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The Zone

The coach signaled timeout and called the team to the sidelines. There were eight minutes left in the biggest game of their lives, and they would be playing for three minutes with a severe disadvantage. They had committed a succession of penalties within a span of less than 60 seconds, and they would now be playing without three men on the field. In lacrosse this is referred to as ‘Man Down.’

Usually it’s only ‘One Man Down,’ or at the most, ‘Two Men Down,’ but few watching that day had ever seen a team go ‘Three Men Down.’ This meant that their star goalie T.J. Braxton was only going to have three defenders in front of him instead of the usual six.

T.J. had been playing great, but he now had to play for two minutes with three men missing in front of him and then the third minute still missing one. It was going to seem like an eternity. The coach looked over at T.J. and he was standing off to the side by himself not wanting to either look or talk to anyone during the intermission. The coach understood this behavior because he had been a goalie himself and decided to leave T.J. alone — totally immersed within his own thoughts.

As they did the cheer to break the huddle, it was for their goalie …"1, 2, 3, Go T.J." What would happen now brought more pressure than any goalie should ever have to withstand. Even going just ‘One Man Down’ would in many cases result in a goal for the other team. Going ‘Two Men Down’ almost ensures the other team a goal, and anything beyond that just puts your goalie at the mercy of the shooters on the other team.

And Tonight There Would Be No Mercy To Be Found

T.J. already had 18 saves up to this point with only half a quarter left to play in regulation. Saves are when a goalie either blocks or deflects an offensive shot from the other team. He had only let in three goals all game, and the score was tied at 3-3.

Pennhurst was a powerful public school with large and fast athletes. They had not been playing lacrosse as long as T.J.’s private (all-boys) school, Haverland Academy, but their natural athletic ability and inner toughness were making up for any experience lost.

T.J. would have to defend his goal missing three men in front of him for two minutes and then missing one man for the next sixty seconds. It was his team’s possession coming out of the timeout, and it was all they could do being so shorthanded to even get the ball across the mid-field line. The coach’s tactic was not to shoot the ball now but to stall and to try and take as much time off the clock as they could until they could get more players back on the field. T.J. stood rock solid in the center of the ‘crease’ in front of his goal and looked squarely at the goalie at the other end of the field. The ‘crease’ was the large circle surrounding the goal that no offensive player from the other team could enter. He seemed to not be following the ball and his coach wondered what was going on inside his head.

Playing goalie is 80% mental, and he was hoping his star goalie wasn’t going to have a melt down when his team needed him the most. T.J. would normally be very active inside his own goal shouting instructions to the defensemen in front of him and trying to best position them for the oncoming attack.

Something ‘Seemed’ Different Tonight

T.J. had entered a new zone, one that he had never been in before, and one that only he could understand. As Haverland’s lead attackman charged the opposing goal, the ball fell out of his stick. It was immediately picked up by the opposing goalie and ‘cleared’ to a midfielder standing outside and to his left. The midfielder made one more pass to an attackman, and the ball was coming T.J.’s way with only three defenders in front of him to help stop the charge. The ball was again passed to one of their senior captains and their strongest midfielder.

He juked left as he faked a pass and then as he cradled the ball wildly, he headed straight toward T.J. in the goal. When he got within fifteen feet of the goal he stopped, set his feet, and with a violent and twisting motion fired an overhand shot across his right shoulder at the ground two feet in front of where T.J. now stood.

T.J. was now eighteen and a half and had been playing goalie since he was seven years old. He had seen and defended almost every kind of shot and from every angle in those eleven years. He had just never had to do it before with almost no defense in front of him. As the shot left the midfielders stick, T.J. reacted. He took two steps forward and was able to scoop the ball out of the air at ankle height before it was able to bounce off the ground. Bounce shots were more difficult to save, and his accumulated instinct and experience allowed him to get this one and at least for now keep the score tied at 3-3.

