Best Game I Have Ever Played!

February 1999, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA—

I played lacrosse throughout high school, and was able to find a decent club team to play on at San Diego State University when I decided to extend my playing career into college. The first time I picked up a stick was at the age of 10 years old in the San Diego County town of Poway, CA thanks to my older brother discovering the game when he was in high school. It was a relatively early age for someone on the west coast to pick the game up, especially when it was still in the very early stages of the game reaching that part of the country way back in 1989. I played decently my freshman year at SDSU during the Spring of 1998, but still was not able to earn a starting roll on the team that year. The next year that all changed when the team was in turmoil due to an issue with a recent alum and the school, and the firing of the head coach from the year before. The team was barely able to field the minimum of 10 players needed for a game in the Spring of 1999, and I was immediately thrown into a starting midfielder roll. Our first game of the season and coincidentally the first game I ever started in college was on February 19, 1999 against USC in Los Angeles. It was a chilly, Southern California night, as evidenced by the fact that we could see the warm exhales of our breath as they emanated from our mouths (though we don't have the winters that a lot of the country get, this is about as cold as it gets for a Southern California boy). The nervousness that I get every time I walk onto a field for the first time was with me as well. I couldn't help but shake from the nervous excitement as I stood at the wing for the opening face off. From the get go, it was apparent that both teams were evenly matched as neither team was able to build a lead of more than two goals all night. For my part, I don't believe I have ever played a better game than I did that night before or since. From the moment I touched the ball the first time, as I waited to receive that first check and find out what the other team had in store for me, I felt in control of every aspect of the game. It helped that our team that year had probably the best fast break of any team I had ever been a part of. If I were running down the field on a 4 on 3 odd man advantage I knew that if I could get the ball to one of the three attackmen down low, it was almost automatic that they would score. We had probably the best finishing attackman I have ever played with that year, in David Jacobs. If he got the ball in a one on one situation with the goalie, he couldn't miss. He always scored. That night, I had 4 goals and 2 assists (both to Jacobs). Every decision I made with the ball was the right one. If I was the catalyst for a fast break, we scored. On two occasions, the defense slacked off of me and let me run to within 15 yards of the goal without picking me up. Without hesitation I shot both times, which resulted in two goals. Although, this was the best game I have ever played, there was still the problem of winning the game. As I said both of the teams on the field that night were evenly matched, and so much so that with a minute left the score was tied. I still will never forget the trust we had in our goalie, Curt Borton, to make the one big save in order to give us the chance to win. In the timeouts he would tell us, "If you see them shoot from outside, just assume that I am going to make the save and break out." Perhaps the fact that he was 25 years old when I was only 19 had let me put a little more faith in his statement. We were on defense with about a minute left and that exact situation happened when one of USC's midfielders shot from about 15 yards out. I broke out for an outlet pass the second the ball left the midfielders stick, and Borton made the save just like he said he would. I found myself wide open for an outlet pass to start the fast break. I ran down the right side of the field trying to draw the defense to me, and finally was able to get one to bite. To my right I spotted Jacobs awaiting my pass. I gave him a perfect pass, but the defense had recovered to him in time and the fast break had died. As I watched Jacobs protect the ball, the only thought in my mind was to make sure he had a clear lane to the goal. If my defender were to slide to help on him, then I would call for the open shot provided Jacobs would spot me. As it happened, I never did get the ball. Jacobs took the ball from behind the cage and beat his defender one on one to score the go ahead goal with 0:06 seconds left. Both teams knew the game was over at that moment. It didn't sink into me the type of game that I played because I was so overjoyed with the fact that we won! The fact that I didn't have the game-winning goal meant absolutely nothing to me because after going through a fired head coach, and barely being able to field a team, we deserved to win that night. That is the moment that I realized my love of the game would last forever also. The team aspect is still something I search for in all walks of life, and although it wasn't the Olympics, my teammates and coaches had the ultimate respect for each other that night and throughout the rest of my time playing as an Aztec at SDSU.