Jackson and Tommy were at the Titans home field, bright and early before the start of the JV game that weekend, and Jackson was delighted when Jasmine arrived just before the opening kickoff.
‘I’m not late am I?’ she said as she sat beside Jackson.
‘Nah, you’re right on time today,’ Tommy said.
‘Uh, hi,’ Jackson said.
She smiled. ‘Hey.’
Jackson blushed and turned away. He watched as the Titans kicked the ball to start the game, Nick launched it high into the air as it swirled around in the gentle breeze with plenty of hang time.
The rest of the Titans swarmed around the Spartans’ returner and brought him down at the 15-yard line.
As the Spartans’ offence came onto the field, the Titans were eager to avenge their earlier loss from the mid-point of the season, none more so than Freddy who had been targetted constantly during the first game.
Both sides’ coaches stood stern and silent as they waited to see how the first chess move in this game would play out.
Jasmine tilted her head as she looked down at the two opposing teams. ‘Hey, is there a reason we don’t have any players? THEY’RE not late, are they?’
‘Uhh, no that’s um, that’s just how many people we have on the JV team,’ Jackson said.
‘Huh? Why? Does nobody want to join the team?’
‘Something like that … I mean, you’ve seen some of the practices, they’re pretty intense and uh, I guess that just, scared a lot of people off when it came to JV.’
‘Good riddance, I say, if they weren’t willing to put up with some tough practices, they wouldn’t have belonged on the team anyway,’ Tommy said.
‘Yeah!’ Jasmine nodded. ‘I’ve seen them, and it can’t be THAT bad right? Sounds like they were just cowards who didn’t want to struggle. You don’t need losers like that holding you back.’
Jackson didn’t say anything as he sunk lower in his seat.
Tommy patted him on the shoulder. ‘But obviously, that isn’t you, bro, this is just an obstacle you’ll overcome, you haven’t quit on anyone.’
‘Uhh, r-right, of course.’
‘Hm? Well, obviously, I don’t mean you, it’s not your fault that you got injured, that stuff happens, but everyone knows you’d be out there giving it your all and helping them if you could.’
‘Ahh, about that, actually—’
Jackson looked up at his brother with panic-stricken eyes.
‘About what?’ Jasmine prompted.
Jackson pleaded with his brother without ever saying a word.
‘Nothing, nothing, sorry, lost my train of thought.’ Tommy frowned slightly but turned back to the game, as did Jasmine. Eventually, Jackson did too after breathing a sigh of relief.
The game started slowly, with the first score coming from a Titans field goal, but the Spartans responded swiftly. Just before the end of the first quarter, they dropped in a long touchdown pass over the top of the Titans’ defence after getting Lonnie to bite on a crossing route underneath.
Though they missed the extra point, so the score leading into the quarter-time break was 6–3 the Spartans’ way.
‘Geez! How lucky was it they missed that kick? It’s still so close. Come on Titans you’ve got this!’ Jasmine loudly cheered.
‘Yeah, looks like this one will be close,’ Tommy said, then stood. ‘Hey, Jackson? Can you show me where the restrooms are around here?’
‘Oh uhh, yeah, sure.’ Jackson got up and started hobbling down the steps.
‘You sure I couldn’t show you the way?’ Jasmine asked, watching Jackson with some concern.
‘Oh, no, thank you, but that’s alright, doesn’t sound like the task a lady should be doing anyway,’ Tommy said.
Jasmine frowned but stayed in her seat, watching the brothers leave.
Jackson showed Tommy where the nearest toilets were, but Tommy didn’t head in right away. He stood with his arms crossed, looking down at Jackson.
‘Uhh… e-everything okay, big bro?’
‘When are you gonna tell your girlfriend about what really happened with your leg?’
‘Wh-What?! Sh-She’s not my g-girlfriend.’ Jackson’s face flushed.
Tommy rolled his eyes but smirked. ‘Okay, well she still deserves to know the truth, doesn’t she? Especially if you’re planning on making her your girlfriend eventually.’
Jackson’s cheeks darkened further and he looked away. ‘Y-Yeah, of course she does… I just, I haven’t found the right time to say anything.’
‘What about now?’
‘I can’t take away from the game, that’s what she came here to see, not hear some sob story about how I broke my leg on purpose.’
‘It’s not a sob story … but fine, what about after the games?’
‘Uhh, maybe?’
Tommy raised a brow.
‘O-Okay fine! … I’ll tell her after.’
Tommy ruffled Jackson’s hair. ‘Good. Thanks for the chat, little bro. I’m sorry if it seems like I’m being harsh on you, but it’s the right thing to do.’
‘I-I know. You’re just looking out for me,’ Jackson said, fixing his hair.
With that, Tommy finally entered the restroom, and Jackson returned to the stands, sitting beside Jasmine just as the second quarter began.
‘Everything alright?’ she asked.
‘Yep, yep, just fine.’
When Tommy returned, he was just in time to watch the Titans kick another field goal and tie the game again. And throughout the rest of the quarter, no touchdown would be scored, though the Spartans kicked a field goal of their own, regaining the lead.
Jasmine cheered and booed as enthusiastically as anyone (though her boos were definitely the loudest in the whole stadium), whenever the Titans or the Spartans—respectively—had a successful play.
