November 8, 2030. With the defensive line clearly weakened by the loss of Finn, the VAs struggle to remain in playoff contention. However, going into their final game of the season, they are still in the running since they only need to win one last game to secure an automatic playoff berth, requiring .500 to get.
As they are assembled in the Simmons Stadium’s home team locker room, the players listen to yet another speech from the coach.
“Boys, there’s no need to remind you of what’s at stake here. It boils down to one last game, and we end our playoff drought, here and now! Do so here and we might steal the thunder of the math and quiz bowl teams!” the coach harangues the players.
“Yeah, the quiz bowl team qualified for the HSNCT, and the math team is in the third playoff round, so we have no excuses! We won’t let the loss of Finn in week four prevent us from making it to the playoffs!” Pablo adds to this cacophony of voices.
“Our opponents for tonight must also be thinking the same thing, too, so we must expect them to play their best football tonight!” Ethan tries to encourage them.
No one could blame Ethan for telling this to his teammates: after all, Westlake, their opponents for tonight, are also 4-5 going into this game.
Inside the stadium, the entire band gets into position, as well as whatever Westlake fans could make the trip. Especially families and love interests of, say, band or football players. On both sides. And the lights are turned on moments before the players get ready and get into the tunnel leading to the field.
“Welcome to the final game of the regular football season at the Jerry Simmons stadium in Jennings! Tonight’s visitors, the Westlake Rams!” the principal announces the opponents of the night.
As if on cue, this is the signal for the VAs to enter the tunnel leading into the field as the visitors made their entrance. Under the sound of their band, as well as their cheer squad.
“And now, please welcome the Venomous Agendas!” the principal announces, while the band makes it loud and clear that VAs are going to take the field.
And, of course, sing the national anthem. Only, this time around, it’s not Orson singing the national anthem. This season, VA rotated the national anthem singers among their players, and in the past 3 home games, this role went to second-string players. But this time around, Malcolm sings it.
In the stands, however, Audrey is on the front row, along with other girlfriends of football players, such as Nadine, Lilina, Natalie and Cora.
“I really hope to see the Malcolm of the season opener; he came out with the big play to protect the lead back then!” Cora makes her wish towards Malcolm.
“And I wish Ethan could step up to the plate tonight; we really need it!” Nadine laments the erratic play of her boyfriend.
“If only everyone was like Finn…” Audrey sighs, not knowing where the football team’s inconsistency comes from. “It can’t just be our inability to get our band to away games, though, because the school had no money to do so”
“Yeah, our opponents are more consistent on the field than we are; game number six was our worst game of the season, and it was the week where our quarterly finals were held!” Natalie comments on a possible source of inconsistency.
“I get it, some of our opponents give out academic favors like candy, but we don’t. Our own boys had tons of academic fatigue that week” Lilina points out.
The game begins with VA on the defensive. Dayton as a nose tackle, and... on this play, Bart and Heath both make a beeline for the opposing quarterback. They ram offensive guards, who then create space for the middle linebacker to tackle the quarterback. However, it seems like the middle linebacker instead went after the opposing center to hold him.
And... the Rams’ QB gets crushed by Dayton like a ton of bricks, leading to the ball getting stolen as the impact causes the opposing QB to lose control of the ball. However, under the gasps of the Rams fans present, the referee whistles the end of the play after Bart recovers the fumble.
“Don’t go around thinking that we will be able to sack the quarterback all the time!” Ethan yells at the others near the line of scrimmage as the Rams lost a few yards.
And then the VAs’ offense is put into play when play resumes, a few yards closer to the Rams’ endzone. However, since the fumble was recovered only a few yards away from center field, they still have their work cut out for them. On the first down...
“I wonder how it feels to you to date Malcolm...” Audrey asks Cora.
“Malcolm might be one of the rising stars of VA football, but let’s not kid ourselves. He doesn’t seem to have much time for me when football is in season, and the same holds of you all, so I guess his idea of a date is taking me out to home football games” Cora answers her hoops teammate.
“Does he do any studying with you?”
