We forced a quick three-and-out and had the ball back. We went with our read-option package, and Mike must have been watching their tailback because he was fighting through their tackles. By now Bert was back in, and he managed a couple of nice runs. When we got inside the 10, I did a play-action to Bert, and then stood tall and found Jeff in the corner. We extended our lead to 14–0.
Right before the half, Mansfield fought back. They ran a nine-play drive that allowed them to kick a field goal as time expired. We went into halftime feeling good.
I don’t know what happened at halftime. I think we thought we had the game won and relaxed. Mansfield socked us right in the mouth on their opening drive. They ground out a thirteen-play drive. On the last play, they were fourth and goal and decided to go for it. I didn’t think they scored. But this is how it played out on ESPN’s sister station.
“It’s fourth and goal in the third quarter. What do you do?” the play-by-play commentator asked.
“I say you kick the field goal. It’s still early, and making the score 14–6 puts you within a touchdown and two-point conversion. That’s the smart thing to do in this situation,” the color commentator answered.
“Well, they don’t have the kicking team in. Patowski is under center in the Power I. The big defensive tackles for Lincoln are lined up in the gap, with Dawson looking to blitz. Patowski takes the snap and hands off to Sterling. Dawson hits him in the backfield and it looks like Sterling is down ... wait, he lunges forward. I don’t think he made it. That was a heck of a play by Dawson to blow that play up.”
“He has been solid all game. But this is what you expect from David Dawson. When it counted he was there to make the play ... wait a minute ...”
“The line judge just ruled it a touchdown.”
“Wow! It’s too bad high school football doesn’t have instant replay. Let’s show that again. Sterling is hit right here ... freeze it! His knee is clearly down,” the color commentator said as he circled the knee. “Then, if you run it forward, it doesn’t look like his lunge would have gotten him in. I think they missed one there.”
For the first time in a long time, I let a play get into my head. When we got the ball back up 14–10, I was still thinking about tackling their tailback. I threw three straight passes into the dirt, so Coach Diamond pulled me off defense to get my head back on straight. I was in agony as Mansfield marched right down the field to take a 17–14 lead.
When the fourth quarter started, I threw a pick-six and we were now down 24–14. I was watching the wheels come off this game, and it was my fault. I went to the huddle when we got the ball back on the 20 yard line.
Tim grabbed my facemask and got into my face. He knew I hated ANYONE to grab my facemask, so he definitely had my attention.
“Shake it off! It’s time for you to lead us to the State Championship.”
“What he said,” I joked, and everyone seemed to relax. “Read option right on two.”
“Down, Set ... Hut, HUT!”
The inside looked open, so I handed the ball to Bert. He wiggled his way to a three yard gain. I called the same play.
“Down, Set ... Hut, HUT!”
Bert must have seen something and hung onto the ball as I tried to pull it out. I let go to keep from causing a fumble. Bert was met in the hole by their linebacker for no gain. He had his head down when he got back to the huddle.
“Sorry,” he mumbled.
I really try not to dress down a player in the huddle. It just makes you look like a jerk to everyone else.
“Next time just let me decide who gets the ball,” I said, and looked over at the play Coach Diamond was signaling in.
I called the buttonhook to Wolf and made sure all my routes were going to be for first down yardage. One of my pet peeves was watching a game and a team comes up short because the receiver didn’t run a deep-enough route. I mean, why even run the route?
I came to the line and saw that the linebackers were dropping back into max coverage, leaving the whole middle of the field open. I decided we needed to take advantage of them backing off and make them play the whole field.
“Check, Check! Check, Check!” I yelled to each side of the field.
When I didn’t give them a play, it meant I would run on this one.
“Down, Set ... Hut, HUT!”
I could see they were rushing only four, and I had a nice pocket to sit in, but downfield everyone was covered.
“GO!”
The guards and tackles turned their rushers to the outside and I tucked the ball and followed Tim. I slowed down as one the linebackers broke coverage and sprinted forward. I was in no-mans-land, where I wasn’t sure if I had crossed the line of scrimmage or not. I set up to pass, and the linebacker froze, allowing Tim to get on him. I just tucked the ball and sprinted for the first down marker. Jeff made a nice block to help me get there. We now had another set of downs.
The next play, we confused them because we lined up with me under center. We ran a trap play, and Mike picked up six yards. We kept running that play, picking up four to six yards a clip. After running it four times, we called the wing counter.
On this play, we ran it just like the trap with the backside guard (if we run left, that’s the right guard, or vice-versa) pulling and blocking the defensive tackle. What we did was put Jake in the slot, and I would do my normal fake after the handoff. Quarterbacks usually run fakes to set up other plays for later. On the snap, Jake curled around the backfield, and I handed off to him as he ran around the end. Mansfield was caught biting on the trap, and Jake ripped off seventeen yards.
Bill came to the huddle excited.
“My guy isn’t paying attention to me,” he told me.
“We’ve never run this play before,” I told the guys. “Let’s run trap right wing counter, but I’ll pass it to Bill. On two,” I said.
Coach Diamond had signaled in the trap play, so I wasn’t breaking too many rules by calling my own playground play. On the snap, I knew we were good because it was a thing of beauty. As soon as I faked the handoff to Jake, I peeked over, and Bill’s corner hustled to get into position in case Jake broke contain. Bill took off on a fly route straight down the field. I was so excited that as the ball left my hands I was afraid I’d overthrown him. The good news was I put a lot of air under the ball, and Bill was able to speed up to make the catch. He almost fell but regained his balance before the safety could catch him. Coach Diamond pointed two fingers at his eyes and then pointed them at me, letting me know he was watching me. He seemed to be okay with me going off script every once in a while, especially if it turned into a big play. We were now back in the game and were only down 24–21.
The next series, Mansfield was determined to run the ball down our throats and win the game. Moose knew we needed to stop them from just running out the clock on us, so he cut Tim and me loose to blitz on each play. We were able to force a three-and-out.
Coach Stevens sent Mike in to handle the punt return. We had a block punt play on and nearly got it. Their punter hurried the ball and kicked a line drive to Mike. That’s the worst thing you can do as a punter because it gives the return man the ball before your coverage is in position. Mike was able to bring the ball back to their 28 yard line.
I moved us to the 9 yard line. Mansfield now had a shorter field to cover, and they were sending blitzes at me to either get the sack or cause me to hurry. I had to dump off the ball twice, or they would have had me. We now faced third and goal from the 9 and the clock showed under three minutes left in the game. We had to score now, or in the best-case scenario, we could get the field goal and tie it. The worst case would be a situation where we’d have to stop them and still have enough time to get a score. I liked the idea of taking the lead and forcing them to play catch-up. Coach Diamond called a goal-line pass play, and I lined everyone up.