The War at the Shore delivered everything, but one important thing

The end result was inevitable.

The two top field hockey programs in the entire state of New Jersey were about to play for top honors at the Jersey Shore in the Shore Conference Tournament championship.

There was a lot of anticipation the Halloween morning of Saturday, October 31, 1987. The site was Toms River High School North and the two combatants -- No. 1 seed Shore Regional and No. 2 Toms River North -- came in with unbeaten records, the Blue Devils sporting an 18-0-1 record, the Mariners with a 16-0-2 record. In my mind and those who were going to be there to witness this 10 a.m. battle, something had to give.

So I left my parents' home at 8:55 in the morning to get there very early on this mid-50 degree morning under beautiful blue skies and sun. By the time I arrived at Toms River North 10 minutes later, I drove along the road the field hockey field was located right next to the school. Shore Regional had already been there warming up.

I got out of my car and walked onto the field to say hi to their long-time successful coach, Nancy Williams. We did a couple of minutes of pleasantries since I had known her for a couple of years now just talking about field hockey and her own team and her emotion going in.

Then I ask her, "How long have you been here for? This game isn't for another 50 minutes?"

"We got here about 20 minutes ago," she said. "Our bus driver is really fast."

Then, as if it was on cue, behind where we were standing, the school bus that brought the Blue Devils and Williams to the game came zooming behind us on that same road I came up moments earlier, hitting a speed bump pretty hard.

"See." she said.

Williams' Blue Devils could do no wrong throughout the entire 1980s decade. Their best team may have been the 1986 squad that won the state Group II title, led by two of the best players the program ever saw, Andrea Begel and Missy Paolantonio. But they had other great players on that team and they were back in this 1987 season. One of those players was Chris Tormey, who was the main distributor of the ball to the Blue Devils' attack. And their best player was senior Chris Wajda, a tall and powerful player from the point who could deliver a penalty corner shot and you'd know it was going to inflict harm with how hard she took it.

The Blue Devils were continuing to be dominant.

And that was what Toms River North was shooting for in this '87 season. The pieces were in place for what many close to field hockey and the program thought was a special year. There were plenty of seniors who provided leadership for the Mariners this particular season. That started with the program's heart and soul, four-year starting forward Kim Bush. She was on her way to an amazing final season with the Mariners, back to her scoring ways from the 1985 season when she put home 34 goals.

But Bush had some help on this team from a very strong senior class that included senior defenders Mary Bendel, Vicki Trotman and Sue Gerbino and two-way player Krista Saponara. Behind the seniors was an amazing group of juniors that included scorers Katie Vignevic, Christie Emmert and Lori Garrabrant, two-way standout Dawn Ostrowski and the final obstacle for the other team, dominant goalie Linda Kurtyka.

North's coach was Becky Miller, who like Williams, was a dominant winner herself in the sport's history. But unlike Williams, the one thing that eluded Miller was a state championship. Seven years earlier, North made it to the state Group IV final before losing the championship. This team had all the earmarks for a special season.

From in close, you can see the admiration between the two coaches. But when you put them both on the same field with their teams, you can see the fiery competitiveness of the two of them.

For the next 45 minutes before the game as I'm inside the gate of the field, people were lining up alongside the fences and in the small set of bleachers set up for those to sit down on this amazing day weather-wise ... and player-wise.

And from the moment the whistle was blown to start the game, the fans started getting into it. It was nonstop the entire first half, even if both teams looked like they were going through the motions because defense was dominating the day.

But the threats came from Shore Regional. They tested Kurtyka on a couple of occasions. The first came as Tormey came down the right side, weaving her way through Mariner defensive traffic. She threaded the needle to forward Barbara Krautheim for what might have been a perfect goal, but as Krautheim went to shoot, Kurtyka was there for the pad save. Later in the first half, Shore's Emily Bahrs had a good shot at the net, but she, too, was stopped on a pad save by Kurtyka. No one I ever saw used those blocker pads better than she did on a field hockey field.

Meanwhile, Shore's defense limited North to very few opportunities in the first half, keeping their distance from the high-powered North attack.