“He asks me for help some. However, I take more AP courses than he does, so he’s asking for more basic stuff”
Speaking of AP courses, I need to check on the AP US Government group project grade! Pablo and Hugh worked me to the bone on it before the football season opener! And Pablo had the audacity to fight me over whether the debt ceiling is worth running a Congressional campaign on! Cora, believing that the teacher could grade a handful of group projects in a week, has her memories of the group project resurface while she checks her grade book.
“Woohoo! Ninety-six!” Cora exclaims, while texting her teammates in AP US Gov about the group project. “The grades are now out for the AP US Government group project!”
Audrey checks on her own grade for that course. “Ninety-four for our team, and I bet Tanith was key for yours!”
“Yes. Since Tanith made us pick a House race for the project, I feel like she will dominate the Congress portion of the course!”
Sure, Tanith is a monster at social studies, but don’t underestimate Cora in this arena. I wonder sometimes what makes some athletes hide their intellect more than everyone else. Heather, Cora on the basketball side, Ethan on the football side, Audrey ruminates while Pablo gets tackled by the opposing strong safety on the second down.
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Meanwhile, the VAs are third and six on this play, and, for this play, they have their starting running back on the left and Pablo on the right, sandwiched between their respective wide receivers and the offensive line.
Arrayed in a flexbone formation, the VAs make use of the flexbone option offense. The opposing defense seem to have a harder time to read the play, especially since there are two directions, but two players in each direction to hand the ball to.
The quarterback, feeling like the opposing right CB is the worse of the two, passes the ball in Pablo’s direction. Which causes him to race against the right WR to the ball, and, upon catching it, make a mad dash towards the Rams’ end zone, gaining yards at every step.
By doing this mad dash towards the end zone, Pablo ends up being a magnet for the opposing secondary defense. Coming close, perhaps too close, to an opposing cornerback, forces him to deviate from his direct route. And the free safety forces another change in his route about a second later.
Constantly changing routes as he closes in on the end zone threatens to cause him to trip. It seems that, the closer he gets to the end zone, the more he struggles to maintain control over his movements.
On the last yard, with the opposing defense breathing down his neck, poor Pablo dives to protect the ball as the free safety attempts to cause him to fumble from behind.
“Touchdown!” the principal shouts in the PA system. “The Venomous Agendas are in the lead, six-nothing!”
“Holy Beggar!” Audrey shouts in Pablo’s direction, followed by Lilina. “Holy Beggar!”
“Venomous! Agendas!” the rest of the VA fans holler after this touchdown.
With a successful conversion, the VAs are now 7-0, much to the delight of the crowd.
However, with the Rams now on the offense, the VAs’ defense must be mindful of the opposition’s rushing game, especially since almost everyone in the district now believes that VA’s defensive line is nothing without Dayton. And both Bart and Heath are nothing special as linebackers.
And yet, the game remains tightly contested, in such a way that, by half-time, the VAs and the Rams are tied, 17-17. The team comes together in the locker room at half-time, while the band performs on the field, including Hugh and Tyler:
“Boys, this was some of the most intense plays you have executed all season. Please forget about any playoff implications for tonight, and also treat this game as if it was a playoff game!” the head coach harangues the players once more.
“You want us to treat the game as a playoff game, and yet you want us to forget about the playoff implications of the game? Something’s not right!” Orson feels like it’s a contradictory set of signals.
If the VAs make the playoffs, possible opponents would include Crowley or Wossman. However, they know better than to take a playoff berth for granted.
“Especially given what’s at stake during that game, for us and for our opponents!” Ethan adds to this chorus of protests.
“For the seniors on this team, the magic number is twenty-four. Twenty-four minutes of your best football, this is what is expected of you for the second half of the game!” the offensive coordinator asks the players.
“Venomous! Agendas!” Pablo hollers.
For the next 24 minutes of play, we must play our best football. Then we can enter this world of college scouting, since the majority of the scouts will start attending playoff games, even more so further in, the defensive coordinator ruminates as thirsty players drink from the water cooler.
Since both sides feel the urgency, both sides played much more exciting football than they would have otherwise. In late fourth quarter, the Rams are still tied with the VAs, and they are fourth and goal (more accurately, fourth and five). They think that, with what little time they have, they need to score, and do so now; they seemed unwilling to endure an overtime period.