T.J. ran behind his own goal toward the end line. With the ball in his stick he was trying to take time off the clock. Only one opposing player chased him, and he was able to do a 180-degree spin, avoid that player, and run back out in front of his goal. He then cleared the ball, the entire length of the field, to a midfielder standing in the far left corner. T.J.’s team had the ball within thirty feet of the opposing goal with only two minutes left to run in penalty time.

T.J.’s offense decided it was time to step up and play big. They managed to take a full minute off the clock with uncanny passing until the referee finally called stalling and gave the ball back to the other side.

As the ball came back in T.J’s direction, two of his penalized players retook the field. They were now playing with only a ‘one man down’ disadvantage and for only sixty more seconds.

The opposing team set up in a perimeter in front of his goal passing the ball from man to man and then behind T.J.’s goal in an attempt to unbalance a still weakened defense. As the ball went behind the net, T.J. rotated inside the crease never taking his eye off the ball. He thought they were setting him up for something sneaky because his fundamental blocking skills on normal shots were so strong. More than anything he didn’t want to give up a cheap goal, and he wouldn’t have to wait long to find out that his suspicions had been correct.

As they passed the ball back and forth behind his goal, an attackman turned and tried to lob the ball over the back of the goal, and T.J.’s stick, to an opposing midfielder who was charging the front of the goal from about twenty-five-feet away. They were hoping to catch T.J. mesmerized in what was going on behind the net and then reverse field and go in the one direction no one ever expected — over the back of the goal.

It didn’t work! As the ball left the midfielders stick, T.J. jumped high in the air and intercepted the pass in the shooting strings of his goalie stick. He then spun around and ran directly to the out of bounds line to his right. It was beyond the defensive box, and he stood there waiting for someone to challenge him. He was again trying to take precious seconds off the clock to get his team back to full strength. Although a goalie, T.J. was the fastest player on his team and that speed was like money in the bank to a team that was struggling and in trouble with time running out.

He managed to get the penalty down to twenty two seconds before he finally dished the ball off to another long stick defender and then quickly moved back in front of his goal. That defensemen got across midfield just before another penalty would have occurred for not advancing the ball. With only seventeen seconds left on the penalty, the offense passed the ball to the four corners looking for a man who was ‘hot’ (open) who could take the shot and finally break the tie. With only three seconds left in the penalty their best attackman, John Erasmus, took the ball in his stick and with his left hand fired a side angle shot at the right side of the goal. It was a great shot, but their goalie made a heroic save. He was also a senior and had transferred into Pennhurst two years ago from a Lacrosse powerhouse school in northern Maryland.

With both teams now at full strength, the ball went back and forth for the final five minutes with very few shots taken at either end. The ones that were taken were weak and from great distance, and both goalies easily picked them up and started the ball going the other way. Each shot was critical now because the game was tied with time running out. Possession was more important than losing the ball to the other team by taking a poor shot. As the lights shone brightly high above the scoreboard, time ran out in regulation. The game would now go to sudden death overtime, and it would become about the strength of the face-off men and how hot each goalie was going to be.

It Was Now About The Face-Off Man And The Goalies

In sudden death, the first team to score wins! No second chances here it’s do or die time, and everything is amped up to an entirely new level. Many times, the winner of the face off at midfield wins the game because everything is geared towards that one shot, and the pressure on the opposing goalie is tremendous. Unless the goalie can isolate himself in a ‘zone of invincibility,’ the chances of blocking a shot in overtime due to a lost face off are not very good. Just like in the NFL, where the coin toss often determines the winner in overtime, the face-off is like that coin toss only with skill and not luck determining the winner. T.J. thought back to all the coaches and mentors that had brought him to where he was standing tonight. They were all somewhere up in the stands, and they were all living and dying with him tonight in the goal.

T.J. Decided That Tonight It Would Be About Life

The Captains met at the middle of the field as the referee explained the rules of sudden death. All who were listening thought that the term was aptly named. They shook hands again and ran back to the huddles on their respective sidelines. Both coaches gave their overtime strategies to their teams, and they did one more cheer before retaking the field. Both face off men walked slowly toward each other at the center mid-field line and stared each other directly in the eye.