And so after 30 minutes, defense reigned and the game went scoreless. I remember sitting on Shore's bench where they were situated as coach Williams began talking to her players at the far end goal area. I looked at my notes -- very few scribbled down -- and figured that someone was going to make their mark in this game, but it may not be either Bush or Wajda, who had already beaten Bush's Shore area record for goals in a season by already scoring 36 times this season. It could be someone I least suspected who might deliver the goods at the right moment.

So both teams came away from their opposite ends after halftime talks and began the second half. North had a new strategy -- attack with more players. They were having a lot more ease playing on their thicker grass field than the Blue Devils were, Shoe used to playing on a lower-grass cut field. It was something Williams said later her players had a hard time adjusting to.

Finally, only 4:09 into the second half, we had our first score. Vignevic had the ball and no defenders in front of her after a Shore player tried to tap the ball away. That was bad news for goalie Caryn Goldman, who had the unenviable task of stopping Vignevic by herself. She came out second best as Vignevic fired a shot to the goalie's left side and into the net from close range, giving the Mariners a 1-0 lead.

The ripples could be felt -- it was only the second goal the Blue Devils had allowed all season. But there was still 25:51 left in the game. That was plenty of time for the Blue Devils to adjust to what was not working and make some kind of a run.

North, however, wasn't having any of it. The defense that players like Bendel, Gerbino and Ostrowski provided was proving too much to Tormey, who had 24 assists going into the game, and Wajda, who was continually being frustrated by the Mariners.

With 22:24 left in regulation time, Williams called a timeout. She was getting on her players to get going, but was also encouraging them that if they can put some passes together and continue to put what pressure they could on North, good things would come out of it. So back after the timeout, the Blue Devils began to take over play, playing in North's territory. When a North defender was detected for a foul, a penalty corner was called.

This time, Tormey set up a beautiful pass to Wajda, who had the talent to stop the hard charging ball on a slightly bumpy North field and fire a shot to Kurtyka's right side to tie it up at 1-all.

All morning long, whatever penalty corners the Blue Devils were getting, Gerbino, whose nickname was "Turbo" for her all-out speed on those corners and stopping them, was putting a kibosh on. Not this one, though. The sound of the ball pounding the wooden bottom part of the goal resonated throughout the North complex.

With 20:15 left, the game now came down to who would blink first. Both sides had their moments of taking the ball into the other team's territory, but the last 20:15 would become a defensive game. No matter what any player did once they got into the other team's defensive side, the ball would be poked away by a defender or the goalie or would slice out of bounds. For all her greatness in the '87 season, Bush was having a hard time getting anything that looked like a possible score. It may have been the most frustrating game she played all year. Shore's defense was on point.

And so the clock got counted down to zero. Now it would be sudden death overtime deciding the championship. There would be two 10-minute overtime periods. Both sides would switch fields after the first 10-minute period.

Immediately, North was on the attack on Shore's defense and Goldman. The ball found its way to Saponara, who fired a shot that went wide of the mark. Minutes later, Saponara had another chance to finish the deal and give North the huge victory, but again, her shot went wide of the mark.

Nothing after 10 minutes. The teams switched sides.

North's defense continue to throttle Shore, which could only muster five shots on net the entire afternoon. Meanwhile, North had one last chance at Shore's net. This time it was Garrabrant who had the chance to play hero. She was on the side of the net, looking to stuff a loose ball behind Goldman, but the Shore goalkeeper put a blocker on her shot and the ball went out of the box.

That would be it. The last true opportunity for someone to play hero.

As the clock operator counted down the final seconds, it became inevitable this championship gave us everything, but one important element.

A winner.

The teams walked off the North field exhausted and disappointed. Eighty minutes of field hockey, some great skill and fantastic shot taking shown, and nothing came out of it other than both teams would be crowned as co-champions.

Just two years earlier on this same North field, both Shore and North battled it out for 80 minutes in a scoreless SCT final, but on that day, they had a one-on-one shotout and North prevailed, 3-2, in the shootout for the title. A year later, the Shore Conference voted to end that finish to a game since state championships are not decided in that manner.

So because of that ruling, neither team felt satisfied with the final outcome.

