Coach Allen called us to play. Doyle had won his game 21–7. Flee won the coin flip and said he wanted the ball first.
I think everyone knew the first play was going to Damion Roth. Flee needed to show off his talent and he would go deep. I held my breath as I watched Flee drop back and stare down Damion. He just glided down the field. Flee threw the ball as far as he could. Damion had to speed up to catch up to the pass. Out of nowhere a deep safety appeared and swatted the ball away from Damion.
Flee regrouped and moved the ball down the field with short passes. I noticed the defense was preventing the long ball, trying to keep everything in front of them. This played right into a player like Wes’s hands. He was the master of the short game. I just had to remind myself to be patient, and when opportunities presented themselves, take advantage.
They finally worked their way to inside the 20 yard line. Flee went to Damion in the right corner of the end zone and he outjumped three defenders to score. We were down 7–0.
On my first play, disaster struck. We ran a simple down-and-out to Dan. I saw he would be open, so I let the ball go when he planted to make the cut. He slipped, and the defensive back playing behind him caught it as if he was the target.
Flee was riding high and went for the throat on the next play. Damion showed why his SPARQ score was so high by beating his double coverage. He made a spectacular one-handed grab and raced untouched into the end zone. We were now down 14–0.
I put together two good drives and brought us back to 14–14. The good news for us was Damion was hit-or-miss when it came to catching the ball. Flee got nervous with our comeback. He had played well when he was leading. Now he seemed to tighten up. I watched as my friend threw four straight incompletions to turn the ball over. We got a break when we ran a crossing pattern and Dan redeemed himself by coming open. I gently put the ball in his hands, and his speed took over. We ended up winning 21–14.
“I thought I had you,” Flee said as he gave me a hug.
“I did, too. I was starting to regret not picking Damion after the first two scores.”
“He’s going to be good,” Flee agreed. “Good luck. I see you have to take on Doyle next.”
“Tell me about it. That’s going to be tough,” I said.
“I’ll be there to cheer you on. You put 21 straight points up on me. I think you can handle Doyle.”
DOYLE AND I LOCKED ourselves into a bloodbath. We were playing ‘anything you can do, I can do better.’ When regulation ended, we each had scored on every possession, and we were deadlocked at 35 all.
I was feeling good about myself because Doyle was the number 2 quarterback in his class and I was going toe-to-toe with him. Both Bo and Coach Allen were stoked about how I was doing. Our game had attracted most everyone who wasn’t currently playing to come and watch.
Coach Trent brought Doyle and me together to explain overtime.
“There will be a coin toss to decide who gets the ball first. Then you will each get a possession in each round of the overtime until one of you scores and the other one doesn’t. If after three overtime sessions, if we still don’t have a winner, we’ll go to sudden death. Any questions?” Coach Trent asked.
I won the coin toss and decided to make Doyle go first. I could tell by his swagger he wasn’t going down easily. I didn’t want this to get to sudden death because whoever got the ball first would win.
When Doyle lined up his team, I looked at the defense and was puzzled. All seven defenders were six yards back in a straight line. I had no idea what defense they were playing. When Doyle got under center, they all began to move. Doyle was as confused as I was as he dropped back. Our defensive coordinators were playing games with us. I saw it the same time Doyle did: there was a big opening in the center. I remembered the Beverly game. They had tried to entice me into throwing to the center while they had a linebacker lying in wait. Something just didn’t seem right.
Doyle hesitated but threw the ball where his receiver was open. I shook my head when I saw their best cornerback had baited him into the throw. He snatched the ball away from Doyle’s receiver for the interception. Doyle stomped his foot and was about to throw a fit, but caught himself.
When it was my turn, I talked to Coach Allen.
“Give me something deep to the outside. I want to end this,” I suggested.
Coach Allen called a deep sideline play for Justin. He had just a little more speed than Dan had. I got my charges set and saw the same defensive alignment. When I got set, they began to scramble. I hiked the ball and Justin flew down the sideline. I lofted the high arcing teardrop pass Bud Mason had taught me. When I let go of the ball, I knew I’d overthrown Justin. Luckily, Justin couldn’t read my mind! He turned on the afterburners and gathered the ball in.
I ran down the field, grabbed Justin around the waist, and lifted him up. He held the ball over his head as all our teammates swarmed him.
Doyle was a good sport and shook my hand. I didn’t want to tangle with him again anytime soon.
MY NEXT GAME WAS AGAINST Roland. If I won this one, I was in the championship game. It became obvious right away that the defensive teams were being consolidated and the best-of-the-best were playing against us. I had to go through my read progressions to find anyone open. The problem was we couldn’t sit in the pocket all day until I found someone. I was forced to either try to squeeze the ball in or throw it away for the first few passes.
At least I threw the ball away. Roland tried to force the issue and was intercepted on his first two possessions. It was third and long when Bo suggested something to Coach Allen. Coach Allen shrugged and came to give us our next play.
“Justin, move to the back position. David, if your first two reads aren’t open, dump the ball to Justin.”
I dropped back and they had everyone covered. Justin ran a little flare out of the backfield and I tossed him the ball. He turned upfield. One of the defenders rushed forward to down him, but Justin did a spin move that would have made Barry Sanders, probably the most elusive running back in NFL history, envious. The poor boy defending about broke his ankles trying to figure out where Justin went.
Everyone had assumed the defender would have stopped Justin, so they let up. He jetted up the field for the score.
We ended up winning the game 7–0. We needed to figure something out or we weren’t going to beat the improved defense we’d be facing in the championship game.
IT WAS ONLY FITTING that Wes and I would meet in the final game. We were given a forty-five-minute break to regroup. Our team spent the time with Coach Allen and Bo as we tried to figure out what to do about the smothering man-to-man defense we were facing. Normally you’d look for mismatches. The problem was they were strong across the board.
Coach Trent joined us and gave us some advice.
“Up to this point, you’ve been able to use your superior talent to win the day. I bet this is the first time you’ve come up against players that are either better than or as good as you are. If a team has better talent, how do you beat them?” he asked.
Bo and Coach Allen both smiled. They let me try to figure it out. Then the light bulb came on. Trust your system. Specifically, the awkward plays they had in the playbook. I would bet these high school defensive backs were used to a read progression from either left to right or right to left. I’d had difficulty understanding why you’d jump back and forth looking for an open receiver. Now it became obvious.
I smiled back at my coaches. We soon described our plan for the final game to the rest of the team. I would have to use every ounce of patience I had to make this work. Most of the awkward plays forced you to make three or four reads before you threw the ball. They were slower to develop, so I couldn’t hesitate if something opened up. We practiced the plays until it was time.