We hurried to the line and lined up with me under center in the ‘I’ formation. You could tell Mt. Vernon was fired up. They wanted to get a quick three-and-out to start the game. We were counting on them being aggressive and called the first counter play we had run in a real game. Basically, it looks like dive right with the fullback leading the play. Everyone blocks as if that’s where the ball’s going, to try and influence the defense into protecting that area. Instead, the tailback makes a hard jab to the right and then goes to the left side of the line.
“Down, Set ... Hut, HUT!”
It worked just like we’d drawn it up. Jake made the jab step and their defense took the bait. There was a huge pile on the right side of the line. When Jake cut back he had a crease where the middle linebacker should have been, and it was off to the races. Luckily for Mt. Vernon, their safety was able to track down Jake after only fifteen yards.
We ran up to the line, and I called the play as the ref set the ball and the chains hurried to get set. Mt. Vernon was rushing to get into place.
“BINGO, BINGO!” I called an option away from the power; in this case, it was to the left.
“Down, Set ... Hut, HUT!”
This time the fullback had a crease, so I let him run the ball. He was able to pick up three yards. We ran up to the line.
“BINGO ONE, BINGO ONE! I called the first pass of the game. It was off the same play-action as the option.
“Down, Set ... Hut, HUT!”
I put the ball in the fullback’s gut and then pulled it out. Wolf had brush-blocked the middle linebacker and let him run past him. I did a little hop to get over the line and hit Wolf in stride. The safety made a hell of a play and Wolf only gained eleven yards. The only problem was the safety lost the collision. Wolf was a big boy at six-five and 235 pounds, and their safety was five-ten and 165 pounds. He may have made the tackle, but he was lying on the field, holding his left arm. The game was called to a halt while Mt. Vernon took care of their injured player.
I trotted over to Coach Diamond while we had the injury timeout. Coach Hope came over with his clipboard.
“Their backup is a sophomore that hasn’t played but a handful of downs. Let’s switch to the passing game and have Wolf work him over,” Coach Hope said.
“Mike, Bert you’re in!” Coach Diamond called. “Shift, four wide, power strong, ‘X’ skinny.”
We were going into a four-receiver set with three receivers on the strong side. The receivers were labeled W, X, Y and Z. W was the weak side receiver. X was the tight end. Skinny was a tight post from an inside player. The final piece was the shift. We would move into it on ‘Set,’ forcing Mt. Vernon to react to our formation change.
“Down, Set ... Hut, HUT!” I called, with more of a pause to allow Mike to shift into the slot.
On the shift, Mt. Vernon was screaming a change in defense. The third linebacker was moving back to a safety position on the snap of the ball. The middle linebacker let Wolf go to help cover Mike. That was what we were looking for, and I hit Wolf just as he made his cut to the post. The linebacker turned and crossed his feet the wrong way to run with him, giving Wolf an advantage. The new safety closed and when he went to tackle Wolf, he was hit with a straight-arm that put him on his butt.
Wolf was gone until the weak-side cornerback made a shoestring tackle. He tackled Wolf at the 5 yard line.
“HUDDLE UP!” I called.
I wanted to give Coach Diamond time to get Jake back into the game. He was our more-experienced goal-line back. He took Mike’s spot.
“Dive right,” Jake told me.
I called the play and checked the defense. They were now in a six down linemen goal-line formation. I knew that meant that they were in man-to-man on the outside. Bill would be a lock to score.
“Check, Check! Check, Check!” I called to let everyone know it was a pass play. As I called ‘Check’ I held up a fist to let Bill know the ball was coming his way.
“Down, Set ... Hut, HUT!”
I made a play-action motion to Jake as I held the ball on my hip. I spun to the weak side, hiding the ball as long as I could. I found Bill racing to the corner, so I threw my rainbow arc pass just in bounds for him to go get it. He reached up, pulled it back in, and went to the ground so the defender couldn’t make a play. The cowbells told me that the crowd knew we just scored. With the extra point, we were up 7–0.
Mt. Vernon couldn’t get their offense on track. Their defense toughened up and held us to just one more score come halftime. We were up 14–0 when we came out for the second half.
Mt. Vernon got the ball first in the second half. They were making a nice drive, and I was getting worried that we might have a game on our hands. They put together a nine-play drive that had the ball on our 17 yard line. Their quarterback made a mental mistake and turned to the left to hand off when his fullback and tailback both went right. Jim was let go at tackle because he was on the side where the play wasn’t going. He reached out, swatted the ball out of the quarterback’s hands, and fell on it.
Coach Diamond had called the same three plays to start the second half. We ran out onto the field and lined up. Mt. Vernon was slow getting off the field. On the snap, they had a couple of offensive players slowly heading to the sideline. There were flags all over the field.
Bert had gotten his job back during the first half, so I made the option read for the inside and saw it was covered. Their defensive end got his feet tangled and fell down. I cut upfield with Ed on my shoulder, waiting for the pitch. If you broke through the eight-man front, the only real obstacle was the safety. I made a move on him that made Ed laugh. The poor kid was searching for his jock.
The fast cornerback was trying to track me down. I focused on running hard but relaxed like my speed coach had taught me, and I found that I wasn’t losing any ground. The long score took the life out of Mt. Vernon. Coach Hope pulled me from the game at that point and let Mike play most of the third quarter and all of the fourth. Both teams didn’t do much from that point on, and the score ended 21–0.
My final stats were 298 yards passing and 104 yards rushing. I also had two TDs throwing and one running. Bill had one of the TDs and Jeff the other. Bill had 8 catches for 160 yards, Jeff had 7 for 93 yards, and Wolf had 6 for 103 yards. Jake had 82 yards rushing, Ed had 56 yards and Mike added 52 yards. As a team, we had 306 yards rushing and 356 yards passing for a total of 672 yards. Mt. Vernon managed only 236 yards of total offense. By all rights, this game was not near as close as the score indicated.
The best part was there had been no sacks, and I felt great after the game.
MONA WAS WAITING FOR me when I came out of the locker room. I took her hand and led her to the Jeep. It was interesting that we hadn’t talked other than the text I sent to ask her out. We chatted about the game on our ride over to Monical’s. When we got there, there was a line to get in. The assistant manager saw us standing in line and came out to get us. Mike’s dad had reserved the banquet room for football players and their guests.
As we walked in, I got a video camera and mic shoved in my face by the local sports gal. I really didn’t like her, because she was all about creating stories instead of reporting them.
“David ...” she started.
I held up my hand in front of the camera. I recognized their normal guy, and he looked a little embarrassed by the ambush.
“Hang on. Let’s do this right. Let me get my teammates that did well tonight, and we can do it on the stage,” I told the reporter. I turned to Mona. “Go get Coach, Mike, Jim, Jeff, Jake, Wolf and Ed and tell them to meet me on the stage.”