But the coaches were saying the right things at the end of the game to me.

"I think everyone played a great game and got some nice shots," Miller said. "I have nothing negative to say at all."

"I think if we played each other 10 times, we'd win five and they'd win five times," Williams said. "Both teams deserved to win the title. (North) moved the ball very well. They're a well-coached team."

North outshot Shore, 10-5, as Goldman made five saves and Kurtyka three. And though Shore did not win the title, the Blue Devils made it 44 straight games without a loss, breaking the Shore area mark they had from 1979-81.

And like that, it was over. The pomp and circumstance was nothing more than a sister-kissing exercise. I wanted more! Any fan of the sport, especially that year, wanted more. We paid our ticket for the rollercoaster ride and got nothing more than an occasional small up-and-down moment.

But you appreciated how great these two teams really were, especially at the defensive end. And both teams ultimately reached their state championship at Trenton State College on a bitterly cold Sunday, November 22. However, for Shore, it ended in an NJSIAA Group II loss to Delaware Valley High, ending that unbeaten streak at 47.

For North, it was the culmination of an amazing season. The Mariners held back Morristown, 2-1, to win the NJSIAA Group IV championship, the first in program history and the great payoff in the career of Miller, who started the program in 1969.

The Shore area was better for having Nancy Williams and Becky Miller coaching field hockey successfully every year during their tenures at their schools. They helped enhance the sport and put the Jersey Shore on the map. You really couldn't have one without the other.

In one of the most exciting field hockey seasons I ever witnessed, it was an honor to watch these two titans clash at their very best.

If only there had been a winner, though.

The worst call ... ever

Recently, I saw Rick Breed at a state tournament volleyball match at Union County High School. When I first met him, he was an assistant softball coach at Palatka High School, then became the head coach for two different stints with the Panthers, winning a district championship with them in 2009.

These days, Breed is working as a volleyball official, and had grown to being the head official from the first time I saw him working volleyball matches. We talked about various things before the match I was there to cover between Crescent City and Union County that night. We talked PHS softball and how he got to this point as a volleyball official.

Then I reminded him about the last time I covered a match involving him when he was a linesman and the two combatants and how long ago it was. This short look of pain came across his face.

He remembered. I let him know that in 33 years of covering sports, that match still involved the absolute worst judgment call and ending to an event I have ever covered. Let's say he wasn't in a defending mood.

The night was Thursday, October 28, 2010. The site was Interlachen High School. The volleyball match was for the right to play for the District 6-3A championship one night later. The combatants were coach Holly Pickens' Crescent City Junior-Senior High Raiders and Keystone Heights High School, always a tough team in the sport, whose coach, Belinda Phillips, was in her fourth year with the program after she replaced Scott Conkling in the job as he went off to become St. Johns River State College's coach.

That day was a long one for me personally. Not more than two miles away, I was at the West Putnam Recreation Center that afternoon covering the All-Putnam County cross country championship as Palatka's Matt Hurst and Crescent City's Lona Roberts repeated their championships in the event, his third straight, her second.

The event wrapped up sometime before 6 p.m., the volleyball match starting at 7. I certainly wasn't making a 15-mile trip back to Palatka to write this story up and then head back to Interlachen, so I went to the one place I can unwind between events -- and order a Black Forest ham and cheese sandwich at Subway. Hey, it was either Subway or McDonald's since Interlachen doesn't offer a whole heck of a lot of options.

I arrived at Interlachen High, ran into athletic director Ron Whitehurst to say hello, then he hit me with the stunner going into the match.

"Baker County beat Bradford in the first semifinal."

That was a major upset. Bradford was the No. 2 seed and Baker County was the sixth seed of the event. It automatically qualified Baker County for the state tournament regardless of what would happen in Friday night's district final back in the Interlachen High gym.

It also meant -- at least in my head -- that the winner of the match I was there to cover between the Raiders and Indians was most likely going to win the district championship since both teams had beaten Baker County twice during the season.

The Indians were the No. 1 seed of the tournament and had beaten Crescent City twice during the season, but both times in tough four-set matches. The Raiders were primed for an upset with those results on this mid-fall evening.

