Sometimes when I’m covering a game, the plays, the quotes afterwards and the deadline pressure can make a game story as good as many features I’ve written. I felt that way about my “Civil War” gamer, and I feel that way about my gamer from the 5A District 5-6 boys soccer championship game between Idaho Falls and Madison High School.

Here is the link to my game story from the championship game. Here is the first section of it:

McKay Zabriskie stood in the goal box, bruised and battered, with a chance to win the 5A District 5-6 championship for the Idaho Falls High School boys soccer team.

The sun peaked through the checker-pattern clouds as Zabriskie fired a shot to the right side of the net. Madison keeper Andrew Nelson dove the other way. Game over.

‘I can’t stop smiling,’ Zabriskie said. ‘It just feels great.’

Zabriskie gave Idaho Falls a 4-2 penalty kick win and its ninth district championship in school history (first since 2012). It capped a scoreless 100 minutes of regulation and overtime soccer Thursday at the Idaho Falls Soccer Complex. The Tigers will get a week off before facing Timberline in the 5A state tournament. Previous district champs Madison will need to beat Skyline on Saturday in order to return to state.

‘It sucks we had to win it the way we did,’ Tigers coach Cory Steele said, ‘but I thought it was well-deserved.’

Here are the final three paragraphs, which circle back to the lead:

Zabriskie was nursing a painful shin bruise when he stepped up to his kick. Plus, he faced a moment that would feel suffocating to many.

‘I felt a little bit of pressure,’ Zabriskie said. ‘But I couldn’t stop thinking about my brothers on the team. I wanted to put it away and be able to run back to them, screaming and happy.’

That’s exactly what he did.