“Which part? The one where I got you to fall down, or the one where I got Mike sacked?”
He just shook his head as he trotted back to the huddle. I was all smiles when Mike lost it and yelled at everyone for the sack. I hated quarterbacks who couldn’t just suck it up and move on to the next play. Getting sacked was part of the game.
The next play, Damion got the better of me and caught a ten-yard pass. It was now third and five. He and I battled on the next down, and Mike had to throw the ball away, or he would have been sacked again.
I then did something I hadn’t done in a long time when we got the ball back: I threw a second interception. This time it was a pick-six, and with the extra point, Wesleyan took the lead at 35–32.
Our plan to hold Damion had worked. I made some plays that I didn’t know I could make. I actually outjumped him when they drove down to the end zone. He wasn’t very gentle when he pushed me out of bounds.
“You suck, Dawson,” he said as he stormed off the field.
He’d never had someone play him who was almost his height, who could run with him, and who was stronger than he was. I hoped all the coaches watched the game film and would consider allowing me to go both ways in college.
We took the ball and drove down the field. When they stopped us in the red zone, Coach Hope decided to kick the field goal to tie the game at 35.
On the next series for Wesleyan, my prayers were finally answered. I could tell that something was up by how Damion lined up. He’d squared up, and I could tell he planned to block me. That wasn’t that bad of an idea because Damion was a big kid. On the snap, Mike rolled out towards us and their sideline. Damion started to block me, and I grasped his shoulder pads so I could control him. I wanted Mike to keep coming. When he tried to run outside of Damion, I tossed Damion aside like a rag doll.
Mike took one look at me and decided his best option was to get out of bounds. It was a footrace, and he almost made it. I hit him a yard in bounds to avoid a penalty and walloped Mike with everything I had. My hit lifted him off the ground and launched him like a missile into their sideline. I resisted dancing when I saw Mike had knocked the heck out of my old buddy Alan. The dazed look on Alan’s face made my year.
The game became a battle at that point. Both defenses played like men possessed. Wesleyan had the ball late in the fourth quarter, and as the clock ran down, you could tell they were playing to go into overtime. With fifty seconds left, we finally got them stopped and used our last time-out to stop the clock. Their punter made a rugby-style kick that didn’t get more than ten feet off the ground. It hit the ground in front of Ty and bounced over his head. He tracked it down, but they cornered him deep in our end. We had the ball on our 12 yard line with only thirty-five seconds to go.
Coach Hope pulled the other coaches and me together.
“We should just kneel down and run the clock out,” Coach Rector suggested. “We’ve played defense well enough to win this in overtime.”
“I agree,” Moose said.
Coach Hope shook his head.
“You know what? I don’t want to risk it. Put the ball in David’s hands, and let’s see if we can win this right now.”
“There’s no way he can go almost ninety yards with no time-outs with the time left,” Coach Rector pointed out.
“Maybe not, but I say we give him a chance,” Coach Hope said and then turned to me. “You know what to do. The game is in your hands.”
I smiled and trotted out to the huddle. Everyone was on their feet. The last game of the day’s fans had started to arrive, and the lower part of the stadium was almost full. This was probably the most people we’d ever played in front of. I smiled as they roared when I pumped my fist in the air. I looked over at Wesleyan’s sideline, and both Mike and Alan looked sick. Damion pointed at me and smiled. I was in my element.
“Okay, this is it. If you don’t get out of bounds, get to the line of scrimmage so I can spike the ball. Isn’t this great?!”
My teammates looked at me and smiled. They knew I loved this, and they wanted to go out winners.
“Down! Set! Hut, HUT!” I barked.
Wesleyan was smart and had only two guys rushing and nine back to protect against the pass. I didn’t hesitate when I saw that. I took the snap and ran right up the middle. They had dropped back, so there wasn’t really anyone for me to contend with for the first ten yards. I wasn’t going to be taken down easily. I picked up nearly thirty yards before I was tackled, and we now had the ball on the 40 yard line. My team sprinted to the ball, and I was able to spike it. We had twenty-eight seconds left.
“Huddle up,” I called.
“Okay. Here’s what I want to do …”
