Last Saturday afternoon could not have promised better weather for anyone in the UMass Boston area; perfect conditions for playing soccer. Our lovely Lady Beacons showed off against Eastern Connecticut State this past Saturday, and what a game it was.
At the start of the game, a goal was scored by Kristi Morales of the beacons roughly three and a half minutes into the game.
To be blunt, I went insane. I was jumping and screaming in every which way I could. I began to notice that I was the only one jumping and screaming. I looked around and quickly realized that all of the fans at the game were parents! They were clapping courteously for a job well done to Kristi for scoring a goal so early in the game. I was quickly overcome with feelings of nostalgia.
Where were all of the students that painted their faces and roared as much as their bodies could in the name of UMass Boston with a B.A.C of 2.0? The answer came to me quickly, as I saw a referee get pegged with a soccer ball after making a bad call towards UMB. While I yelled to the referee that karma was a bitch, I knew that students were not at this particular game because of the time and the day. It was Saturday, at 1:30 p.m. where the sun was bright. No place for the student hung over from the night before.
I was unable to accept that fact. I made as many phone calls as I could to students that lived close; generally students that lived in Harbor Point. I commanded them to come to the game. The end result was a band of zombies slowly making their way to a standing area just before the bleachers. Just far enough away to show the parents of both teams that they weren’t enduring splitting headaches due to the previous night.
The fans were pretty quiet through the first half and most of the second half. No insult to them, there was just nothing exciting going on. Halfway through the second half a graduated girl’s soccer player and friend of mine said to me “I don’t know who 19 is but she should go back in, she’s really good.” I was looking her up in the program, but then the announcer answered my question when she was announced back into the game.
My friend was happy at the coach’s call. I think the fans were pretty happy as well when number 19, Kristin Mulry, put the Lady Beacons in the lead by scoring a goal with 15 minutes left. I was happy when I couldn’t hear my thoughts die to the yells and screams from both the parent fan crew and the zombie fan crew.
What a good game it was. The game took a drastic turn with just seven minutes left though. It was one of those moments where fans are talking amongst each other, watching the soccer go possession to possession with no intense action since Mulry’s goal. East Conn was driving in; nobody was worried because they had nowhere the go. The only person to pass to was four feet ahead of our last defender, ultimately making it an offsides penalty. She made the pass anyway. Nothing happened, no call was made.
“Yo, what’s going on? That’s blatant offsides.” I heard a father say. The offsides girl took the ball and put it in the net to tie the game. Both the zombie crowd and the parent crowd knew what was going on, that one of the referees was not making the right call. So naturally, the greatest combination of hateful words found their way into the mouths of everyone supporting the Lady Beacons. I even thought one of the zombies was going to fight the referee. Even the girls on the team were arguing with the ref, but to no avail. The team had been cheated and the fans were irate and rightfully so. While we as a whole still supported the girls, it just wasn’t the same.
A missed call like that can shatter morale. The team had been robbed in a game that ended 3-2 East Conn, but should have been 2-2.