Keystone Heights' main players on a team that was 23-2 going in were hitters Chelsea Harvin, Meghan Zinkel and Dakota Thacker. Their top servers were Harvin, Madyson Maxwell and Mackenzie Dicks. They were a solid team and understandably the favorites, their only losses in the regular season to a really good Gainesville Eastside High team.

Pickens, in her 28th year as head coach, had a young team that was ready to bust out and make big moves beyond Putnam County's and District 6-3A's borders. Distribution of the ball came from players like libero Steffanie Sheffield, and Karen Leavenworth, while top front-line players were Breanna Stevens and Vicktoria Williams.

But there was no question as to who the best player on the court was that night going in -- it was 6-foot junior sensation Kayshia Brady, a front-line hitter who if you set her up for the kill, she was knocking it down without much doubt. She was our newspaper's player of the year the previous year and was well on her way to repeating that honor.

At the net, Brady looked imposing to the other team, who had some tall players, too. Sometimes, it's just the presence and swag that mean a lot.

The first set showed the Raiders, who came into the match with a 16-8 record, were not intimidated by the Indians. They got out to a 9-5 lead, but a kill by Taylor Semione gave the Indians the ball back at 9-6. Three unforced Raider errors, a kill by Thacker and an ace by Dicks reversed the course of the set and gave the Indians an 11-9 lead.

Stevens put down a kill to stop the run, but the Indians got the ball back off another unforced error and with the help of a Zinkel kill and an ace by Thacker, the Indians built a 15-10 lead. But another momentum shift came upon the set as a Keystone Heights hit out of bounds and gave the Raiders the ball. Leavenworth delivered the next four points on her serve, helped out by Keystone errors and a block by Alexis Sepulveda to tie it at 15-15.

From there, it was just two teams going point for point. Keystone built up a 20-17 lead, but the Raiders didn't go away. Another Indians unforced error made it 20-18 and two more of those unforced errors off Williams serves tied it at 20-20 before a resounding Brady kill gave the Raiders a 21-20 lead. 

Already, this first set was worth the price of admission going in. A Crescent City miss-hit gave the Indians the ball back at 21-all, and another error made it 22-21 in Keystone Heights' favor.

But like a lot of rallies for the Raiders, it all got started with a huge hit for a kill by Brady that other teams couldn't handle. And so after she nailed a kill, the Raiders were back at 22-all with Brady getting the serve. An unforced error, followed by a Stevens kill made it 24-22, one point away from the set.

Still, Keystone Heights had one last chance after Chelsea Cravey put a kill down to cut it to a point. But off a Dicks serve, the Raiders set up and it would be Stevens nailing the kill to end it with a 25-23 victory.

This was a great starting point for the Raiders. They had momentum, but they were doing all they can to contain the excitement. They knew the other team on the side of the net all too well.

And so when the Indians jumped out to a 15-3 lead in the second set, it was just a matter of time before they put it away. Crescent City had its moments in the set, including four straight service points by Brady, including an ace, but this was Keystone's set without question. The Indians took the second set handily, 25-12, locking the match at 1-1.

The third set was definitely more challenging. The difference was three or four points in Keystone Heights' favor, then it got to five points at 18-13. It was at that point the Indians made an error and the Raiders took over at 18-14. It was Brady with the ball in her possession, and she knocked the lead down to nothing thanks to Indian unforced errors (there were a lot of those in this match as it got sloppy at times) and a pair of Stevens kills.

Suddenly, the Raiders were leading 19-18. Cravey stopped the run with a kill to tie it up, but once again, Stevens came up huge with another kill to make it 20-19. Now who was going to step up and string points together for the Raiders from the service line?

It was Brittney Guerrero, one of the younger Raiders. An unforced error was followed by an ace off of miscommunication by Indians players that made it 22-19.

Thacker ended the mini-run with a kill, but Sepulveda responded with a kill of her own to make it 23-20. When Dani Munoz delivered the only ace of the match she recorded, it looked as if this was another Raider win. But back-to-back kills by Zinkel got it back to 24-22. That nervous anticipation was clouding the moment. Could the Raiders hold on and get to within one set of advancing to the final?

