Senior Year Box Set

We came out on the field, and everyone stood and cheered. I mean both Washington and Lincoln fans. Then I figured it out. They must have been watching Wyatt’s streaming video and knew that we were all playing the second half.

We kicked to Washington to start the second half. The ball rolled through the end zone, so they lined up on their 20 yard line. Gabe Verity came up to the line to take the snap and nodded to me to let me know he realized I was in the game.

As a defensive end, I had two jobs. The first was to force all the plays inside, so the ball carrier had to run up the middle into the teeth of our defense. The second was to rush the quarterback on pass plays. Coach Rector had been hired because he had an excellent mind for defensive football. I wasn’t surprised when he signaled for me to take an inside rush.

Right before the snap, the tackle assigned to block me jumped to try to get to me. The five-yard penalty made it first and fifteen. This made it much more likely Washington would have to pass the ball. On the snap, the tackle turned to meet me and shuffled back into pass protection. I went inside, and he never even touched me. Gabe had just planted his feet to throw when I drilled him.

I’d faced some athletic defensive ends, and they caused a special kind of hell for a quarterback. Gabe had unloaded the ball, which fell incomplete. He was lucky it hadn’t been intercepted.

“Take it easy on me,” Gabe said as I helped him up.

“How easy are you going to be on me?” I asked.

“Point taken. I would like to be able to play next week, though, if you’re so inclined.”

I just laughed, remembering how much it hurt to get blindsided like I’d just done to him.

On second down, Washington tried to run the option away from me. Yuri planted their running back after a one-yard gain. On third down, I batted the ball down when they tried a screen pass. Coach Rector was ecstatic that we held them to a three-and-out.

I was getting ready to go in while Coach Mason gave me last-minute instructions when the music started. Washington was my home away from home. Coach Mason gave me a funny look.

“This is my song,” I explained as AC/DC’s Thunderstruck began to play over the PA system.

I looked over at our cheerleaders, and they had gotten their rock on and were doing air guitar. The crowd sang along with the intro refrain.

We had the ball at our 38 yard line. We lined up, and the music stopped as our cowbells began to ring. Washington’s defense was fired-up. They knew if they could return the favor of a three-and-out, this game would be over. They just had too big a lead for us to catch up if our offense didn’t kick in.

“Blue! Set! Hut, HUT!”

On the snap, I read the center of the defense as I put the ball into Bert’s gut. They were more worried about Ty and me running outside. I let Bert take it, and he ripped off eight yards. On the next play, we did the same again, and this time Bert managed five more yards for a first down. That triggered our skill players to sprint off the field, and their backups to run on.

Coach Diamond brought in his base defense instead of max pass defense. On the next play, we ran play-action to make the defense freeze for a second as they tried to stop the run. Phil was one-on-one to my right and was running a fade. I left it a little short so he could come back and catch it for an eighteen yard gain, putting us on Washington’s 19 yard line.

On the first down, the first team came back in. We reran the option, and this time, I pulled it from Bert and ran towards the sideline. The defensive end came to tackle me, so I tossed it to Ty. Three Washington defenders had a shot at him but missed. He had a smile on his face when we trotted to the sidelines.

Towards the end of the third quarter, we’d scored twice to make it 29–21. That was when our defense had a brain cramp and let their tight end find a seam. Gabe was a good enough quarterback to hit him. What saved us was that the throw was a little behind, and the receiver had to slow down to catch the ball. Ed made a terrific save when he tripped him on our 13 yard line.

From there, our defense stiffened, and they had to kick a field goal to make the score 32–21.

On our next possession, it was like our receivers suddenly couldn’t catch a ball. In succession, I threw to Roc, Wolf, and Ty, and they all dropped passes. I tried to get my emotions under control because we couldn’t afford to lose a possession this late in the game.

Derek Hofmann, our punter, boomed a deep kick that had the Washington return man giving ground to catch it. Roc was on one side of the formation and Phil on the other. They were the two speed guys who were supposed to meet at the return man. The kick returner signaled for a fair catch. The ball smacked off his helmet and bounced right into Phil’s arms. He didn’t break stride as he raced into the end zone. We were now down 32–28.