Encroachment

“Thought I would never see you again?” Sara said her arms crossing over her chest as Ava shrugged.

“Sorry to disappoint, but I have been waiting in the wings now for a while. And here we are.” Ava said with a smile as Sara dropped her arms. The roar of the crowd behind them as they shook hands and exchanged banners.

“Took you long enough.” Sara laughed and Ava shook her head. “Been here three times already and haven’t seen you once.”

“Still full of yourself I see.” Ava tightened her grip on Sara’s hand causing Sara to look down at their joined hands. “Don’t worry Lance, I have spent the last few years studying all your fuckups. You have been here three times and haven’t won once. I expect the same result today.” She smiled brightly dropping Sara’s hand as they shifted their attention to the refs shaking each of their hands and then waiting for the coin toss.

Ava swore she played the best first half of soccer of her life in the next forty five minutes. Sara on the other hand swore Harvard’s back line were on some kind of drugs because they were running like it was the first five minutes. They were like an impenetrable wall that Sara, Sid, and Amaya couldn’t get through. Zari on the other hand was a beast on the back line stopping Kara, Mona, and this small chick they called Spooner at every break away.

The second half was well underway when a rough tackle on Sara gave them a free kick finally in a place that could hopefully tear down the wall Harvard’s backline had become. Sara stood over the ball while the players all gathered at the top of the box, taking a deep breath she too a few steps back and then moved quickly kicking the ball to her right where Zari quickly ran on it to angle it towards the goal hoping one of their players could get a head to it and put it in the back of the net.

Zari running onto the ball broke the line up and Ava saw the gap running to fill it but colliding with another player not seeing them on her blind side. Ava flew back and landed on her shoulder and rolled on the ground in pain as the player Dinah came and stood over her with a smile on her face. When Ava looked up, she could tell the woman was pure fucking evil. She seemed happy she had caused Ava pain, when Ava stood up she didn’t have a chance to do anything before Mona and Kara were both in Dinah’s face screaming at her. The whistle blew the call dead as the ball had missed everyone in the box and rolled passed the back line for a goal kick. The ref then came up and called Dinah and Ava together and talked to them about physicality giving them both a warning. When Dinah ran backwards, she winked at Ava only causing her blood to boil in anger. Her shoulder was fucking killing her, but she was not about to show it, there was no way in hell she was going to allow herself to be subbed off at this point.

Sara moved back into position waiting for the goalkeeper to kick the ball she chanced a look at Ava who seemed to be almost grimacing as she tried to move her arms around. She couldn’t help but wonder if the fall had hurt her more than she let on. The ball soared over her, and she back peddled turning her attention back to the game.

It was the seventy eighth minute when it happened, Dinah came running up from midfield as Ava got into position with Nora at her side both ready to do what they had been doing all game. When for the briefest of moments Ava saw Dinah smile and before she knew it, the pain searing through her body was unbelievable. She fell to her knees and tried to catch her breath. Dinah had kicked the ball directly at her, it hit with so much force it knocked the wind out of Ava but it also hit the shoulder Ava had landed on and Ava was sure she heard something break.

Nora and Iris were in Dinah’s in a flash, And the whistle came seconds later as the ref approached Dinah holding a yellow card in the air causing Dinah to feign shock. She argued that she took a shot, but the ref was busy writing her name on the card. While Nora and Iris kept telling her to stop lying it was obviously on purpose. Sara made her way over toward Dinah yelling at the ref and put herself between Dinah and the ref pushing Dinah back.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” Sara yelled at Dinah who stopped and looked at Sara in shock.

“Are you kidding me right now?” Dinah asked looking around she saw that Iris and Nora were both looking at Sara with shocked expressions on their faces.

“I ask again what the hell is wrong with you?” Sara asked loudly.

“I took a shot.” Dinah groaned and Sara shook her head.

“Bullshit Dinah.” Sara replied looking over her shoulder at Ava who was surrounded by medical staff who when they tried to move Ava’s shoulder and she shook her head and pushed their hands away because it was too painful. “That was on purpose, you know it, and I know it. And we don’t play like that on this team!” Sara said and Dinah shook her head.

“Good thing you are graduating this year, you’re not willing to do what it takes to win it all.” Dinah replied and then turned away from Sara who looked at the bench directly at her coach. She pointed at Dinah and twirled her fingers in the air indicating to sub her out and the coach looked at her with wide eyes. But this was Sara’s team, she was the captain and if they were going to win, they are sure the hell weren’t going to win that way.

The Coach turned and called someone from the bench which caused Dinah to stop and look back at Sara in shock when she saw the freshman forward standing next to the coach getting instructions.

“You’re subbing me out?” She said angrily making her way over to Sara.

“Looks like it doesn’t it.” Sara replied and took a step closer to Dinah. “I can handle a lot of things but playing dirty to win isn’t one of them.” Dinah leaned into Sara.

“You’ll pay for this Lance.” She grunted as she turned to walk away from Sara who just watched as she was subbed out and the freshman ran out onto the field ready and pumped to go.

Ava was subbed off in the eightieth minute and she refused to go to the hospital right away her shoulder wrapped and Ice wrapped she watched from the sidelines as Nora kicked a long ball over the midfield right to the feet of Kara who attempted to pass the ball but like a bullet shot from a gun Zari ran onto the ball.

Zari ran straight up the middle faster than she ever had, knowing it was scoreless and they were in extra time. All they needed was to score and they had been able to break into the box since Ava had been subbed out. Just one opening it was all they needed as she ran, it seemed like midfield just opened up in front of her. Nothing but grass in front of her she kept running with the ball at her feet. She heard her name being called when she looked up to her left there was Sara calling for the ball.

Zari had practiced this so many times after practice, pass the ball to Sara a give and go. Zari passed the ball and with every ounce of energy left in her legs she ran hard right past Nora as Sara booted the ball into the box it landed directly in front of Zari who waited for the ball to bounce barely off the ground and extended her foot kicking the ball into the lower right hand corner out of the goalie’s reach and landing in the net. Zari veered left running towards the corner flag her body running on pure adrenaline as she jumped into the air throwing a fist in the air. When she landed she could feel her teammates wrap their arms around her screaming her name.

Nora kicked the ball towards the centerline trying to get ready for a kickoff she glanced up at the time knowing there was only seconds to score as Kara ran up to take the kickoff. But it was no use the ref blew the whistle, and it turned out fourth time was a charm as UCLA won the championship. Ava leaned back on the bench and watched as Sara’s team celebrated on the field. Her college career had been amazing but ended without a national trophy. The medics came over to her and tried to usher her over to the ambulance to head to the hospital to get x-rays. She couldn’t help but speak words of encouragement to her teammates as they walked off the pitch. With one last glimpse she looked over at Sara who happened to look right at her as usual they held each other’s gaze for a moment and then went back to their lives. Still enemies and now the draft was coming for professional soccer so Ava knew she would have another chance to beat Sara Lance.