“If you look back to the games we played, whatever adversity we faced, we won because we as a TEAM faced it together. We, as a TEAM, executed the plays that put us on top. I want you to just stay in the moment and do your job. If you don’t get distracted by everything that’s going on around you, we will win.
“Before we go out there, I want to tell you that, regardless of the outcome, I have never had a finer group of young men play for me. Each of you is a credit to Lincoln football and our community. Your legacy won’t be determined by the results of this one game. You’ve proven that you are winners,” Coach Hope concluded.
“Who are we?” I barked.
“Bulldogs!”
“Where are we?”
“Our House!”
“That’s right. This is our house. When we go out there, it’ll be just like a home game. Now, let’s go out there and win this one,” Coach Hope said and sent us out of the locker room.
When we exited the tunnel to go onto the field, our band started to play the school song, and our fans rang their cowbells. I paused for a minute to take it all in. Some things you just need to savor. The seniors would never again have our hometown stand and cheer like that for
It was time for the coin toss.
Coach Hope sent Wolf, Ty, Tim, and me to handle the duties. I led them out and met Mike, Damion, and three other Wesleyan players in the center of the field.
“Hey, Damion. How’s it going, man?” I asked and clasped his hand and pulled him in for a bro hug.
“You ready to lose today?” he asked.
“We’ll be fine.”
I shook everyone else’s hand, except Mike’s. I would have, except he opened his mouth.
“Harper is something special in the sack. I can’t believe you let her go.”
What a dumbass. The State TV crew was in the middle of the field to capture the coin toss, and his comment had just been broadcast to everyone watching. If it hadn’t been drilled into me what to do when something like that happens, I would have leveled him right there. I did have to hold Tim and Wolf back from getting a piece of him. That was when the referee sent everyone but Damion and me back to the sidelines.
Damion lost the toss, and we deferred to the second half, giving the ball to Wesleyan to start the game. Both sidelines were warned that there better not be any funny stuff, or people would be kicked out of the game.
We tried the onside kick, but Wesleyan recovered it on their 43 yard line. On the first play, Mike dropped back to pass. Tim had shifted out of the middle and run over to line up in front of Damion. Mike looked the field over, and a confused expression came over his face. I would agree that sending a linebacker to cover Damion made no sense. The ball was snapped, and it was a pass play, so I dropped back to cover the center of the field. Wesleyan’s pocket began to collapse as our defensive line did their job. Mike had looked Damion’s way the whole time but ended up having to dump the ball off to his running back. Yuri sprinted up and put him down for a slight gain.
On second down, Mike decided to force the ball to Damion. I saw the ball leave his hands and cut towards where Damion was. He’d run a slant route inside. We were both going full speed when we came together. The crash of our pads cut through the crowd noise, and Damion dropped the ball. I thought it was a fumble, but the back judge ruled it incomplete.
On third down, Mike threw a pass over the middle that I knocked down. Mike had also had Bryan Callahan put him on his butt. I shook my head when Mike complained that it was a late hit and wanted a penalty. The referee told him to shut it and get out of his face. I guess Mike said something that didn’t sit well with the official, because he gave Mike a fifteen-yard unsportsmanlike-conduct penalty. It was after the play, so they moved the ball back, and Wesleyan had to punt.
Ty got us a nice return, and we started on our 38. Wesleyan spouted a bunch of crap to try to get under our skin, but I tuned them out. I saw they were in their base defense as Johan hiked the ball. We ran the option, and my read was the defensive end. He crashed down, so I tossed the ball to Ty. I wasn’t happy when the guy dove for my legs after I released the ball. I had a feeling that they would try to hurt me, so I was ready and shoved him into the turf as I hopped over him.
For the next three plays, we repeated what we did on the first one. Each time, Ty picked up good yardage, and each time, I had to fend off one of their players going for my legs. I was surprised when the referee stopped the game to talk to Wesleyan’s side of the field. Coach Ryan called his defense over and chewed them out. Then he walked across to our bench and spoke with Coach Hope, who then waved us over.
