Hot-Shot Harry (6 page)

At full-time, the teams were still locked at 2–2.

“There will now be a shoot-out to decide which school goes through to the Final,” called the referee. “Choose three players to take the penalties.”

Mrs Phillips had already made her choice, Gateway's main scorers – Oliver, Leela and Harry.

“Do these goals count for the sponsor money?” asked Oliver.

“Course they do,” Harry said firmly. “Goals are goals!”

Oliver took the first spot-kick, but he sent the ball high over the crossbar.

Harry glared at him. “Great!” he said nastily. “Thanks a bunch.”

The first York kicker also missed with a wild shot, and then it was Leela's turn.

“Keep it low,” hissed Harry as Leela walked by him, trying not to show how nervous she felt.

Her hands were shaking as she settled the ball on the penalty spot.

She met the keeper's eye on purpose, and flicked a glance towards the bottom corner of the goal, to his right.

The boy thought it was a trick and dived to his left, but it was a double bluff. The ball zipped into the other corner. Leela threw her arms up into the air in relief.

“One-nil to Gateway,” called the referee.

Thirty seconds later it was one goal each. Charlotte had dived the wrong way too.

Harry showed no sign of nerves. He didn't have special tricks for penalties, like Leela's mind-games. He simply pretended that the goalie was not there. He always practised penalties without one and now he kicked the ball as hard as he could. The keeper jumped out of the way!

“Two–one to Gateway.”

York took their last shot. It was a hard ball too, and Charlotte was not as sensible as the York keeper. She blocked the fierce shot with her right hand.

Gateway had won the semi-final!

Charlotte's cry of pain was lost in the crowd's cheers. Her team-mates all jumped on top of her.

It was only when she didn't get up that they realised she had been hurt. It wasn't her ankle this time, but her hand.

“I've bust my little finger,” she wailed.

It was dislocated. A first-aid attendant put the finger back into position, but it was still very sore.

“No Final for you, I'm afraid,” Mrs Phillips told her. “Somebody else will have to go in goal.”

“Don't look at me,” said Ravi.

“I'll do it,” Harry said, to everyone's surprise. “Captain's duty.”

“They say all goalies are crazy,” Leela told Charlotte. “And Harry sure is crazy!”

Charlotte gave a weak smile. “Well, that's a good start, then.”

“We're going to miss you in the Final,” Leela said.

“Just make sure you win,” Charlotte said. “I don't want to go home with a losers' medal.”

Leela nodded. “But Ashfield beat us 2–0 in the last round, and they won their semi-final pretty easy, too.”

Leela was right. The all-boys' squad of Ashfield School was full of confidence.

They even ran onto the pitch in an arrow-shaped formation. Then they did some warm-up exercises.

“Huh! Just look at that load of dummies!” scoffed Harry. “Who do they think they're going to impress?”

“Us, probably,” said Oliver, who was going to play up front. “Are you OK in that sweat shirt?”

Harry had borrowed Oliver's green sweatshirt. It was a bit small for him, but it was that or Charlotte's yellow jersey.

“Yeah, I'm fine,” he lied. He didn't feel at all OK about playing in goal. “Just make sure you score more goals than I let in!”

They grinned at each other.

“Come on, get in goal and I'll take a few shots at you,” Oliver told him.

They did not have long. Harry was soon called by the referee to toss up with the Ashfield captain.

“Heads!” called Harry as the coin spun into the air.

“Tails,” said the referee.

That wasn't the only thing that Harry got wrong.

Ashfield swept into the attack straight from the kick-off. It took a well-timed tackle by Ravi, to prevent an early shot at goal.

Harry's first task as goalie was to block a low shot with his legs instead of his hands. He used his hands for his second task – picking the ball out of the net after the rebound had been smashed back past him.

“Unlucky, skipper,” said Brad.

Harry booted the ball away in a temper.

“Huh! Any chance of
you
trying to stop them shooting?”

Brad and Ravi kept Ashfield at bay for the rest of the first period. Most of Ashfield's shots were long-distance efforts which caused Harry few problems, but their own keeper had nothing to do.

Then Gateway won a free kick for a foul on Leela. Oliver took it. The ball swerved and dipped as it flew, but the keeper got it away to one side.

Just before the interval, there was a goal that nobody expected.

Leela was boxed in against the side wall of the pitch. She kicked the ball back to Brad who had moved up in support of the attack, crossing the halfway line for the first time in the game.

Brad pushed the ball in front of him, looking for a Gateway player to pass to, but everyone was well marked.

So Brad went even further forward and ran out of options. The only thing he could do was shoot.