In high school ball, pass interference isn’t always a bad choice for the defense. It’s a fifteen yard penalty, unlike pro ball where it’s a spot foul. The back judge, side judge, and referee all got together and seemed to be having a heated discussion. The referee made the call.
“Intentional Pass Interference!”
I had never heard of ‘intentional’ pass interference. I was shocked when they walked off thirty yards. The Beverly head coach lost his mind. While the referee was dealing with him, I went to the umpire and asked what had happened.
“In certain situations, a defensive player may deliberately commit pass interference against an intended receiver. If that receiver would make a large gain, or score a touchdown, we have the latitude to add another fifteen yards to the penalty. The Beverly defender tackled your receiver,” he explained.
Coach Hope called me over. It looked like the Beverly coach was going to get himself kicked out of the game, the way he was chewing on the referee. They’d marked the ball at the 28 yard line. Another five yards and we’d be within Wayne’s range for a field goal.
“They’re going to be expecting us to try and get it all on this next play,” Coach Hope told me. “Run the read option, and give it to the fullback. That should get us into field goal range. From there we can focus on the touchdown, but I want to get three, at least.”
I went back out and we huddled up; we saw that the Beverly coach had managed to stay in the game. His tirade had fired up their crowd, and they weren’t shy about calling out the officials. I was amazed to hear some of the comments adults made at a high school game.
Coach was right. We picked up eight yards on the first play, and then Beverly’s defense stiffened. Wayne came in and drilled the field goal to put us up 3–0. That’s how the first quarter ended.
Late in the second quarter, we got the ball back. This was turning into a slugfest. Coach wasn’t happy, because Beverly was dictating the game. They were trying to shorten the game by using the whole play clock for each offensive play. It was time to take the shackles off the passing game.
We lined up in the shotgun with three receivers and a tight end. I had them overloaded to my right side with Wolf, Mike and Jeff. On the weak side, I had Bill. Bert was my lone running back. The play I called was intended to hit Bill over the middle as he did a crossing pattern with Wolf.
“Down, Set ... Hut, HUT!”
I dropped back and waited for Bill to make his move. The center of the field looked open as he made his break. Coach’s warning suddenly made me stop as I was in my passing motion. I then saw a linebacker break for the ball, and the strong safety hadn’t covered the outside as he normally would.
The clock in my head was going off. I felt Beverly linemen crashing in on me. I tucked the ball and took two steps forward, only to find it cut off. I stopped and spun to my right, splitting the defensive tackle and end. I looked up and Jeff was all alone. I put everything I had on it and hit him in stride. Seventy-three yards later we were up 10–0.
Beverly then took over and ran out the clock for the first half. They kicked a long field goal to make the score 10–3.
Coach Hope had us all gather around in the locker room.
“If you expect Beverly to lie down and quit, don’t. They’ll start picking up the pressure defensively to cause us to make mistakes. Keep your heads about you, and play our brand of football. I want the defense to get us the ball back at the start of the second half. If we can put another score on the board, we can beat them.”
We then broke down into offense and defense. Coach had me only playing offense, hoping to keep me fresh for the quick turnaround on Saturday.
The second half began with Beverly slowly working their way down the field. It didn’t quite turn out like Coach wanted. The Beverly drive was finally stopped, but they kicked a field goal to make it a 10–6 game.
We took over and drove down the field. We were at the Beverly 36 yard line when Ed was crushed and fumbled the ball. It turned out he’d broken his collarbone and was done for the season. It was up to Jake and Mike to replace him. Neither one of them had his elusiveness, but they were much more powerful runners.
Beverly drove the ball down the field and scored their first touchdown just as the third quarter ended. They were now leading, 13–10.
Coach Hope took me aside.
“We need to score on this drive; otherwise, they’ll slow this game down to a crawl, and we may never see the ball again.”
I knew he was exaggerating, but I got the point.
Coach Diamond, in effect, pulled the running game. I looked at Bill. We knew this game was in our hands now. When we got into the huddle, he wanted to say something.
“We own the fourth quarter. This is where we win this. I want to leave Lincoln a State Champion.”
I lined us up with four wide and scanned the defense. I was surprised to see they’d gone to a nickel package. I also saw what looked like one of their blitz tells we’d noticed from their game films. If it that was the case, they’d be jamming our receivers hard to force me to hold the ball longer.
I called an audible to take advantage of this.
“Bingo! Bingo!”
“Down!”
We went on first sound to help defeat the blitz. The defenders closed to hold up our receivers. Bill had been recruited by USC for a reason: hardly anyone could handle him one-on-one. The cornerback whiffed on his effort. I had anticipated his success, and the ball was in the air before Bill had cleared him. Bill made me look good as he snatched the ball out of the air one-handed. He never broke stride, and we were back up 17–13.
That ended up being the final score. Both teams had played hard; we just had come out on top. It felt good to come into their house and win.
ON THE WAY HOME, WE got the word our second opponent was Trinity Catholic. They’d won State in our class three of the last six years. They went on the road and beat this year’s favorite, St. Rita, 22–21 on a last-minute two-point conversion. Last year we’d played them in the second round, and beat them 28–14. I had gone just a little insane in that game. They had two defensive linemen who were now playing for Notre Dame. In the first quarter, they’d earned four roughing-the-passer penalties. On the last one, their linebacker had actually picked me up and slammed me to the turf, like he was in a WWE match. I had destroyed them in the second quarter, putting 28 points on them. Shortly after halftime, they’d pulled me.
It seemed the HSAA didn’t like Trinity Catholic. They’d be playing their second road game of the playoffs. This year’s team was rumored to be just as physical as last year’s. Learning they were up next took a lot of the fun out of the ride home. I guess karma had finally balanced the day out.
Chapter 19 – Red Alert
Thursday November 13
When I got back from my morning run, I found Peggy in my apartment. I gave my girlfriend a kiss. She looked worried about something.
“Don’t tell me my parents are getting frisky again and we have to go out to eat,” I ventured a guess.
“No, I need to talk to you.”
I looked at her, and the irony hit me. I attracted damaged women. I just shook my head.
“Baby, just tell me.”
“I’ve been thinking about what I said yesterday ...” Peggy said.
“It’s okay, I understand.”
“You do?” she asked, looking hopeful.
“I hope we can still date,” I said.
She damn near took me off my feet, and then she started crying. I calmed her down, then went and took my shower. I was surprised I was taking this so well. The emotion that crept up on me was a relief. I had spent the first half of the semester running from girls. Dating Peggy was perfect. Being Peggy’s boyfriend was too much for now. I wasn’t ready to make a commitment to anyone.