Like last year, Mrs. Sullivan announced the Booster Club’s plans for facility improvements.
We then ate dinner, followed by some dancing. I didn’t leave the dance floor once the music started. I had a great time and looked forward to the big game tomorrow.
◊◊◊ Saturday November 28
When I got up, I went for a short run just to get the blood flowing. I was without my Bo staff this morning because I’d shipped it to LA. I really didn’t see a way I could take it on the plane. After I ate breakfast, I sorted through the clothes that Halle had picked out for me, and was happy with her choices. I guess she wanted to show me off to her friends back home.
Halle had told me that Fritz had gone back to LA on Friday so he could make sure their California homes were ready. That’s right, I said ‘homes.’ They had one in the hills that was supposed to have views of LA, and another one on the beach. Trip planned to stay at the beach house, while I was to stay with Rita and Halle in what they called the ‘big house.’
Rita and Halle planned to depart for LA tonight, while I would leave Sunday. I was getting more excited about my trip. I checked the weather forecast in LA, and it was supposed to be in the upper 60s to low 70s all week. That sounded much better than the 34 degrees it was supposed to get up to today.
We all met at the high school. We’d learned some things from our previous trip to State University for last year’s State Championship game. The first was that you had to share a locker room. It was a twenty-minute bus ride for us to get to State. Coach Hope decided we would be taped and get dressed in our home locker room and then wait until the game before ours ended. They made sure there was at least an hour between games. That would give us time to ride the bus, warm up, and do our pregame routine before kickoff.
Coach Hope called for us. It was game time.
◊◊◊
We unloaded from the buses and walked straight to the field. As we left the tunnel to go onto the field, the bright sunlight almost blinded me. The air was crisp and cold in my lungs, and there were just wisps of clouds. I flexed my right hand to make sure the cold wasn’t going to be a problem. I’d decided to go without the gloves because it gave me a better feel for the ball that way.
When our fans saw us enter the stadium, the cowbells began to ring. We ran out and lined up to stretch and prepare for the game. We were decked out in our all-blue uniforms with orange numbers and belts. Unity would be in all-white today. I thought we looked sharp.
After we stretched, we began to run drills. All distractions aside, I was nervous. We had a lot on the line. After all, this was the game. This was the one that, when it was done, you would know who the best was. I looked around and spotted two men in Iowa jackets. For some reason, seeing them calmed me. Iowa would regret canceling my visit if I ever played in the Big Ten. I knew that Iowa had only been protecting themselves, and the timing had been awful for them, but I needed my anger for today’s game.
We walked back into the locker room, and Coach Hope had us gather around to hear his pregame speech.
“Repeating as a State Champion is hard. None of last year’s other championship teams even made it to the State Championship game this year,” he said.
Springfield was last year’s champion in the class above ours. They had fallen to Loyola Academy the week before. Loyola was favored to win today against a Marist team that had surprisingly come together at the end of the season.
“I usually don’t like to look ahead, but with the core group coming back, we could possibly be three-time State Champions back-to-back-to-back. There have been a few schools that have two in a row, but we would be the first to win three. I just wanted to tell you that so you can get a feel for your place in history. The key to achieving that history is winning today.
“One of the hardest things to do is to win a game when you’re expected to. Go back to the King game. Think about how you dug just a little deeper to beat a team that everyone said was better than you are. That’s what Unity is doing right now. They’re planning to take away what you’ve worked so hard to accomplish. The difference between the King game and this one is that the winner gets the ultimate prize, the State Championship.
“I don’t know about you, but I don’t plan to just give it to them. I will give everything I have to win this game, and I expect that you will too. No one is going to take what’s ours. Every football field is ‘Our House’! No one will beat us! No one will be given a chance! Our House!” Coach Hope yelled.
That started the chant as we entered the tunnel. I led the way, and instead of running, we walked out as we chanted. Our fans heard it before we could be seen and began to shout ‘Our House!’ along with us. When we left the tunnel, we strolled out as if we owned the place and congregated near where our fans were.
Unity came storming out and gathered at the 50 yard line in a giant mosh pit of excitement. I stepped away from my teammates and threw up. That sent our fans into a frenzy. Word must have gotten out that if I did that, I’d have a good game.
Yuri and Jim and the rest of the seniors followed me out for the coin toss. It looked like Unity sent out their whole team. Unity won the toss and elected to defer to the second half. We took the ball, and Ty got us out to the 30 yard line on his kickoff return.
We lined up in our usual formation with me in the shotgun and Ty beside me, Roc and Jake on the left, and Ed and Wolf on my right. In front of me was Johan at center, Brock and Bryan Callahan at guard, and Neil Presley and Jim at tackle.
Coach Mason had taken my comment about Unity’s tendency to swarm the ball to heart. He’d planned to use misdirection plays like the counter to exploit their hard pursuit. I’d said that every team they’d beaten this year had done the same thing. Against the run, Unity was only giving up two yards per play.
Coach Mason had had Alan load all of Unity’s games into our football software. One of the features it had was it would report on which plays worked best and worst against an opponent’s defense. What it told us was that we should run quick-hitting plays up the middle. This didn’t give them a chance to get set afterward.
“Shift! Shift!” I called out.
I stepped up under the center, while Wolf sprinted in and became a fullback, with Ty stacked behind him in the ‘I’ formation. Ed shifted out to take Wolf’s spot at wide receiver. Unity looked confused because we rarely had me under center.
“Blue. Set. Hut, HUT!”
I handed the ball off to Ty, and he picked up five yards. Unity never expected that we would play power football. Our strength was with me passing the ball, and that was what they game-planned for. I think they expected us to run this play a couple of times and then spring the play-action pass on them. Instead, play after play, Ty picked up three to five yards.
I had a little smile as I imagined how happy Coach Hope was at seeing his dream offense in action. This was like old-school football where you ate up the clock and wore down the opponent’s defense. I could see my teammates wanted to go for more.
“Hey, until they stop us, we’re going to run it down their throats. Focus on holding your blocks, and Wolf, I want to see you knock someone on their butt. Dive right on two. Break!”
I could see a grim determination from my teammates. They followed my lead, and Wolf ran over the middle linebacker, giving Ty enough room to pick up eight yards. On the next play, he gained eleven, and the one after that, ten. Two plays later, he punched it in from the 3 to give us the lead, 7–0.
Ty already had more yards against Unity than any other back had made this year, with 70. He’d been the only one to touch the ball. I joined him on the sideline to see how he was doing.