The teams got into a short rally on the next point, but while the Indians were anticipating Brady to put the ball down on a kill attempt, it would turn out to be Sepulveda again nailing the kill to give the Raiders the hard-fought 25-22 victory.

Now they were a little more animated, but not quite there yet. They smelled the victory. It was within grasp. But the Raiders needed one more huge effort to get them over the hump. The Indians were looking at each other for answers. I could still see the blank looks on Keystone players. They knew they needed to find the winning mojo again.

The fourth set started with Keystone Heights ahead 6-2. But the bottom was about to fall out again.

This was when Brady started to get stronger. She put down an unchallenged kill to make it 6-3. Then she delivered two more kills off of Williams' services, followed by a Williams ace. Two more Brady kills and two more unforced errors suddenly had the Raiders in the lead at 10-6.

Keystone finally stopped the run with a pair of kills by Cravey and an unforced error that made it 10-9. The teams would trade points. Then at 12-10 in Crescent City's favor, the Indians had an opening. With Chelsea Velazquez on serve (the Indians had three Chelseas on the team), she was getting her serves in, while two kills from Zinkel, one more from Dicks and two more Raiders unforced errors made the score 16-12. Though the Raiders would cut the lead to 16-14, they would never get closer than that. And at 24-19, Zinkel delivered the final kill -- one of 13 she had on the night -- to finish out the Keystone victory.

It was now down to a race to 15 points. Whoever got there first or won by two points was moving on to the final and to a berth in the state tournament. For Keystone Heights, reaching the state tournament was old hat to them. But for the Raiders, a win would have meant something. The Raiders had not been to the state tournament since 1993. Seventeen years is a long time between trips. Now, they were within reach.

Two teams. Fifteen points. The race was on.

Sheffield delivered a service error to start the match and an unforced error -- one of 48 the Raiders had on the evening -- got the Indians out to a 2-0 lead. That would prove to be short-lived as Brady pounded down a kill, then another off of Gabi Martinez's service to tie it up. It didn't stop there. Two more unforced errors by the Indians (they had 41 for the match) and the second kill of the night by Williams gave the Raiders a 5-2 lead.

One-third of the way there. Though Martinez served up an errant serve on the next point, the Raiders got the ball back on another unforced error. Another unforced error made it 7-3.

The moments in this deciding set were fraying the nerves for the players on both sides of the net. Someone had to steady those nerves in a hurry.

The Indians got the ball back on -- you guessed it! -- another unforced error by Crescent City, and Maxwell went on a roll with four points, highlighted by her third service ace of the match and the fourth kill of the night by Semione as the Indians went ahead, 8-7.

But another mistake by the Indians gave the Raiders the ball back tied at 8-all. However, yet another kill by Cravey, her seventh of the night, broke the tie. Worse, the Raiders had a  hard time communicating on the court with one another, players shooting stunned looks at one another as if to say, "I thought you had it" on two more unforced errors and Pickens called her last timeout of the night. She had to get this team back on course or all the effort they exerted in over two hours would go to waste.

To the rescue came Brady, who got set up for a picture-perfect spike to cut the lead to 11-9.

But as easily as it was to get the serve back, it was Keystone Heights batting it around before Harvin delivered her third kill of the night. Worse, Raiders players could not return Thacker's fourth service ace. The Indians were two points away from putting it in the books.

The teams swapped unforced errors and at 14-10, the ball was in the hands of Harvin to take care of matters. The Indians set up for the winning kill -- except into the net for yet another unforced error.

This gave the Raiders one last hope to keep it going. 

And Sheffield was dealing. First, Sepulveda put down a kill to make it 14-12. Then the Indians couldn't get the ball over the net in three tries for another unforced errors. It was 14-13. Another serve and the ball got back on the Raiders' side of the net. The ball got set up to Brady.

BOOM! No one was returning this back as it landed inside the line to make it 14-14. It would take at least 16 to finish this match out.

Fans on both sides were excited. The IHS gym was loud. That I will always remember. This great back-and-forth match was coming down to the nail-biting end. Sheffield got the ball back for yet another serve and to give the Raiders the lead.

