Hope vs. Biola

 {Biola in red. Hope in white.}

This game was unreal.

You would think that it felt a little weird for me to be rooting against Biola, but strangely, it did not.

I think the Biola fan sitting next to me helped out on that one.

He sat there yelling to the ref to give Nick and the other Hope coaches a red card!

And the refs were a whole other story.  They unashamedly favored Biola, and the linesman on my side of the field was unbelievable. He and loud mouth Biola fan became fast friends on the sideline. That ref spent more time chatting it up with Biola fans and antagonizing Hope fans than he did watching the game.  I had so many things lined up in my head to say to both of them, but whenever I would open my mouth, nothing came out.
I am such a chicken.

Biola was up 1-0 going into half time.

The Biola fan moved to the other side of the field to be by Biola's goal in the second half.

I have to say I was a little disappointed by this fact.

I had spent the whole first half mentally preparing some pretty great snappy come backs for him, all of which would go unused now.

Late in the second half, Hope tied the score with a header into the net!

Woo Hoo!

Thrilling.

Then, we went into sudden death overtime.

The Biola fan moved back to my side.
This gave me a little extra rush of excitement, as I put my witty remarks on the tip of my tongue so they would be ready to roll right out of my mouth with the first jeers and sneers against Hope.
I was so ready for him.
(Until he actually did jeer and I gulped back down those words instead of letting them flow out of me like I had planned.)

After a horrible call, Hope fans exploded out of their seats, and started yelling at the center ref.

So, humpty dumpty linesman on my side of the field couldn't help but get into the action.  He picked out one of the Hope fans and started yelling.

"I've reffed soccer longer than you've played."

"And, I've played at a higher level than you."

"I've been reffing for 23 years.  I think I know better than you how to make calls in this game."

Um, hello, they weren't even yelling at you.

And, if you've really reffed for 23 years, you'd think that you would act like a professional, not a junior higher trying to prove yourself.

(These are all things that I wished I had said, but of course did not.)

But, despite having to play against the talented Biola soccer team AND against the refs, Hope pulled it off in overtime.  They scored in the first two minutes on an amazing shot!

I thoroughly enjoyed seeing the disappointment of the Biola fan and the ref.  

That's mean. 

I know. 

But, I really did enjoy it.

Biola is not used to losing to Hope, and wrote a story about the game here.

Quote from the article:

"However, the wheels came off late on a pair of flukey goals by Hope."

Sorry Biola, a header into the net and a shot rocketed from 40 yards out are NOT "flukey" goals.

But, I still love you Biola! 

And I am cheering for you to beat everyone else.

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