The physical disparity between the two players at mid-field was huge. Haverland’s best face off man, George Arle, was 5’6’’ tall and 160 lbs. Pennhurst’s face off man, B.J. Radford, had been an All-State quarterback on the football team and was 6’3’’ and 225 lbs. Although Lacrosse was not his primary sport, he had played it for the last four years and by anyone’s account he was a ‘stud player.’ The skill in taking face offs is unlike any other in Lacrosse. It’s more similar to recovering a fumble in football or picking up a loose five-dollar bill dropped on the floor in Penn Station in New York. It’s uncontrolled mayhem with the skill to do it only evident to those who have been there. And it’s those players who know painfully well what it takes to win the fight for the ball.

Although T.J.’s face off man George had had a good season, he always struggled against players that were that much bigger than him and usually lost the ball. The ref. positioned the ball between the two boys sticks who were both crouched down and ready at mid-field. The whistle blew, and George lost the ball as B.J. picked it up and charged right over George’s left shoulder. He was headed in a straight line right toward T.J. who was standing fixed and ready in front of his goal. B.J. passed the ball to a midfielder who kept it only a second before passing it to an attackman who was off to the right of the goal. The attackman looked to his left and faked a pass to his right. He then spun around and with all his might fired a bounce shot on an angle from the right facing side of Haverland’s goal.

T.J. stepped forward, scooped the ball up on the first bounce, and in one fluid motion flipped the ball out to a defenseman on the left perimeter. This player cradled it inside his long stick as he took off down the sideline and across midfield. The defenseman made a pass to a middie on the extreme other side of the field who then passed to an attackman. This man ran around behind the net and came out on the other side in front of the goal, shot the ball, but it went wide right. The other team was closest to the ball when it went out of bounds, so it was Pennhurst’s possession, and it was coming back T.J.’s way.

Their goalie cleared the ball left to a long stick defenseman, who in turn made a long pass directly to an attackman, and the ball was once again in the oppositions stick less than thirty feet from the goal T.J. was defending. This attackman had no intention of passing. He put his head down and charged straight ahead toward T.J. As his coach was screaming at him to pass, and it the midst of five defensive players, he fired off a shot. It came at a side angle, and, with all of the players surrounding the shooter, it was hard for T.J. to see the ball come off the kid’s stick.

When T.J. finally did see the ball, it had passed the head of his stick, and he was just able to get a piece of the ball with the bottom of his shaft. It was just enough to deflect the ball upwards and over the goal and into the chain link fence fifty feet behind the crease. On instinct alone, T.J. ran after the ball and being closest to it when it went out of bounds, he picked it up in his stick and slowly walked forward. This gave his midfielders time to transition back up to the other end of the field.

T.J. was living on borrowed time. Making one save in overtime was huge, but making two, and one with only the shaft of his stick to save it all, was stretching the limits of whatever luck the team had left. T.J. easily passed the ball to an unguarded defenseman who ‘walked’ the ball up-field and then tossed it to a midfielder just in front of the offensive box.

The offensive box is the restrained and shorter ‘boxed-out’ area right in front of the goalie and where most shots are taken, and most goals are scored. The midfielder made a pass to his left to an attackman, who tried to make a long looping pass across the face of the box, but it was intercepted by one of the oppositions long stick middies and passed quickly to another midfielder as it transitioned back again towards T.J. This time the ball was coming straight at T.J., and it had taken less than five seconds to get there. His team was not set yet and this charge could be the end of it all.

T.J.’s team had been caught napping in an uncharacteristic moment of uncertainty. Pennhurst’s top midfielder again had the ball, and he was charging at T.J. who had only two players set and not the normal six in front of him to play defense.

