"Yes, Chibi! Come on!" Makino offered a hand to help Higo get up after making another save. "That’s how you do this!" He tried to hype his friend up.

Higo himself was quite calm, wiping the imaginary dust on his shorts before getting ready again for another action. He didn’t even break a sweat from the last save. While the angle was quite difficult and it got through Ishinori’s blockade, with his clairvoyance ability, the boy didn’t find any difficulty in solving this problem.

"Nori, the angle is bad; fix it." He instructed his teammate simply. "He still has a slight room to bend it like before; don’t let him do that. Just get him in my direction."

"Yes, Senpai!" Ishinori nodded.

Meanwhile, all the Toin Gakuen players groaned simultaneously. Everyone could see that they were getting vexed with the current situation. This was their first time getting a shot on target in the second half—which was bad, since they were about to enter the 65th minute—and yet, they found that behind the thick wall they couldn’t even breach, there was still another huge wall protecting everything behind.

This was definitely the worst-case scenario in their mind.

’Shit, their goalkeeper is that good, and they still park a whole fucking tank in their own penalty box? How shameless they can be?!’ Naoya couldn’t help but curse as another chance was blocked and couldn’t help but wipe the sweat on his forehead. Then, he turned his head at the bench and made a signal, ’Sensei, we need a change!’

The coach returned the gesture with a single nod, and right after that, two players came in from the bench. They replaced the right back and one center back who didn’t really play a big role so far, putting two more attacking players who went straight to the penalty box to add more bodies there.

"They are getting more desperate now, trying to fight Hakodate’s quality defense with quantity." Mamoru shook his head in disapproval. "2-0 is still reachable, but it is hard to achieve against Hakodate. They are trying to dump more players in the box to make more chaos, but in return, their defense will only be relying on Takahashi-san. If they conceded one more goal, everything would be over."

Even if the others didn’t say anything, they basically agreed with the assessment. It would be okay if the lead was just one goal, but two? Toin Gakuen had no choice but to go all out here, gambling everything in the last 25 minutes.

Somehow, it worked a little bit to overwhelm Hakodate Nishi, as Jun could be seen making several miscalculations that led more players to breach his defense. Fortunately, Higo was always able to see that coming, either blocking the shot on his own or just instructing the others to cover the leak.

Of course, Kumiko would also see this. She didn’t even think twice here. Knowing that Jun was having a difficult time, the girl replaced him immediately. Sano, the thug-looking boy, stepped into the pitch calmly as he high-fived his senpai first.

"Ah, they even have a thug?!"

"Psst! Don’t be too loud, or he will hear you!" 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

"Bah! What can he do?!"

Whispers echoed throughout the whole stand as everyone talked about Sano’s tough appearance. The earrings on his ears, the sharp glare, and the spiky long blonde hair that he had also helped give a yakuza persona, enough to make everyone shiver.

The moment Sano turned around and looked at the crowd, even just for a second, all the people there went quiet immediately, not daring to say anything. It was only when he turned back and started to walk into Hakodate Nishi’s area that they could take a deep breath here.

"Damn, that’s intense!"

"How could their school allow such a crook as their student?!"

"Psst! How many times do I have to tell you not to say it too loudly! Do you want to get his attention again?!"

Mamoru couldn’t help but chuckle when he heard them all. "Han-Gyeol-a, you remember how you tried your best to avoid him?" He asked the Korean striker playfully.

"W—Well, you cannot blame me, right?! I mean, look at him!" Park Han-Gyeol pointed at Sano on the field and couldn’t help but stutter, not expecting that he would catch strays out of nowhere like this.

All of his teammates laughed, but they also agreed with the boy’s statement here. Sano indeed looked so menacing, and anyone who said that they didn’t get intimidated by him would be lying. That was the effect that Kumiko wanted when she put Sano on the pitch.

However, Sano wasn’t just a tough-looking boy. No, he was like the less experienced Jun; Strong, tall, and quite fast with his feet. Not only that, but the boy was also quite good with the ball, never panicking when he was under pressure. This buried all the hope that Toin Gakuen had just brought back to the ground again, making sure that they wouldn’t dare to dream.

Not only that, but Kumiko also made two more changes in the 80th minute. Both Hiroshi and Kenji, who had already moved sluggishly, were out, getting replaced by Kuroki and Yuji. From the outside perspective, it might look like a technical substitution to waste more time since all four of them were attackers, meaning the tactic was still the same. However, Kumiko was playing a long game today.

"Yuji-kun, your task is simple. Harass everyone who has the ball, don’t stop running, and make the opponents tremble in fear when they see you coming. You don’t have to save your stamina; just go all out for the last ten minutes."

"So, I am the rabid dog, huh?" Yuji grinned ferally, not caring that the role was far from being cool here. "Not bad..."

"As for you, Kuroki-kun, you will assist everyone on the back, clearing all the aerial crosses they send to the penalty box. Make sure you cover all the leaks from any miscoordination or blunder; don’t let them get any easy chance to get a header."

"Well, sure..."

With those two on the pitch, all the attack from the home team couldn’t even reach the penalty box properly. Hell, it had been quite a while since Higo made a save, as the defensive line seemed to be impenetrable. In the end, nothing really happened in the second half, and after waiting for a while...

FWEEE! FWEEE! FWEEE!

The referee finally blew the whistle long, ending the game for Hakodate Nishi’s first win on the national stage.