We won the coin flip and deferred to the second half. Our kicker, Derek Hofmann, boomed the opening kickoff deep into their end zone. Their game films showed they always ran the ball out. Our players knew this and flew down the field. This was our chance to pin them back to start the game. We had the advantage of practicing with one of the best open-field runners I’d ever seen in Ty. When their return man made a fancy spin move, our team didn’t bite and crushed him on the 9 yard line.
Coach Zoon sent out Wolf and Johan to play defensive tackle. This was almost certainly the first time they may not have been bigger than their counterpart offensive linemen. King lined up in the ‘I’ formation. We had watched how they would use that big offensive line and run the football down the defense’s throat on the first couple of series. So far, no one had been able to stop them.
On the snap, both Wolf and Johan exploded off the ball and stood up King’s offensive linemen. If you can get an offensive lineman to stand straight up, he doesn’t have leverage enough to block you. If you keep your head up, you can see where the ball is going, shed your block, and make the tackle. When Johan saw the ball would come toward him, he tossed the offensive guard to the side as if he were a rag doll. I could see the tailback do one of those stutter-steps where you could read his mind as he made it. He’d just thought, ‘Oh, shit!’
Johan put him down hard. On the next play, King did a little better, and Yuri tackled their tailback for a short gain, making it now third and ten. Coach Zoon unleashed Yuri and Jake at linebacker to stop an obvious pass play. Their quarterback made the right read and threw the ball out of bounds.
King’s punter stood on the goal line. When we lined up, we had Johan line up across from the center with Wolf and Jim on either side of him. Yuri and Jake slipped in between the three of them. Their center must have been nervous because he snapped the ball over the head of the punter and out of the back of the end zone. We were up 2–0.
King had never been behind in a game the entire season. Now we all would see how they would react. On the ensuing free kick, we returned it to our 35 yard line. Coach Diamond wanted me to get a hit in to calm me down, so he called an option.
I lined us up in the shotgun, with Ty next to Jake and me and Ed a step back and outside the tackles.
“Down!” I called out, and Ed came in motion.
I watched as their outside linebacker tightened up where Ed had just come from and looked like he planned to blitz. Todd, at middle linebacker, eased over in the direction Ed was moving, as did the other outside linebacker. I hoped Coach Mason caught that.
“Set. Hut, HUT!”
I slapped the ball into Ty’s gut but saw their defensive tackle had stood Brock up, so I pulled it out. Ty blasted into the defender, and the combined effort of Ty and Brock took him down. Usually, I’d go to my next read at defensive end as I worked my way down the line, but I saw their outside linebacker come crashing across. Instead, I followed Ty and slipped past their pile. That’s where Todd caught me. I instantly regretted riling him up. He blasted me so hard that I was surprised to still have the ball when I hit the ground. My friend and ex-teammate Kevin Goode had been the only other player to hit me this hard. If we hadn’t hit shoulder pad to shoulder pad, one of us would have been hurt. The sound of our pads popping cut through the crowd noise.
Somehow, I popped right up, tossed the ball to the line judge, and made it back to my side of the ball. I think my body was in shock, and I had one of those ‘Holy Cow’ moments where you try to play it off. I huddled up to cover up that I might be hurt. My left shoulder was numb from the hit. Thank goodness it wasn’t my throwing arm.
“Are you all right?” Jim asked.
“Heck if I know. He hit me like a ton of bricks,” I said and dropped down to one knee as if I were about to call the play.
What I really did was try to get it back together. I looked over, and Coach Diamond had called the same play.
“Option right on two. Ty, you’re getting the ball,” I warned him.
He gave me a tight-lipped look and nodded. On the snap, I handed the ball off to Ty. He gained four yards to make it third and three. Todd hit Ty every bit as hard as he did me. Evidently, Ty was smarter than I was because he took himself out of the game to regroup. I shuddered when they sent Phil in to take Ty’s place. Todd would kill him.
Coach Diamond called the jet sweep where Ed would come in motion, and I would hand him the ball. He would be at full speed when he got the football. King played it well, and Ed only gained a yard, so we had to punt.
The first quarter ended with us trading possessions. I had yet to throw the ball. I found in the option that since I knew how hard Todd could hit, I tended to hang onto the ball to protect my teammates. A little grin showed on my face more than once when I hit Todd as hard as he hit me, and I’d see him stagger. Coach Mason was about to go insane that Coach Diamond would allow me to trade blows with Todd. I’m sure he knew as well as I did that one or both of us could end our football careers today.
We had just gotten the ball with only four minutes left in the second quarter when Coach Diamond gave the order to go into the hurry-up. I would make the calls at the line of scrimmage. Now, for the first time, I could throw the ball. On the snap, Wolf made a swim move on his cornerback who’d played him tight. As soon as Wolf came free, the ball was there, and he caught it. It was one of those bang-bang plays that if you didn’t practice it until it became second nature, you’d never complete it.
Wolf picked up eleven yards for our biggest gain so far this game. When we ran up to the line of scrimmage, I could see the hunger in the King players’ eyes. They had been waiting for this. They’d seen us practice this yesterday, and we looked terrible.
On the snap, they sent Todd up the middle. I had Ty slip through the line and dumped him the ball where Todd had been. I let Todd push me to the ground, which drew a flag for a late hit. Ty had picked up eight yards, but we took the penalty instead. Todd was livid that he hadn’t gotten to me in time. He just knew I would fall apart if they could get me out of my comfort zone. They didn’t know that one of the reasons for my rating as the best quarterback in the country was that I loved to freelance.
While they sorted out the penalty, ESPN switched to Margaret Chin.
“Yesterday during practice, Lincoln ran the hurry-up offense you’re seeing them run now. They looked dreadful, and when I interviewed the coaches and players from King High School, they had seen the practice. This is what linebacker Todd Davis had to say,” she said, and then let the tape run.
Todd had a smirk on his face.
“Everyone talks about how David Dawson is the best quarterback. I saw him when I made my visit to Notre Dame. He has a world of talent and deserves all the accolades he’s received, but we’ll beat him. We found his Achilles heel. If you let him sit back in the pocket and get comfortable, he’ll kill you. What we saw today was if he has to hurry, he’s a different player,” Todd said.
While Todd talked in a small window in the corner, they showed me running for my life as Todd chased me. I hit Ed with a pass as he found his spot in the zone for when I scrambled. He picked up a nice gain. When the play was done, the interview continued on full screen.
“I sat down and talked to David Dawson about this,” Margaret Chin said.
“We had a little fun at King’s expense. Coach Hope told me to tank my performance yesterday. We hoped that King would think that was the worst part of my game, and blitz when we went to the hurry-up,” I said.
Up in the little corner of the screen, it showed King had sent Todd and one of their outside linebackers after me. I was scrambling around, leading them on a merry chase. This time King had covered all our receivers, so I stepped up and ran the ball. I don’t think Todd expected that I could outrun him. I would have scored if I hadn’t tried to get fancy and hurdle their safety as he attempted to take my legs out. It slowed me down enough for Todd to pull me down from behind after a nineteen-yard gain.