Metamora goalie Sarah Schrader is good at her job.

"This year she’s playing with a lot of confidence," said Metamora head coach Dan Driscoll. "I think she’s one of the top two goalies in the area."

But two weeks ago, in the late minutes of a scoreless tie with Dunlap, Schrader went from a player responsible for keeping the ball out of the net to the game's offensive hero. The Redbirds' goalie scored the game–winning goal.

"It was great because as a goalie I only get to experience failure most of the time. It’s rewarding when you make saves but scoring goals is the ultimate. It felt great when I did it."

The Redbirds have a play on corner kicks where they move Schrader to the offensive side of the field. But its risky, because it leaves their goal empty. They had tried it two previous times this season. It almost worked once. And then on April 22 Schrader came through.

Driscoll likes the play now, but it took a lot of convincing to get him to run it in a game.

"They had to twist my arm to run this play. Jason Fowler, who was an assistant coach for us for 7 years, last year he said, ‘Sarah seems to judge balls out of the air better than most of the other kids. Why don’t we give her a shot on corner kicks?’ And I said, ‘No way.'

Eventually Fowler convinced Driscoll. All he had to do next was convince Sarah.

"It just kind of happened during practice and he sad, ‘Do you want to be a part of this?’ I figured I’d go for it."

"It’s like a secret weapon," said teammate Melanie Young, whose responsible for pulling the trigger on the play with the kick from the corner. "We run it in practice a lot, so when we get a chance in a game we like to bring her up. We just have to hope that it’s a great corner kick. Luckily she was in the right spot and the kick went well and she was able to put it in."

Now the goalie knows how the other half lives.