also a chance to do some bonding with the boys at SJC. So, even we go winless for the season (and we probably will), I have no second thoughts about playing.