Junior Year Box Set

Coach Zoon sent out Wolf and Johan to play defensive tackle. This was almost certainly the first time they may not have been bigger than their counterpart offensive linemen. King lined up in the ‘I’ formation. We had watched how they would use that big offensive line and run the football down the defense’s throat on the first couple of series. So far, no one had been able to stop them.

On the snap, both Wolf and Johan exploded off the ball and stood up King’s offensive linemen. If you can get an offensive lineman to stand straight up, he doesn’t have leverage enough to block you. If you keep your head up, you can see where the ball is going, shed your block, and make the tackle. When Johan saw the ball would come toward him, he tossed the offensive guard to the side as if he were a rag doll. I could see the tailback do one of those stutter-steps where you could read his mind as he made it. He’d just thought, ‘Oh, shit!’

Johan put him down hard. On the next play, King did a little better, and Yuri tackled their tailback for a short gain, making it now third and ten. Coach Zoon unleashed Yuri and Jake at linebacker to stop an obvious pass play. Their quarterback made the right read and threw the ball out of bounds.

King’s punter stood on the goal line. When we lined up, we had Johan line up across from the center with Wolf and Jim on either side of him. Yuri and Jake slipped in between the three of them. Their center must have been nervous because he snapped the ball over the head of the punter and out of the back of the end zone. We were up 2–0.

King had never been behind in a game the entire season. Now we all would see how they would react. On the ensuing free kick, we returned it to our 35 yard line. Coach Diamond wanted me to get a hit in to calm me down, so he called an option.

I lined us up in the shotgun, with Ty next to Jake and me and Ed a step back and outside the tackles.

“Down!” I called out, and Ed came in motion.

I watched as their outside linebacker tightened up where Ed had just come from and looked like he planned to blitz. Todd, at middle linebacker, eased over in the direction Ed was moving, as did the other outside linebacker. I hoped Coach Mason caught that.

“Set. Hut, HUT!”

I slapped the ball into Ty’s gut but saw their defensive tackle had stood Brock up, so I pulled it out. Ty blasted into the defender, and the combined effort of Ty and Brock took him down. Usually, I’d go to my next read at defensive end as I worked my way down the line, but I saw their outside linebacker come crashing across. Instead, I followed Ty and slipped past their pile. That’s where Todd caught me. I instantly regretted riling him up. He blasted me so hard that I was surprised to still have the ball when I hit the ground. My friend and ex-teammate Kevin Goode had been the only other player to hit me this hard. If we hadn’t hit shoulder pad to shoulder pad, one of us would have been hurt. The sound of our pads popping cut through the crowd noise.

Somehow, I popped right up, tossed the ball to the line judge, and made it back to my side of the ball. I think my body was in shock, and I had one of those ‘Holy Cow’ moments where you try to play it off. I huddled up to cover up that I might be hurt. My left shoulder was numb from the hit. Thank goodness it wasn’t my throwing arm.

“Are you all right?” Jim asked.

“Heck if I know. He hit me like a ton of bricks,” I said and dropped down to one knee as if I were about to call the play.

What I really did was try to get it back together. I looked over, and Coach Diamond had called the same play.

“Option right on two. Ty, you’re getting the ball,” I warned him.

He gave me a tight-lipped look and nodded. On the snap, I handed the ball off to Ty. He gained four yards to make it third and three. Todd hit Ty every bit as hard as he did me. Evidently, Ty was smarter than I was because he took himself out of the game to regroup. I shuddered when they sent Phil in to take Ty’s place. Todd would kill him.

Coach Diamond called the jet sweep where Ed would come in motion, and I would hand him the ball. He would be at full speed when he got the football. King played it well, and Ed only gained a yard, so we had to punt.

The first quarter ended with us trading possessions. I had yet to throw the ball. I found in the option that since I knew how hard Todd could hit, I tended to hang onto the ball to protect my teammates. A little grin showed on my face more than once when I hit Todd as hard as he hit me, and I’d see him stagger. Coach Mason was about to go insane that Coach Diamond would allow me to trade blows with Todd. I’m sure he knew as well as I did that one or both of us could end our football careers today.