The VAs being on the defensive, the defensive line is in position near the goal line, and the opponent attempts a field goal. This is not the first time our football season is on the line on the last play of the final regular season game! Pablo ruminates while on the bench as he watches, powerless, the ball in flight.
After being kicked, the ball hits the crossbar. The Rams’ field goal attempt falls short and hence fails. And, under the gasps of the crowd, the locals are still alive, with the resulting turnover on downs making them go on the offensive at the 20-yard line.
The clock ticks in on the Venomous Agendas and they feel the need to get to field goal range. However, the second-string center, in the heat of the action, attempts to cut block the opposing middle linebacker. Which Orson already does, causing the referee to blow the whistle and penalize the VAs.
“Penalty against the Venomous Agendas for chop blocking, loss of fifteen yards!” the referee rules, sending the locals in disarray. And this stress-induced penalty causes others to face-palm.
Orson is then substituted out of the game in favor of the second-string fullback, and the center is taken out of play. Instead of that, Dayton is put in to play offensive tackle, while a preexisting offensive tackle plays center.
Relax: if George is any indication, playing offensive tackle is much like being a defensive tackle, and experience on the other side helps. You tackle players either way, Dayton ruminates while they face the music. And, of course, everyone shakes in their seats, especially as they are bracing for an overtime period.
I really hope that the running back is not going to get tackled on this play; he’s at the goal line, if he gets tackled into the end zone, we lose, Pablo is, once again, at the midpoint of the right side of a triangle formed by the quarterback and the wide receivers.
And the quarterback, behind the goal line, throws the ball on his left side, hoping that Valter would catch it. However, to do so, Valter had to take a few steps back to get to it.
By the time he can actually catch the ball, however, he is not even one yard away from the end zone, but he isn’t quite in it. He swerves in an attempt to evade the opposing defensive end, but ends up being tackled behind the goal line, causing the Rams to score a safety in the dying seconds of the game.
“And the Venomous Agendas lose, thirty-three to thirty-one!” a demoralized principal announces at the end of the game, under the boos of the crowd.
That’s no good, Valter ruined our entire season! Pablo ruminates, and realizes that, once again, the VAs’ football hopes lie in getting a wildcard entry.
As they make their way back to the locker room, the head coach fumes against Valter in particular:
“Valter, you will have this play on your conscience for the rest of your life! Unless you somehow get kids that will grow into better football players than you were!” the head coach screams at Valter, before turning to the other players. “On Sunday morning, you’d better cross your fingers, and hope we earn a wildcard! Maybe then could Valter redeem himself!”
Already that the football fans in town blame Valter for the whole season being lackluster, they start wondering whether VA will actually be good on the gridiron again. And, of course, they get to shower later.
After they shower, the football players with girlfriends get to meet with them for once after this game. Like Natalie trying to console Dayton after learning that he may not play football anymore. Or Valter, who never had much luck with girls this season, despite being a starter on the football team. And this wreck of a play won’t help matters for the rest of the school year.
Obviously, the trio of female quiz bowlers come for Pablo, Ethan and George respectively at the exit.
“Because of Valter, we may not be playing any more football this year!” George laments to his beloved Lilina, crying.
“It’s not the end of the world, you still have two seasons to get better” Lilina tries to encourage him.
“I won’t hold this defeat against you. After all, you still have the HSNCT to look forward to, and, hopefully, for me, too!” Audrey tells Pablo.
“I can’t help but feel bad for Valter. Then again, I hope that the math team’s playoff run or, for the sports lovers, basketball, will make people in town forget about his screwup tonight!” Pablo then kisses Audrey in front of everyone else.
Speaking of Valter, he hides his face and leaves the stadium, ashamed of his role in this loss, more so than anyone else. Not even Orson or the center who took part in the previous down, who caused the VAs to eat a 15-yard penalty. Maybe I could be some last-chance boy to some romance-starved girl… if I’m lucky. At this point, I would be lucky to just date anyone at all! Valter starts moping. Here at VA, being a starter on the football team doesn’t mean a whole lot to girls, unlike at our opponents!