That one was so bad Phil didn’t need to ask if it worked or not.
“By now we were worried that we may have found ourselves at a girls softball party because Casanova kept going down in flames. Us non-model types didn’t stand a chance if even our fearless leader couldn’t get lucky. I think word had gotten around about David because the girls all had a wary look about them. That didn’t slow him down. This next one actually got us kicked out of the party. ‘I’m not a weatherman, but you could expect more than a few inches tonight.’”
“Hey, now,” I complained.
Moose found me wrestling with Wolf, who giggled like a schoolgirl as I gave him a noogie. I suspect the noise we were making had attracted his attention.
“Dawson!” he bellowed.
Why was I always the one who got into trouble?
“Get taped and then dressed. The worst of the storm has passed, and we’ll be starting in forty-five minutes,” Moose said.
Finally! Let’s play this game.
◊◊◊
When we came out to stretch and warm up, there was no one in the stands. They hadn’t allowed anyone in while there was a chance of lightning. It was raining still, so I imagined everyone was still in their cars. The temperature was in the low fifties, so I didn’t blame them. It was strange to see an empty stadium, though.
We took extra time to stretch and get ready. Cold and wet in combination made it easy to slip and pull a muscle. The good news was the field seemed to be in good shape. When I practiced throwing, I didn’t have any problems. The equipment managers broke out the gloves for the skill players. We would need them once the balls got wet.
As we warmed up, they opened the gates, and the stadium began to fill. I saw my parents come in. Mom carried a big towel, and she and Dad had rain ponchos on. Someone must have been handing them out because they were all bright orange with a bulldog on the front. The cheerleaders were wearing the same ponchos.
After we warmed up, we returned into the locker room to get dried off. I was a little worried because I felt fine. Usually, my stomach got nervous, and I threw up. Part of it was probably that I thought we should win this one, and part was the rain delay. The rest of the team appeared relaxed. This was much better than them being uptight. I felt like we would have a good game.
When we ran out for the coin toss, I was the only one sent out. Coach Hope hadn’t appointed anyone else as captains. Nazareth was fired up and dancing around. It reminded me of me when we played King. I just shook my head when one of them told me we were going down.
“What, no snappy comeback?”
I just grinned at them. The referee seemed relieved that I hadn’t taken the bait. I knew they’d heard what I’d said to Todd in Indianapolis, so I would guess they planned a comeback when I responded. Boys had been playing this game for years, and I knew that it would frustrate them more if I kept my mouth shut.
I won the toss, and we deferred to the second half. Nazareth accepted the kickoff and was able to get good field position. I started to worry when they seemed to have more energy than we did. It wasn’t that they looked better, they just appeared to want it more. They held their blocks a beat longer and fought for every inch of extra yardage. Nazareth also seemed to be in tempo as they drove down the field. I started to worry that we hadn’t taken them seriously enough. We eventually stopped them, and they settled for a field goal to take an early 3–0 lead.
On the kickoff, Nazareth kicked the football through the end zone, so we started our first possession on our 20 yard line. I could tell we were in for a long night on the first snap. Both of their defensive ends were in the backfield before I could even hand the ball off to Ty. I did the smart thing and just covered up and took the sack. A handoff in that situation could have resulted in a fumble.
The second snap was more of the same. I was able to dump the ball off to Ed, but he only made up what we’d lost on the first play. On third down, Nazareth unleashed their linebackers as well. I went into full scramble mode. This time I remembered to keep both hands on the football. It was good that I did because their middle linebacker tried to punch it lose. A seam appeared, and I stepped up into it. I decided just to take off and darted past the line of scrimmage. All I could see was the safety in front of me, and he looked scared. I made a move on him, and the turf gave way. I ended up two yards short of the first down, so we had to punt.
During the first quarter, we just couldn’t seem to get the ball moving. Nazareth, on the other hand, seemed to move at will until they got inside our 20 yard line, where our defense would stiffen. Ty finally put together a few good runs and then broke a sixty-yarder for a score. At the end of the first quarter, we were down 9–7.
The second quarter found me running for my life on every other play. It felt like the old days when our offensive line couldn’t block. The bad part was Nazareth put me on my butt a couple of times. That had been a considerable difference this year, and my body didn’t miss all the bruises I used to sport. Of course, I gave as well as I received, and both their defensive ends had a new respect for how hard I would hit back.
Jim and Neil were about at the end of their rope. They just couldn’t seem to corral the two speedy defensive ends. That was when Coach Diamond had a brilliant idea. We usually ran a trap play where the backside guard would pull and block the defensive tackle. The play was designed to be run inside. Why not run it so the guard would pull and block the defensive end? We would run the ball off-tackle. Brock and Bryan were more fleet of foot, and the play was designed to use the defensive lineman’s aggression against him.
Coach Diamond added a wrinkle. Ed would go in motion at full speed, and I would time the snap so that I could hand him the football on the jet sweep. My read was the defender that had him one-on-one. If I saw he kept up with Ed as he crossed the formation, I’d pull the ball and hand it to Ty who would run off-tackle. If the defender mirroring Ed were behind, I’d give Ed the football on the sweep. My action was to do the handoff and then curl the other direction with a fake. The final option would be for me to fake the handoff and then either run a counter around the other end or pass the ball.
We lined up, and on the snap, Ed’s man had him covered, so I pulled the ball back and handed it to Ty. I couldn’t help but grin when Nazareth’s defensive end thought he’d beaten Jim again and zeroed in on Ty. He never saw Brock. There are a few times in football when you catch a guy unaware and lay him out. Brock had to be delighted when he nailed one of the pests who’d been disrupting our offense. The poor kid was shook-up, but it had been a clean play, so he hadn’t been injured. Ty picked up five yards on his run.
I wholeheartedly agreed when Coach Diamond signaled in the same play but to the other side. This time we had Jake go in motion and his defender kept up with him, so I handed the football to Ty again. I will give Nazareth’s other defensive end credit because his head was on a swivel after he’d seen his buddy laid out. It didn’t matter, though. He had to either face Bryan and fight through his block to stop Ty or let him go to avoid the contact. Coming off the ball and engaging someone head-on is much different than allowing them to get a head of steam going and then facing them. Bryan had five yards to get up to full speed, and the defensive end was on his heels. Even with him being aware that Bryan was about to hit him, it didn’t make a difference in the outcome. Bryan put a tremendous shot on our biggest problem. Ty hit the seam, fought through an arm tackle by the linebacker, and was into the secondary where he was tackled by the safety.
We’d finally found a way to contain the defensive ends and began to march down the field. Ty was picking up four to six yards on every play. Nazareth decided to try something different: the man who would follow our motion held back to add a person at the point of attack. I read it and handed the ball to Ed, who picked up fifteen yards.