This time, we all kept our feet, and Jake was able to get through the hole and engage a linebacker, someone more his size. Ty stuck his nose in and bulled his way to a 5-yard gain. On third down, he picked up two more. We quickly lined up for fourth down and ran the same play, but we came up a half-yard short. We’d turned the ball over on downs inside our 45 yard line.
McHenry attempted to run their regular offense. The first play was a short pass over the middle. Instead of ripping it, like I would have, their quarterback tried to use a little touch on his pass. The ball got caught in the wind and hit Tim in the numbers. I smirked when he was able to awkwardly gather it in and promptly fell on his face.
I was curious when Trent, our backup quarterback, came in for Jake.
“Coach says to run the offense but move to fullback,” Trent explained.
“Okay,” I said and paused to give myself a moment to think about it. Suddenly, I had an idea. “I’ll start in the shotgun at quarterback. On the shift, you get under center, and I’ll step up and play fullback. If I call ‘orange,’ I want you to play fullback.”
Trent nodded his understanding, and we ran the play.
“Down! Set!” I barked.
We made the shift, and their middle linebacker saw I hadn’t gone under center.
“Trick Play! Trick Play!” he yelled.
McHenry didn’t crowd the ball, thinking we had something planned and wanting to cover the whole field. This gave us a numbers advantage in the center of the field. On the snap, I exploded out of my stance, and Johan had just engaged his man when I pushed through and found their middle linebacker. He got a gleam in his eyes, and we met barely past the line of scrimmage. There was a resounding crack of pads, and he found himself on his butt.
I was still on my feet and felt Ty put his hand in the middle of my back to let me know he was right on my butt. Next up was their strong safety. He did his job by slowing us down enough that one of the outside linebackers could wrap Ty up for an eight-yard gain.
After we’d ripped off a couple of decent runs and gotten some first downs, McHenry figured out why I was moved to fullback. It was because I was a load when I blocked for Ty. If they remained spread out, it would only be a couple more runs before he broke one. He almost got away on the last carry, but their relentless pursuit had caught him.
“Down! Set! … Orange!” I barked.
McHenry had pulled all but one defender inside to stop us as we crossed the middle of the field. When I saw that, I had barked ‘orange’ and moved under center. On the snap, I faked the ball to Ty and ran a naked bootleg to Roc’s side of the field. The cornerback had to decide if he would stay with Roc or come up and stop me. He made the right choice and stayed with Roc.
It was a footrace to the sideline. I was able to cut upfield and gain twelve yards before I was pushed out of bounds.
I would keep that play in mind for later in the day. Coach Mason always preached ‘RSP,’ Repeat Successful Plays.
We continued to pound the ball up the middle, and Ty finally broke one. We failed on the two-point conversion and were now up 6–0.
◊◊◊
At halftime, we were up 14–6. McHenry’s extra point kick had been caught in the wind and looked like my golf shot as it hooked wide right. We’d scored on our second two-point conversion attempt.
When we got into the locker room, the equipment managers had dry jerseys, socks, and pants for the starters. Coach Hope sent us to the showers to thaw out. We had just enough time to get dressed and for him to have a quick word with the team.
“I wanted to give you an update on Coach Mason. He did have a stroke, and they got him to the hospital in time. Doc Grog told me that they have a medication called tPA that, if they can get it in his system within an hour, has a high level of success. They’re hopeful he’ll be okay.”
We walked out to play the second half, and it looked like the fans and cheerleaders had bailed on us. I would find out later that the schools had decided that it wasn’t safe for everyone to be out in this weather. They’d set up a big screen and had the game piped into the Field House. It was strange not having anyone watch us ‘live.’
To start the second half, we onside-kicked the ball. Though I imagine it changed hands more than once, McHenry recovered it. They’d abandoned their passing game as we had, so we’d gone into more of a goal-line defense formation with most of our defenders bunched inside. Our defensive linemen were doing a good job of engaging their offensive counterparts. Tim, Yuri, Ray Quinn, and I were flying around and stopping McHenry for only short gains.
On fourth down, they had to punt. I was confused when Coach Stephens had Ty back left and Ed to the right. McHenry’s punter had been doing well at kicking into the wind, which would allow it to be pushed back into the middle of the field.