She hit the ball, but perfectly hit the Raiders' side of the net. The biggest point of her season and Sheffield did not deliver.

The Indians breathed a sigh of relief. They had the ball at 15-14, knowing one point was going to finish this. Maxwell now had the ball in her hands to serve out the match. She delivered the ball over the net to a waiting Sepulveda, who double-fisted the ball to Sheffield. Sheffield had one target and one target in mind -- Kayshia Brady, who with one mighty stroke of her right arm could save the game and keep it going.

To this day, I can still see the set Sheffield put to Brady -- perfectly high and within line of nailing a kill. Brady had frustrated Keystone's front line players all evening, so as she went up to get the ball and put it hard down on Keystone's side of the court to tie it at 15-15, it was understandable that Indians players had that "I guess it's time to play defense" look on their faces.

Fate, however, intervened in the worst way possible. As soon as Indians players rolled the ball under the net to hand back to the Raiders for serve, game official Jack Wetherington delivered the call that would still resonate with the Raider program to this very day.

He called "carrying" on what would have been Brady's 24th kill of the night. What he basically said was when she went up for the kill, she momentarily "grabbed" the ball and put it down that way. His explanation was, "She (caught) the ball in the (web) of her hand and put it down."

Instead of 15-all, the match was suddenly over. The Indians had the 16-14 fifth-set win and advanced to the district final against Baker County and had the automatic berth to the state tournament.

I wish I could tell you that Crescent City fans who made the trip to Interlachen were understanding and sympathetic after it ended.

I would be lying to you. Instead, Raiders fans angrily hurled their uncensored vitriol (they were very clean about it) at the officials, who, like they normally would do, thank the teams' coaches and head off either out the door of the gym or into their locker room to change afterward.

Keystone Heights players and Phillips were just stunned. There were no words to describe how they looked other than stunned. The tears began to flow freely on Crescent City's side. I can still see the tears ruining the mascara on Sheffield's face, like she'd been crying for hours and didn't bother to fix herself up.

When everything was finished, I talked to Pickens. Normally stoic after a win or loss, she holds her emotions in. Not this night. She left the gym in tears, saying, "To have our girls fight as hard as they could and have it taken away, it's not right." Just as I was about to ask a follow-up question, she respectfully said she couldn't talk anymore and she and her team left IHS feeling like they just got robbed by an unqualified robber.

I turned my attention to Phillips to talk to her after the match. She was a lot more blunt about the last play.

"I don't like the way this ended," she said. "I hate that it ended this way." She later added that, "Crescent City came to play and we took them for granted."

I walked out of IHS' gym back to my car, feeling the way both coaches felt -- that this ending was not the way it was supposed to be. And so I drove back to Palatka to the Daily News office after this long day in western Putnam County was over. I wrote the volleyball match story first because all the events and moments from that were still fresh in my mind. And it was easier to write the cross country story as long as I had notes and quotes to refer to when reporting on it.

It was after deadline that I finally had a chance to go on to my Facebook page, and something told me to go to Kayshia Brady's page to see what kind of reaction she had to what was considered a "mistake" on her part. What I found was eye-opening.

Her amazing mom had taped the final points of the match and from where she was sitting, it was behind Crescent City's team on the court. Thanks to the video, I had the chance to relive those final moments. And then at 15-14, I could still see the camera pointed toward her daughter as she went up to get the ball and slam it down for what should've been a kill and a 15-15 tie.

I watched that video 25 to 30 times in a row. I even watched it a few days later. What Wetherington described to me was nowhere close to what actually happened. There is absolutely, unequivocally, without doubt no way a "carry." She didn't grab the ball for even one millisecond. There was no doubt in my mind that Kayshia Brady had the sights on her ball and smashed a perfect kill down on a helpless Indians team to tie it up. Even Keystone players reacted as if they knew it was Crescent City's point!

I had video proof -- Kayshia Brady got jobbed. Holly Pickens was robbed. And that entire Crescent City team and fans were screwed royally.

In 33 years of witnessing and covering sports on all levels, that was undoubtedly the worst call I have ever seen ... period. Still holds true to this very day. Crescent City had a match taken from its grasp because of a call that was so bad, even I found it unbelievable.

