Last Friday, the Northwestern field hockey team was holding onto a one-goal lead at Maryland in the final two minutes of regulation, and they had to be tired.
Northwestern had gone down a player because of a rash challenge leading to a yellow card shown in the 53rd minute. Two minutes later, Maryland pulled its goalkeeper for an 11th outfielder, making the numerical advantage in terms of field players even greater.
The battle raged in the midfield with both teams looking for the decisive edge — Maryland to level the scores, and Northwestern to double its lead. That is, until Northwestern got its player back and both sides have 11 players on the pitch.
Eventually, Northwestern was able to get the ball into the offensive right-wing corner and handed the ball to its senior defensive midfielder, Lauren Wadas. She took it to the corner flag and dribbled it deftly inside the lines so that a jab tackle would lead to a side-in for the Wildcats.
Then, with the clock ticking down in the final half-minute, Wadas took a side-in about even with the penalty spot about seven yards from the end line. Noticing that the Maryland defense had not backed away the requisite five yards, Wadas bolted forward in a self-start.
The reaction by the umpire was immediate: a whistle and two arms pointed towards the goal frame: penalty corner. And with 20 seconds left in the game, the Wildcats all but sealed the result by running the corner play, even though it did not succeed; the ball never got back into Maryland’s attacking third the rest of the match.
The game of field hockey is one which has been won and lost over the years with its physicality. Teams and players who are physically fit and have the gift of technical skill have always been valued in the game.
But Wadas showed something different last night in that final minute: an advanced level of situational awareness. It reminds me a lot of NFL players who give up a chance at scoring a late touchdown with their team already in the lead, only to go down inbounds short of the goal line, allowing the team to get into victory formation and run out the clock without giving the opposition a chance to have the ball again.
It’s a way of playing that you don’t see very often, but when you do, you have to appreciate it because of its subtlety and what it meant to close out this game between two top-five sides.
Seems appropriate.