Andrea Harrison of St. Aloysius smiles as she tries to control the ball in front of teammate Joe Theobald during a Flashes’ win this season. Because there is no girls’ team at St. Al, Harrison, a freshman, is playing on the boys team and excelling. (The Vicksburg Post/C. Todd Sherman)

There are probably a few guys out there who laugh fondly at the memories of teasing the little school girl on the playground, perhaps dominating every sport played in gym class while taunting her with subtle games of keep-away.

Andrea Harrison is the girl who took it all personally, and the boys in Region 4-1A soccer are the unfortunate souls who will endure her wrath.

“She was good, she shook me and everyone on our team,” Crystal Springs defender Kent Walker said. “She kicks hard; kicked me in my ankle.”

When all 5 feet, 105 pounds of the freshman forward takes the field for St. Aloysius, her ponytail is tied as though a warrior preparing for battle, the cheerleading smile (her squad won region) straightens to a chilling leer, and no matter how big or small the opponent, Harrison’s focus is tunnel vision.

She will charge into packs of upturned cleats and legs swinging like an executioner’s axe blade, or leap for a loose header while opponents twice her size flick their heads forward like weapons.

Harrison will dribble the ball with a seemingly tranquil gait as an encroaching defender chargers toward her, only to pull a crossover as easy as a card shark handling the deck while her opponent stares at the twitching blades of grass that marked where she had once stood.

“She’s a good player. She fights hard, she works hard and is a real good all-around player,” Flashes senior sweeper Michael Engle said. “Going against guys in high school is always tough, but she holds her own, I got to give it to her.”

The worst mistake an opponent could make would be to take Harrison lightly because the favor will not be extended.

“It’s extraordinary to find someone, especially as young as she is, that can actually hold her own with the boys,” Flashes assistant coach Mike Gough said. “Practically every game she’s taken a boy down on a tackle, and that’s kind of funny to watch. She’s been a real treat.”

Harrison has been playing organized soccer since she was 5 years old and plays on a Cannon select team as well as an Olympic Development Program team.

Quite frankly, she finds the select league competition tougher and rougher than anything she has faced playing for the Flashes.

“It’s just as rough, it really is, with girls,” Harrison said. “We play rough when we play.”

Matter of fact, the only time Harrison has faced rough play is when she is the initiator.

“I took one in the first game. It was a bad on me, though. I kind of fouled. I slide-tackled a guy, and his cleat hit me in the head,” Harrison said. “It hurt, but that was probably the worst.”

But not nearly as bad as when she had to endure one opponent singing, “You are so Beautiful,” throughout the game.

“They talk to me a lot, like hitting on me, because they’re not used to playing with a girl,” Harrison said. “It doesn’t bother me, I just ignore them.”

Maybe because of this added torment, and the thought of their 14-year-old daughter competing against high school boys, Harrison’s parents debated about whether to allow her to join the Flashes.

“They’ve always wanted me to play soccer, but they didn’t really want me to play for St. Al because they didn’t think I would get much playing time and that I’d get hurt or something,” Harrison said. “The main thing was getting hurt, because them boys are rough, they can hurt you, too.”

Her St. Al teammates were not about to let someone as talented as Harrison take her game elsewhere.

“One day I saw her out at practice, and I was like, Okay, that’s fine, we’ve had girls play the past few years.’ Then she started working the ball well, and we saw what she could do, and we asked her to keep coming back,” Flashes senior goalie Andy Gough said. “At first I thought she was a little tentative about playing the whole season … we made sure she came back.”

After losing five seniors from a team that had made it to the North State championship a year ago, Harrison’s presence couldn’t have come at a better time for the Flashes.

“Andrea was an unexpected surprise. She has excellent ball skills, a good sense of the field, just a smart player,” Flashes coach Carlos Lee said. “When she gets the ball, she instinctively knows what to do with it. She’s an asset.”

Because Harrison is the lone girl starter, the self-imposed pressure to excel can sometimes be more difficult to deal with than the competition itself.

“It’s like if I go against a boy, and I’m dribbling, if I lose it, it’s a big deal because I’m a girl,” she said. “It’s bad for me to lose it because girls never really played much, and people would think I’m not really good playing on a boys’ team.”