The very next morning, I was looking in my email folder and had one waiting for me from the other official working the match. He was the other game official there.

I opened it up and got to read his take on what happened at the end of the match. I only shared portions the very next day with coach Pickens. Here's what that email read:

"Mr. Blumenthal:  Just to clarify what happened in the final match, which is incorrect in the call made.  The initial call, prior to ball being hit back across the net, was a lift by the young lady from Crescent City.  The whistle was blown and a lift was indicated by the R1, Mr. Wetherington. Due to the crowd noise the whistle was not heard and the ball was hit back across the net.  No call was reversed, since when the whistle was blown the play was dead.  Though no one wants a game to finish on this type of call, it was the correct call to make and would have been made by any official working this match.  I congratulate both teams for the manner in which they played and the level of play by both.  I was the R2 on this match, the down official, and had to tell the coach the play was dead and a lift was called.  Thank you."

Except it was the wrong call -- an absolutely horrible call at that. That's why I went back to the video Mrs. Brady shot of the end. I was looking for a carry or a "lift." Once I got confirmation from Pickens what the definition of a "lift" was, I was focusing in on Brady's right arm. Nope, never saw a "lift" either.

Any of these officials could explain away what happened. But it was not satisfactory. They screwed the call up. End of conversation. And that one call only cost the Raiders a possible district championship finale and a trip to the state tournament, which may have been for good use to get acclimated to the state tournament atmosphere.

On the same day I got that email, I got one from Alexis Sepulveda, whose sisters I covered and whose oldest sister worked at the newspaper for a short time as a clerk. Like her sisters, Alexis is a delightful young lady. But you could feel the pain and hurt in her email.

"Mark,

 I just read the article about last night's game, and I wanted to let you know that I appreciate your honest take on the match. I too was upset about the point reversal and feel as though a possible win was taken away from us.

A few minutes ago, Mrs. Pickens sent a text message to the team. It read, "Just to let all of you know we sent the video to the FHSAA. They cannot by rule change the call but they will review it and talk with the official." She also wrote, "We didn't lose, we may not have won, but we didn't lose." I agree with my coach. Last night's game was the best game all season, and unfortunately, our seniors will remember their last game ending in disappointment.

I wanted to inform you of Mrs. Pickens' communication with FHSAA in case you wanted to follow up. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me." 

The few seniors who were on this team had to leave with that bitter taste in their mouths forever, like Stevens, who was unbelievable with nine kills and three blocks, Sheffield and Leavenworth. This was not how it was supposed to end. Play it out until there was no doubt of the ending. For them, there will forever be doubt. And for the record, Keystone Heights would go on to take down Baker County and win the district title, just as I thought the Indians would do the next night.

But for Brady, who was spectacular that night with 23 kills, four blocks, 14 service points and one ace, Sepulveda, Williams and the Raiders that came back the next year, it only served as motivation. The Raiders moved from the bigger District 6-3A to the newly revised and rural District 8-1A, playing schools their own size. Other than one setback in the gym of Pierson Taylor High, the Raiders stormed through the district regular season, then beat Taylor in the district championship on their own home gym for that elusive first district championship in 18 years.

It didn't end there, though. The Raiders beat Chiefland in four sets in the Region 4-1A semifinal at home, then went to Union County's gym to beat the host Tigers in straight sets to advance to the state 1A Final Four in Kissimmee, the program's second trip there and first trip to a state Final Four in 25 years. They lost to eventual state 1A champion Mayo Lafayette in four sets, the last one a gut-wrencher with Crescent City holding a late lead in the fourth set and on the verge of forcing a fifth and deciding set, only to see the Hornets bounce back and win.

To this day, I still believe had the Raiders had the opportunity to play in the 2010 postseason, they may have had the important experience to get through the fourth set and maybe win that Lafayette state semifinal match.

We'll never know. That's the sad reality.

Crescent City got robbed of a possible 2010 state tournament run.

So when I reminded Rick Breed of that time in 2010 when Keystone and Crescent City played, I didn't have to remind him of the outcome.

It was that memorable for all the wrong reasons.