TACOMA, Wash. — Each day, on a walk from the locker room to the practice field, a football player for the University of Puget Sound (UPS) takes the path less traveled.
Some days are lonelier than others, but loneliness is the price that must be paid when you're the first.
Lily Godwin is a 19-year-old sophomore.
She's an NCAA Division III football player, and a woman.
"They announced my name and I remember the guys on the other sideline being like 'Woah,'" she said.
That's the reaction Lily's gotten her entire life.
At UPS, it's for all the right reasons.
"She's a dog. I mean, she's just like the rest of us," teammate Max Arneklev said.
Head coach Jeff Thomas had never had a female football player, until Godwin arrived last year.
It was uncharted territory, but the fit has been off the charts.
"We didn't feel like it would be fair from the athletic administration through our football office to do something and not do it well," he said.
"It was clear they had thought intentionally about how I would fit in every aspect of the program," Godwin said.
From laundry, lockers, and her own room on the road, Godwin was welcomed with open arms.
Her signature open-arm tackles quickly endeared her to the team.
"She shows up every day and works hard and doesn't want anything given to her so she can't help but be respected on our team," Thomas said.
Those are the seeds Lily has left everywhere she's been.
Down in Arizona, her high school coach, Daniel Cardiel, said Lily was the literal heartbeat of his team.
"Me and the coaches would look at each other like, she does everything," he said.
Without her, there wouldn't have been a team.
Now that she's gone, there isn't one.
"After she left, the following year, we didn't have enough players come out so we canceled the season last year," Cardiel said.
Sequoia Charter School in Mesa now only has a flag football team. This also was the case when Lily was a freshman before she rallied enough players to field a tackle team her sophomore year.
Her mom, Jessica Dunn, said even still, it wasn't ideal.
"During practices, only half of the people that said they were going to play would show up," she said.
It was a dark situation, but Lily managed to find the light.
"As we moved into tackle football, all the things about football were making sense. It was clicking for me," she said.
With one problem tackled, her next tackle was even sweeter.
It happened this year against Linfield.
On Oct. 21, Lily planted roots.
"The boundary corner was playing man, so my responsibility is run game," Lily recalled.
"I could see it in my head," said Lily's dad, Dwight Godwin Jr. "The full-back was just coming up the middle."
"Patting my feet because that's what we got to do," Lily added.
"She went, 'Ok let's go,'" Dwight added.
"I just filled the hole that was there," Lily said.
"It was amazing to watch. Like I saw it and I was like, 'Oh yeah.' There were a lot of expletives," said Godwin Jr, who was watching on the livestream. "It's my daughter's first tackle in a college football game, that's awesome."
It wasn't just a first for Lily, it was a first for everyone.
"I am the first woman to make an unassisted tackle in NCAA football history. It's so weird to think about because I did not even realize just how unique what I was doing was," she said.
Lily's taken the trail less traveled because she's a trailblazer.
"They get so confused sometimes when they see it's a woman who's doing this," she said.
The path can be a lonely one, but she certainly wasn't alone when she made the tackle.
"They all erupted," Lily said of her teammates' reaction.
"The whole stadium went absolutely crazy," Arneklev said.
That made all the difference.
Lily was the first. She knows she won't be the last.
"I would love for it to just get to a point where it's just, 'Oh it's a girl.' And you just move on, it's just a natural thing," she said.