Surprisingly to T.J., this player then made a pass to the extreme right corner and that attackman ran behind T.J.’s goal giving his defense more time to reset. This player then made a pass to the left side, and it was once again in the stick of their best midfielder, Matt Makritis. Midfielders, or Middies, as they’re often called are many times the best athletes on the team. They have to play both offense and defense and run the entire length of the field while their shift is on. Makritis was a high school All-American, and he was charging at full speed toward the left front facing side of T.J.’s goal.

T.J. Was An All-American Too!

T.J. was also an All-American and had recently been on the front cover of ‘Inside Lacrosse Magazine’ and featured as the #1 player coming out of High School Lacrosse that year. He thought to himself that all of that press would be meaningless if he allowed this shot to go in. The opposing midfielder continued toward the crease unguarded, got within ten feet of the goal, and fired point blank at T.J. No fancy bounce shots or behind the back this time. This shot was straight at T.J.’s head, and from less than ten feet away. T.J. caught the ball in the fat part of his goalie sticks net. It didn’t stay there though. The power of the shot caused it to come out of his stick, in what is referred to as a rebound, as it rolled ten or twelve feet out in front of the goal.

A second midfielder then picked up the ball, and not lifting it from the ground, fired a shot right back at T.J. This was more like a golf shot than a lacrosse shot, and T.J. struggled to see from which direction the ball was coming. As the ball came back at T.J. at a severe angle, headed toward the left backside of the net, he stretched his body out like a goalie in the NHL. Doing a full split in front of the net, he was able to get a piece of the ball with his right cleat and deflect the ball off to the left side of the goal. As the ball rolled harmlessly toward the far side of the endline, the referee blew his whistle. The first three-minute overtime period had ended.

They Had Survived Sudden Death For Three Minutes

Both teams huddled tightly with their coaches and trainers. This time though, T.J. didn’t leave the crease at all. He was leaning against the goal with his back turned to the field. It was almost as if he was talking to someone you couldn’t see and totally immersed in a world of his own. There are several times in a man’s life that define and underline not only who he is, but who he will then become. This was one of those times for T.J.

And He Knew It

Both teams wearily took the field. The pressure of an extremely tight game, and then surviving one overtime period, had taken its toll. As the face-off men bent low and readied for the ball, T.J.’s back was still facing the field. When he heard the whistle blow he spun around and it was like someone twice his 6’2’’ size was playing goalie. He seemed to fill the entire net with his presence and there was an ‘aura’ coming from him that surrounded the entire defensive end of the field.

Once again, George lost the face off to the All-State quarterback and star midfielder, B.J. Radford. This time however, the look on B.J.’s face was different. Although fairly new to Lacrosse, inside his chest beat the heart of a champion. He almost stepped on George as he picked up the ball and headed straight over the mid-field line and directly at T.J. This senior captain had no intention of passing, and he was going to ‘ice’ the game for his teammates and fans. B.J. was not known as a great shooter but more for his defensive skills. He was a great athlete though, and this charge was not to be taken lightly by anyone on the defensive end of the field.

B.J. Knew This Was His Moment

Without stopping or setting his feet, he raised his stick above his head and shot the ball toward the right corner of the net at over ninety miles an hour. T.J. saw this one all the way and caught the ball in his stick. He then ran out of the goal and passed B.J. who was still coming his way as he charged past him and headed straight down the field. T.J. was out of the defensive box and headed toward the mid-field line. He was looking at nothing in front of him except the opposing goalie who was now staring at him with an incredulous look on his face inside the opposing crease.

Everyone there that night had their mouth’s open in awe. No one expected the goalie to ever make the final break, and no one watching had ever seen a goalie possessed with such speed. The other team was in awe too and just kept watching him run. They were all guarding open men who they were sure T.J. would eventually pass the ball to.

He Didn’t Pass

When he crossed the midfield line, the fans went wild and stood up. One of his midfielders had the presence of mind to stay back behind the midfield line so that an offsides wouldn’t be called. In Lacrosse, you always need at least three men back plus the goalie in the defensive end. Once T.J. crossed midfield, one of the midfielders had to stay back.

