Junior Year Box Set

Moose found me wrestling with Wolf, who giggled like a schoolgirl as I gave him a noogie. I suspect the noise we were making had attracted his attention.

“Dawson!” he bellowed.

Why was I always the one who got into trouble?

“Get taped and then dressed. The worst of the storm has passed, and we’ll be starting in forty-five minutes,” Moose said.

Finally! Let’s play this game.

◊◊◊

When we came out to stretch and warm up, there was no one in the stands. They hadn’t allowed anyone in while there was a chance of lightning. It was raining still, so I imagined everyone was still in their cars. The temperature was in the low fifties, so I didn’t blame them. It was strange to see an empty stadium, though.

We took extra time to stretch and get ready. Cold and wet in combination made it easy to slip and pull a muscle. The good news was the field seemed to be in good shape. When I practiced throwing, I didn’t have any problems. The equipment managers broke out the gloves for the skill players. We would need them once the balls got wet.

As we warmed up, they opened the gates, and the stadium began to fill. I saw my parents come in. Mom carried a big towel, and she and Dad had rain ponchos on. Someone must have been handing them out because they were all bright orange with a bulldog on the front. The cheerleaders were wearing the same ponchos.

After we warmed up, we returned into the locker room to get dried off. I was a little worried because I felt fine. Usually, my stomach got nervous, and I threw up. Part of it was probably that I thought we should win this one, and part was the rain delay. The rest of the team appeared relaxed. This was much better than them being uptight. I felt like we would have a good game.

When we ran out for the coin toss, I was the only one sent out. Coach Hope hadn’t appointed anyone else as captains. Nazareth was fired up and dancing around. It reminded me of me when we played King. I just shook my head when one of them told me we were going down.

“What, no snappy comeback?”

I just grinned at them. The referee seemed relieved that I hadn’t taken the bait. I knew they’d heard what I’d said to Todd in Indianapolis, so I would guess they planned a comeback when I responded. Boys had been playing this game for years, and I knew that it would frustrate them more if I kept my mouth shut.

I won the toss, and we deferred to the second half. Nazareth accepted the kickoff and was able to get good field position. I started to worry when they seemed to have more energy than we did. It wasn’t that they looked better, they just appeared to want it more. They held their blocks a beat longer and fought for every inch of extra yardage. Nazareth also seemed to be in tempo as they drove down the field. I started to worry that we hadn’t taken them seriously enough. We eventually stopped them, and they settled for a field goal to take an early 3–0 lead.

On the kickoff, Nazareth kicked the football through the end zone, so we started our first possession on our 20 yard line. I could tell we were in for a long night on the first snap. Both of their defensive ends were in the backfield before I could even hand the ball off to Ty. I did the smart thing and just covered up and took the sack. A handoff in that situation could have resulted in a fumble.

The second snap was more of the same. I was able to dump the ball off to Ed, but he only made up what we’d lost on the first play. On third down, Nazareth unleashed their linebackers as well. I went into full scramble mode. This time I remembered to keep both hands on the football. It was good that I did because their middle linebacker tried to punch it lose. A seam appeared, and I stepped up into it. I decided just to take off and darted past the line of scrimmage. All I could see was the safety in front of me, and he looked scared. I made a move on him, and the turf gave way. I ended up two yards short of the first down, so we had to punt.

During the first quarter, we just couldn’t seem to get the ball moving. Nazareth, on the other hand, seemed to move at will until they got inside our 20 yard line, where our defense would stiffen. Ty finally put together a few good runs and then broke a sixty-yarder for a score. At the end of the first quarter, we were down 9–7.

The second quarter found me running for my life on every other play. It felt like the old days when our offensive line couldn’t block. The bad part was Nazareth put me on my butt a couple of times. That had been a considerable difference this year, and my body didn’t miss all the bruises I used to sport. Of course, I gave as well as I received, and both their defensive ends had a new respect for how hard I would hit back.