Well, my usual Wed night indoor game was tonight, and we played a team that came into the game undefeated, and, well, they kicked our ass.

BUT, I played an absolutely epic, classic, clutch, almost single-handedly keep the team in the game first half. The second half was an entirely different story.

Let me explain. That team was just better than my team� they were just better. On an individual level, we had a couple guys (one of them me) who could play at their level. One guy is our master defensive stopper, and then there�s me. I consider myself an all-around scrappy-playmaker, but I have mad defensive skills. However, on this team, I am more often finding myself in a very offensive role, trying to generate and score goals. Tonight, I found myself suddenly in the position of being �the man� in the first half. I elevated my play, ran like a maniac, got back to help on defense. At halftime we were down 5-3� and I had a hat trick. All three goals were off my foot.

I had also blown my wad. My first shift of the second half I was gassed very quickly. My second shift I was useless � wooden legs. By my third shift I had found my groove, but it was significantly below the caliber I had played in the first half.

I came out in the second half with the notion that I needed to distribute, play make, I had mine, and I needed to get other people their�s. I quickly found my teammates blowing their chances. Okay, I went to playing a little ballhog, launched some decent shots, didn�t score, blew a one timer off a beautiful pass. During one spell we launched at least 8 close-range (but often bad angle) shots in about 20 seconds � nothing went in. In the meantime, the score was 6-3, then 7-3, then 8-3, then 9-3. My legs to get back on D were gone. My offense had left the building. I was gassed. I started hanging back on D. I watched the guys up front embark on a comedy of errors on offense. The game had gotten away from me � and it had long since gotten away from my team. The first-half hat trick didn�t exist any more. Now we, and I, just sucked. It got to 10-3 before we scored with about 10 seconds left, I wasn�t on the field, I had subbed out on their 10th with about a minute left. One of my teammates said �Well, Jake kept us in it the first half� we couldn�t expect him to do it all game.� Yeah, but a loss is a loss, a butt-kicking is still a butt-kicking.