The Boy’s team has had quite the season this year: up to today’s game, they had allowed only a single goal. They beat most of their opponents handily. Today was different. They were up 3-0 by the first half, so the coach put in a new goalie. Someone who’d never played goalie before. I suppose the reasoning was that if the other team started scoring, he could make adjustments and put back one of the two boys who usually play in the goal. That seemed unnecessary, though: the boys added three more to the score, invoking the mercy rule, which means they were no longer allowed to score. In the final minutes, though, the goalie made a mistake that left too much room and allowed a shot into a virtually open goal. The boys still won 6-1, but E was a little disappointed: “I wanted to finish the season with only one goal scored against us.”