WPIAL

 Standing there frozen on the sidelines, a frigid windy night, with wind ice cold up to 20mph. I taste my cold, dry lips and my old mouth piece as I stand on the sidelines anxiously waiting for the next play. It was forth down Hopewell had the ball. There was under a minute left and they didn’t have any time outs. The ball was on roughly our 20 yard line. Hopewell’s quarterback Matt Hundenski says hut and the ball is snapped. This is the play that will decide the game. Mike Ross Hopewell’s best receiver appears to be open running down the middle of the field. Hundenski throws the ball. Ross thinks he’s about to catch the game winning touchdown, and then right before the ball gets to his hand Ben Simmen comes out of nowhere and swats the ball. The crowd and our sidelines erupt. All the hard work we put it finally just paid off. We just beat a team that was better than us for the wpial championship. The crowd was rocking and so were the sidelines. It was like a huge party after he swatted that ball of pure celebration.  I still can’t believe we won WPIALs to this day. We said our senior year we were going to go back to Heinz, but lost to a team we should of beat in the first round of the playoffs. The team who beat us ended up going to Heinz field and losing to Montour.  Every time I watch or think of Ben knocking that ball down I get goose bumps. That was my favorite team I’ve ever been a part of even though I didn’t play on varsity, unlike the next two years. I will never forget that day November 27, 2009.