People dream big about accomplishing lifelong goals but their dreams don’t always come true. One of my biggest dreams came true when I was only eleven years old and I won the state championship. I knew that in order to achieve this long term goal I was going to have to put in a lot of hard work, persistence, and determination from start to finish.
The reef blew the whistle as loud as a little boy screaming at the top of his lungs. I skated up to the face off circle not knowing what to expect. We were playing against Barnstable. I was up at center ice against a huge guy probably about five foot ten with gashes and scars across his face towering over me. Then the puck dropped and he hit me to the ground hard. The guy went in and scored. 1-0 Barnstable. We tried to tie it up but their defense was solid. They hit us hard at the boards and fired shots at our gollie. They had every bit of control of the game. They outplayed us in everything. It was hopeless, they had complete control of the game.
The whole team was tired with red faces and sweaty foreheads breathing hard in exhaustion. We had to keep working hard if we wanted a chance. We weren’t going to give up. Although the effort was there they were still outplaying us. We hadn’t got ourselves going yet. They kept forechecking hard. They were pinning us in the defensive zone. Everything was going their way until the second period. They dumped the puck into our zone. Our best defensemen Sam skated into the zone and picked up the puck behind the net. He came with a huge burst of speed and made a sweet move on the first defender, he wide along the boards to avoid the second defender.
For a moment there was nothing between him and the goal but then the five foot ten man child came out of nowhere and slammed him hard into the boards. We all went after the Barnstable player and then a scrum started. Punches were thrown, swears were cussed, and the refs gave out a whole lot of penalties. The five foot ten guy got a 4 minute major for hitting from behind. He smirked and said “4 minutes well worth it”. We thought that we would get a man advantage but we were wrong. 3 guys on our team got 4 minute majors for fighting. We were down 3 players and they were down 1.
For four minutes we had to go 3 on five. What chance did we have now? It was out of our reach if they scored once more. They had the perfect to do so right then and there on the 2 man advantage right then and there. Coach told us that we could either spend the rest of the game complaining about the refs and the dirty play of the other team which we had been doing for pretty much the whole game or we could bust our butts and try to win this game because we had gone this far and we shouldn’t blow it now.
Coach put me, ryan, and cam out against their starting five. The faceoff came in the defensive zone. Ryan won it back to me and I cleared it down the ice. One of their defensemen came in behind his own net to take the puck. The defensmen looked up and passed the puck down the boards to his left winger. The player took the puck along the boards and looked to see if anyone was coming but it was to late. Cam came with a huge burst of speed and absolutely wrecked the other player.
Then he took the puck and passed it right into the slot where Ryan was. Ryan took the puck and fired it so hard that it went into the goal before anyone could see where it was going. Everyrone on our bench cheered about as loud as a rock band at a live concert. Soon after Casey scored to give us the lead!
Cam scored an empty netter with about 40 seconds left to seal the deal. The five foot ten manchild scored again with about five seconds left but it wasn’t enough. 4,3,2,1,over! We had won the state championship. All that hard work made my dream come true. Now that I did what it took to make my dream come true I ask you what will it take for you to make your dream come true.
The reef blew the whistle as loud as a little boy screaming at the top of his lungs. I skated up to the face off circle not knowing what to expect. We were playing against Barnstable. I was up at center ice against a huge guy probably about five foot ten with gashes and scars across his face towering over me. Then the puck dropped and he hit me to the ground hard. The guy went in and scored. 1-0 Barnstable. We tried to tie it up but their defense was solid. They hit us hard at the boards and fired shots at our gollie. They had every bit of control of the game. They outplayed us in everything. It was hopeless, they had complete control of the game.
The whole team was tired with red faces and sweaty foreheads breathing hard in exhaustion. We had to keep working hard if we wanted a chance. We weren’t going to give up. Although the effort was there they were still outplaying us. We hadn’t got ourselves going yet. They kept forechecking hard. They were pinning us in the defensive zone. Everything was going their way until the second period. They dumped the puck into our zone. Our best defensemen Sam skated into the zone and picked up the puck behind the net. He came with a huge burst of speed and made a sweet move on the first defender, he wide along the boards to avoid the second defender.
For a moment there was nothing between him and the goal but then the five foot ten man child came out of nowhere and slammed him hard into the boards. We all went after the Barnstable player and then a scrum started. Punches were thrown, swears were cussed, and the refs gave out a whole lot of penalties. The five foot ten guy got a 4 minute major for hitting from behind. He smirked and said “4 minutes well worth it”. We thought that we would get a man advantage but we were wrong. 3 guys on our team got 4 minute majors for fighting. We were down 3 players and they were down 1.
For four minutes we had to go 3 on five. What chance did we have now? It was out of our reach if they scored once more. They had the perfect to do so right then and there on the 2 man advantage right then and there. Coach told us that we could either spend the rest of the game complaining about the refs and the dirty play of the other team which we had been doing for pretty much the whole game or we could bust our butts and try to win this game because we had gone this far and we shouldn’t blow it now.
Coach put me, ryan, and cam out against their starting five. The faceoff came in the defensive zone. Ryan won it back to me and I cleared it down the ice. One of their defensemen came in behind his own net to take the puck. The defensmen looked up and passed the puck down the boards to his left winger. The player took the puck along the boards and looked to see if anyone was coming but it was to late. Cam came with a huge burst of speed and absolutely wrecked the other player.
Then he took the puck and passed it right into the slot where Ryan was. Ryan took the puck and fired it so hard that it went into the goal before anyone could see where it was going. Everyrone on our bench cheered about as loud as a rock band at a live concert. Soon after Casey scored to give us the lead!
Cam scored an empty netter with about 40 seconds left to seal the deal. The five foot ten manchild scored again with about five seconds left but it wasn’t enough. 4,3,2,1,over! We had won the state championship. All that hard work made my dream come true. Now that I did what it took to make my dream come true I ask you what will it take for you to make your dream come true.