Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 109903 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 550(@200wpm)___ 440(@250wpm)___ 366(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 109903 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 550(@200wpm)___ 440(@250wpm)___ 366(@300wpm)
Coach Harrison took advantage of the lull to rotate his Terrapins. He didn't replace either of the backliners, likely because the Terrapin defense hadn't had much work to do so far, but put on two new strikers.
The referees locked the doors behind them. When everyone stopped moving, the buzzer sounded to restart the game. Renee was acting dealer, but she didn't serve forward. She turned and heaved the ball at Andrew like Allison had. Andrew smashed it with a mighty swing that sent it all the way to the home court wall.
Neil and Dan ran up the court after it. The ball hit the wall near the ceiling, bounced up to hit the ceiling itself, and rebounded at a steep angle to the first-fourth line. The backliners who'd already started forward to keep Dan and Neil out of their space doubled back as fast as they could. Herrera caught the ball and threw it forward.
Neil didn't try to intercept it. He was more interested in keeping Herrera on this side of the half-court line. He turned to watch the ball but pressed himself back against Herrera. When Herrera tried to move left or right to run toward half-court, Neil felt it and shifted with him. Neil couldn't hold him back for long, but he just needed to buy his teammates time to gain possession.
Defense knew what to do; Renee had suggested this play on the bus. They hadn't known which one of them would get the ball from the Terrapins after this kind of serve, but they knew what to do if they caught it. Matt was the one who won the fight. He hooked his stick around his striker's and gave it a hard swipe to pop the ball free. Matt grabbed it and threw it. He didn't even slow long enough to look, trusting Andrew to get it from any angle.
Andrew hit the ball to the left, smacking it off the wall in front of the Fox benches so it would rebound in Neil and Herrera's general direction. Neil didn't wait for it to reach him. He bolted for it the second he saw the angle of Andrew's swing.
He knew Herrera was right behind him for a body check. If he got crushed between the wall and Herrera, he'd lose the ball in the fight. Neil caught the ball right off the wall but didn't try to protect it. Instead he gave the butt of his racquet a hard pop with one fist. It sent the ball flying straight up out of the net. He dropped to his knees in the same breath.
He almost wasn't fast enough. Herrera crashed into him at full speed a half-second later, but Neil wasn't where Herrera expected him to be. He tripped over Neil's body and, without Neil to take the brunt of the blow for him, crashed into the wall helmet-first. Neil pushed free of Herrera's crumpling body and swore at the flare of heat in his shoulder. If it wasn't for his shoulder armor, Herrera's knee might have dislocated his arm on impact.
Someone pounded on the wall nearby. It might have been support from the subs for dropping his mark like that, but it was more likely Wymack or Kevin furious over such a risky move. Neil would worry about them later. Right now all that mattered was the ball, which was bouncing off the floor just a foot away.
Neil scooped it up and took off for goal. He didn't look back to see if Herrera had gotten up or if Dan's mark had dropped her to challenge him. He looked only at the goalkeeper and knew he was going to score. He put all of his first-half frustration behind his swing. The goalkeeper swatted at it and missed. The wall lit up red to confirm the point.
Dan whooped so loud it echoed off the court walls. Neil slowed to a jog and wheeled around. Dan ran over and gave him a quick, fierce squeeze. The buzzer overhead cut her off before she could say anything. They watched side-by-side as Coach Harrison called Herrera off the court. Because Herrera might be injured from that hard crash, Harrison had the right to pull him even though it was the Foxes' serve. Neil watched his new backliner enter the court, but Dan pulled his attention back to her.
"That was perfect," she said, then gave his shoulder a hard smack. Neil couldn't hide all of his wince. Dan put her finger in his face. "But don't do something that reckless again. We can't replace you. Hear me?"
"Yes, Dan."
"Good. Now let's show these bastards what's what."
It was easier said than done, but they fought all the way to halftime. When the clock ran out they'd pushed the score to four-even. Wymack ushered his team off the court to the chaos of a riled crowd. Kevin had nothing to say to them, but Aaron went straight to Matt and Nicky to check on them. Allison was nowhere in sight, but neither was Abby, so Neil guessed they'd stepped away from the noise together. Neil hoped Allison could hold it together for a little longer.
Wymack pointed them toward the locker room but stayed behind an extra minute to smile at cameras and secure the stick rack. Neil had his gloves and helmet off as soon as he reached the tunnel. He yanked his neck guard off next, needing a little extra room to breathe. He could barely feel his legs. He couldn't feel his feet, but he assumed they were down there somewhere. The shoulder he'd hurt in first half was still throbbing thanks to the well-aimed blows of his new backliner mark.
The Foxes spread out into a loose circle in the locker room to shed extraneous gear and stretch. The others looked beat but sounded lively. They chatted about their comeback, sounding cautiously hopeful for second half. Dan and Matt were even laughing about something rude a striker had said to Matt. Neil looked around the circle at them, soaking up their enthusiasm, but his attention caught and held on Andrew before long.