Starting forward Andrew Oswald felt confident about his team’s prospects for the first annual Goal Ball Tournament at Ashland University.

“The goal in this game is to score more goals than the other team,” he said. “And that’s exactly what we’re planning to do.”

Team “Phat Sacs” went head-to-head against “The Running Club” on April 8 on the MAC courts in the AU recreation center to help support Autism awareness. The event was organized by the Sport Communication Club to help raise money for the organization, Autism Speaks.

“Because April is ‘Autism Awareness Month,’ we wanted to contribute to the cause by putting on an event with a main goal of raising money for Autism Speaks,” said Megan Salatino, former president of the Sport Communication Club. “This organization, in particular, is known as the world’s leading autism science and advocacy organization.”

Goal Ball is a sport that is actually played in the Paralympic Games by professional athletes. The Sport Communication Club wanted to bring the game home to be played in the name of good fun and competitive nature.

“The club wanted to play a game that allowed everyone, regardless of athleticism, to play,” said President of the Sport Communication Club Kylie Shober.

After winning a high stakes game of Rock Paper Scissors, team “Phat Sacs” began the riveting game of Goal Ball. In this game each team is given a common disability: blindness. Resembling blind bandits, the players wandered the court with a variety of brightly colored bandanas secured tightly over their eyes.

“It looks like Jamie’s going to rob me,” spectator Theodore Avtgis, chair of the Communication Studies Department, commented of one of the players from the sidelines.

The ball used in the game is the size of a playground kickball, only softer, and is filled with bells to alert the players of its whereabouts. Then a member is chosen to roll the ball in a bowling-like fashion across the floor and into the opposing team’s goal.

“The athletes rely heavily on hearing so we allowed the substitutes, who were standing on the sidelines, to verbally coach the players,” said Shober.

A chorus of laughter and encouragement from the observers alerted the players that they had achieved the seemingly impossible goal of rolling the noisy ball past the strategically positioned players on the opposite side.

Oswald wouldn’t allow the praise from his teammate Corbon Angermeier’s first scored goal to get to his head.

“You’ve got to act like you’ve been there before, right?” Oswald said to Angermeier.

But as the game progressed and his teammates continued to score he changed his attitude proclaiming with a mischievous grin.

“When we get the ball in our hands, its inevitable we’re going to score,” he said.

The players gained an audience of runners on the track above who stopped at the edge to watch the ball bounce off of a player’s leg causing it to soar into the air and the scrambling confusion that followed.

Hearts racing and cheeks aching from laughter, team “Phat Sacs” walked away victorious and in good spirits, knowing their involvement in the fundraiser brought a sense of accomplishment to everyone involved and awareness to those who were “in the dark” about Autism.