Junior Year Box Set

“Let me ask you a question: could this have waited until after the game?” I asked.

“Sorry, I wasn’t thinking. I’ll try not to bother you before a game again.”

I hung up, and it was time to get ready for the game. Tim and Jim led us out, and we stretched and got the blood pumping. When it was time to throw, I took a moment to take in the atmosphere. The marching band was entertaining the fans by the hospitality tent. It looked like we would have at least as many people for our scrimmage as we would for a game. Of course, I shouldn’t have been surprised, because our little town was football-crazy.

Off to the west, storm clouds were pushing in. I just hoped we could get the game in before it rained. The weather report predicted overnight showers, some heavy.

We returned to the locker room to hear Alan give us his pearls of wisdom. To his credit, he kept it short. Alan might be a spaz at times, but he could focus. He was also almost as competitive as Tami and me. Alan was the thinker of the group. When we played video games, he would spend hours figuring out all the little hidden places so he could ambush us. If Alan brought that focus to coaching, he would be a great asset.

Alan sent me out alone for the coin flip. Mike, Ty, Jake, and Ed met me at midfield. It was weird to see them across from me.

“You’re going down, Dawson!” Mike challenged me.

I looked at Ty, and he just shook his head. Ty knew it wasn’t a good idea to get me riled up. If any of the others had said it, I would have just laughed, but Mike wasn’t on my favorite-person list. The hairs on the back of my neck raised up as I got mad. I didn’t say a word as the ref did the coin toss. They won and decided to defer to the second half. I took the ball. Usually, you would shake hands, but I just turned my back to them and walked to our sideline to get ready. I think Mike had done me a favor because I leaned over behind the bench and threw up. Now I was ready! All I needed was to hit somebody, and I’d be good.

On the kickoff, the Lincoln cowbells were ringing to announce the start of the game. Their kicker put the ball out of bounds, which gave us the football on the 35 yard line. Alan gave me the first play before I went out.

“Z98 Play Action W,” he told me.

I had expected we would run the option since that’s what we usually ran to get the jitters out of everyone. Alan had instead called a play-action pass to Wolf. With our new formation, I would line up under center with a fullback behind me. Two tailbacks would be lined up behind and slightly outside of the tackles on each side. We would then have one receiver wide to each side. Alan was trying to catch them off guard as they tried to stop the expected run. I liked how he thought. I just hoped I didn’t overthrow the ball.

“Blue! Set. Hut, Hut!”

I faked the handoff to the fullback and started down the line as if I were running the option. I looked for Wolf and saw that Coach Zoon had cheated. Instead of our standard defense, he had a corner and safety on Wolf as a double team, and underneath help from a linebacker. The play was supposed to be quick because on a run, my read was the defensive end. I was supposed to throw before the defensive end had a chance to get into my face. With Wolf covered, my only option was to run the ball.

That was when I peeked over to the back side and saw Roc streaking down the field with the much smaller Ed chasing him. Something that Bo had hammered into me was footwork. Throwing the ball started with your base. Last year I would have used my arm strength and just thrown the ball to Roc. If I followed Bo’s advice, my accuracy went way up. The defensive end would get a free shot, but I took the time to throw the football correctly. The upside of playing your own team was they were conditioned to not try and hurt me. When he saw he wasn’t going to stop me, he just gave me a shove instead of planting me into the turf.

Roc’s loping style of running ate up a lot of ground in a hurry. Ed, to his credit, closed the gap as Roc reached up for the football and pulled it in. Ed tried to make the tackle, but Roc powered out of it and was gone. I got up and pumped my fist in the air as I realized that on the first play Roc had ever had in front of our fans, he had ripped off a 65-yard score.

On the ensuing kickoff, Ty showed why I was so excited to have him on our team. He took the ball at the 4 yard line and followed his wedge blockers. Tim, our best tackler, split their wedge and had Ty dead to rights. Then it was as if someone had smashed the ‘B’ button on the controller because Ty made a nifty spin move that left Tim doing alligator arms as he tackled thin air. Everyone had let up because they assumed Tim would get the job done. Our hesitation cost us as Ty raced 96 yards for their first score. It was now tied 7–7.

Before we went back in for offense, Alan took me aside.