T.J. approached the offensive box in front of their goalie with only one thing on his mind. He had been acutely watching this kid all day and he had noticed one thing. This was a fundamentally sound and ‘play up’ goalie and one would who would rise to the occasion when the heat was on. He had transferred into Pennhurst only two years ago and based on his great skill, he had gotten them this far. He had one weakness though that T.J. had observed — he couldn’t handle the off-speed shots, especially over his left shoulder.

The left shoulder is opposite the goalie stick’s head if you’re right handed. In his case, the only weakness that T.J. had seen, other than his struggle with off-speed shots, were those directed high up and left. Like a changeup in baseball, the off-speed shot often confused the goalie’s timing and could cause him to over or under react at just the right time. T.J. continued to charge the goal.

By this time, two defensemen from Pennhurst were running from both sides to get to T.J. before he could shoot, but his speed was too much. As he approached the crease from the right side, he raised his stick above his head. He threw his lower right elbow at the goalie as if executing a shot. His stick-head never moved, but the goalie bit on the fake. He waved the head of his stick high right and then easily lobbed the ball over the Pennhurst goalie’s left shoulder. The referee blew the whistle — the game was over —and T.J.’s team had finally won.

The other goalie dropped to his knees and then put both hands on the ground in front of him. T.J. went over and picked him up saying: "You may have lost on the scoreboard tonight, but you never gave up. I’m proud to have played against you."

Haverland had just won the State Championship, and most watching said it was the greatest goalie performance at any level that they had ever seen. T.J. was voted ‘Most Valuable Player’ of the game. In the fall, he would be off to a top 10 Lacrosse University where he would major in Criminal Justice and take his goalie skills to an even higher level.

T.J.’s coach told him after the game that you can play lacrosse for your entire lifetime and never be able to play or recreate what you just did. His future college coach, who had been in the stands watching, came down on the field and put his arm around T.J. after the game and told him the same thing. He went on to say: "T.J., I had my whole speech ready before you went into overtime. I thought I might have to come down here and tell you that although you lost — you lost really well.

T.J. Did Not Want To Believe That Losing Well Was Really Possible!

"You had made all those heroic saves throughout the game for your team, and if you had to lose, it would have been a great way to do it. The only problem with my prepared speech is that you didn’t lose. As I watched you in the goal with your back turned to the field as the second overtime period started, I said to my assistant coach Dave, who’s over talking to your folks, that our new and future goalie is in a zone that few can ever get to. He will not be scored on again tonight. Tonight, and for however long this game lasts — he is truly invincible. And I don’t believe I’ve ever used that word to describe a player before."

Many years passed and one day T.J got an email from his old high school coach. The coach told him that once again his school, Haverland, would be playing for the State Championship and he wanted to run his pre-game speech by T.J. before his boys took the field. It was short and to the point. What he wanted to tell the boys was: "It wouldn’t be the number of players on the field but who those players were and what was coming from inside their hearts that would make all the difference." He then went on to tell the story of T.J. in the State Championship Game that took place over ten years before.

Some of the boys had heard the story, but all were in awe listening to the emotion and passion in their coach’s voice as he retold the story again. It was like replaying that game with the current Haverland players and right before the most important game that most of them would ever play.

Haverland won the State Championship again that day and many of the boys said that it was the pre-game speech about T.J. and his team’s overtime victory that fueled their desire and commitment to make it happen. It was also a close game, and with two minutes to go the score was again tied. Five times during the game they had gone ‘one-man’ down but had only allowed one goal to be scored during those five uneven possessions by the other team. Haverland was then able to strip the ball from their opponent twice in the final two minutes and convert both into scores — ending the game at 7-5.

Along a lonely hallway in the back of Haverland’s new athletic center hangs a plaque with the story of that night so many years ago. But to T.J., and all the members of that legendary team, the thing that hangs highest — is their refusal to lose.

The possibility of being invincible would stay inside T.J. and all who were there to watch him play that night. He learned that at the end of the streak where luck ends, sometimes you have to enter that zone …

And Just ‘Will It’ To Happen.









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