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worked, but Ben slipped on the wet grass and the defender knocked the ball away.
    I stink at this!
    The ball flew on a line drive, right at Jordan’s chest. But Jordan leaned back and let the ball roll off his chest to the ground. He was in perfect position for a shot, and he drove the ball into the goal.
    Ben felt a huge rush of energy as he watched the ball whoosh into the net. Jordan had given the Bobcats a 2–0 lead.
    “Awesome!” Jordan shouted.
    Ben looked at his parents, who were on the sideline clapping. He raised his fist. Buthe was embarrassed about tripping over the ball.
    “Everybody get back!” Mark called. “Tough defense now! Don’t let up for a second.”
    Even the Eagles’ goalie came down on offense now, but the Bobcats were ready. Any time the Eagles made a charge, either Ben or Jordan or Shayna seemed to be there to stop it.
    Erin had to make one more save, but it was on a soft shot from a long distance away. She caught it easily and punted it far up the field.
    The whistle blew soon after, and the Bobcats had their second win of the season.
    Ben smacked hands with Jordan and ran off the field. The Bobcats gathered around Coach Patty. Everybody was jumping and shouting, but Ben couldn’t help but feel that he almost cost his team the victory.The Eagles could have scored when Ben lost the ball. He was lucky Jordan had stepped up.
    “Great effort,” Coach said. “That’s what I like to see.”
    “We were rolling,” said Kim. “This was our day.”
    They all put their hands into the center of the circle and yelled, “Bobcats!”
    Ben scooped up his sweatshirt and joined Erin and Jordan as they walked toward the bleachers.
    “Great recovery after I messed up that fake,” Ben said.
    “You
almost
made it,” Jordan said.
    “I know. I don’t know what happened. I thought through every part of the fake, but then I messed it up at the end.”
    Jordan grinned. “Don’t think so hard,” he said. “Just let it happen.”

    “That’s easy for you to say.”
    Jordan laughed. “Sooner or later it’ll be natural for us. Thinking about it just leads to trouble.”
    Loop and Alex from the Falcons were standing nearby. Their legs were covered with mud from the field. They’d played thegame before Ben’s and had routed another opponent.
    “You guys looked pretty good,” Alex said as Ben walked past.
    “
Pretty
good is right,” Loop said. “Better than last week, that’s for sure.”
    Ben stopped. He gave Loop a hard look, but Loop was smiling and didn’t sound too smug.
    “Not bad for a couple of last-place teams,” Ben said. He wanted to remind Alex and Loop that both of their teams still had a long way to go, but he didn’t want to be mean either. The two teams had the exact same records.
    “I don’t know about you guys, but we aren’t in last place anymore,” Loop said. “Things are getting much tighter in this league. It’s still anybody’s championship to win.”
    And it could be ours
, Ben thought.
    All of that hard work was certainly paying off now. He knew he’d played the best game of his life except for that stumble. Every member of the Bobcats had improved so much since the start of the season.
    Ben pulled his sweatshirt on over his head. He stood with Alex, Loop, and Erin and watched the next two teams warming up on the field. He knew that the Rabbits had the best record in the league, but he wanted to get a look at the Wolves. They were the Bobcats’ next opponent.
    Ben heard his father calling from the parking lot. “Time to go!” he yelled.
    “I’ll see you guys at school,” Ben said. “And who knows? We might get another shot at your team in the play-offs.”
    Loop turned to Ben. “That would be fine by me,” he said. “But there’s a long way to gobefore anybody should be thinking about the play-offs. Or a championship.”
    “Guess you’re right,” Ben said. But after the Bobcats had played so well today, he could allow himself to think about it