As it came down to the final minutes of the half, the Spartans had the ball again and were looking to extend their lead before the break.
However, as the crowd’s energy rose, so did the Titans’ as they mounted their defence and held the Spartans back.
They made a stand at centrefield, stuffing the Spartans’ passes thanks to exceptional coverage across the board. And they even held up a sneaky run play the Spartans tried as a last-ditch effort.
The improved defensive performance was thanks in large part to Freddy’s growth as a player, but also to Coach Otsen’s increased trust in the boy. Now that they didn’t have to try so hard to cover for Freddy, the rest of the defence was no longer compromised, and were able to shut down the Spartans’ other Receivers a majority of the time.
Coach Otsen used a timeout to stop the clock, and when the Spartans punted over the ball to the Titans, they had just under a minute to get to work and try to impact the scoreboard themselves.
Pete marched the team downfield quickly at first, with rapid-fire throws out to Kenny, Lonnie, and even Nick and Freddie, but after they got past the halfway mark, things slowed up, and time was running out. They had to use their last time out with just under 10 seconds left in the half, and they were only at the Spartans’ 35-yard line.
As the players caught their breath amid the timeout, Coach Otsen and Knight strategised. Would they take another shot at the end zone and try to get a lucky touchdown? Or was Nick’s leg strong enough to make the distance and stay on target with a field goal?
Coach Knight was the one to approach Nick, and he simply said: ‘Can you make it?’
Nick looked into those dark, stern eyes for a while and then nodded. ‘If you give me the chance.’
Coach Knight turned to Coach Otsen and gave a thumbs up.
‘Don’t let us down, Nick. Get out there and do what you do best.’
The Titans set up their kicking formation. With how the goalposts were positioned at the back of the end zone, and Nick taking the kick from several yards behind the line of scrimmage to allow the others to form a protective wall in front of him, the distance he’d need to kick it came out to 52 yards from their current position. He knew it’d take his best, but he knew the team was relying on him, after all, all their points so far had come from his leg.
‘Are they really going to kick it from all the way out there? It looks so far away,’ Jasmine said.
‘It’s gonna be tough from that distance… even NFL kickers can struggle past 50 yards. What do you think, Jack? Can he do it?’
‘He wouldn’t be trying if he couldn’t do it. If Nick believes, so do I.’
The crowd was silent as they awaited the kick, it was so quiet you would’ve been able to hear a feather hit the ground.
The ball was finally snapped. Pete caught it where he was crouched on the ground, and jammed it upright into the turf.
Nick strode forward, eyes only on the ball, blocking out everything else around him. He slammed his boot into the ball and sent it flying.
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All the air surrounding the field was sucked inwards as everyone held their breath, watching the ball soar through the sky.
It started to fall, looking like it would come up just a yard short. It thumped off the crossbar and there was a loud gasp.
The ball spun through the air as it bounced up, then it tumbled through the goalposts and the crowd erupted with cheers.
The Titans celebrated the loudest, swarming around Nick. They went into the halftime break with their spirits at an all-time high after the successful kick. The game was tied at 9–9, and the Titans would start the second half with the ball hoping to gain their first lead.
‘Oh my god! That was incredible!’ Jasmine had leapt from her seat in excitement when the kick bounced through. ‘It still counts even though it hit the bar, right? It’s not less points or something? Is it worth more?’
Tommy laughed. ‘No, no, it’s still the same amount of points, and yes it does count.’
‘Amazing. I’ve never seen that before.’ She smiled wide, breathing a little heavily. ‘I’ll uh, I’ll be right back, just gotta visit the restroom.’
She squeezed past the brothers and headed down the stairs.
Tommy looked at Jackson.
‘What?’ Jackson asked.
‘You could go tell her now.’
‘I’m not gonna follow her to the toilets like some kind of creep!’
‘Alright, alright, keep your voice down, it’s not like you’d be following her for anything weird.’
‘Following her at all would be weird. And I’d still be taking away from the game to tell her now. I promise I’ll tell her after.’
‘I’ll hold you to that,’ Tommy said.
Jackson sighed heavily as he slumped in his seat again.
In the Titans’ locker room, the coaches were trying to come up with a plan to get their offence flowing better so they could finally score a touchdown. They hoped the momentum from Nick’s last-second field goal would help.
Meanwhile, the Spartans’ coaches were trying to come up with a way to get more consistent success, and how to stop the Titans from squeezing upfield just enough to seemingly always end up in field goal range.
However, when the Titans came out to open the second half, things weren’t clicking for them. The plans and play calls were good, but the execution was slightly off, and with their opening drive, they were shut down quickly, unable to put up any points.
Even so, the crowd was still behind him, cheering enthusiastically, and at the beginning of the second half, more supporters had arrived for both sides.
By the end of the third quarter, the Titans hadn’t been able to break their curse of only scoring with field goals, though it was still better than nothing. Unfortunately, they had given up another touchdown—this one a short rushing touchdown as the Spartans powered through at the goal line—which was successfully converted this time, and the Spartans took a 4-point lead into the final quarter with a score of 12–16.
Opening the final quarter, the Spartans extended their lead with another field goal, and as time wound down, the Titans were held scoreless for what felt like ages as time dwindled until the final two-minute warning where the Titans had the ball, facing a 7-point deficit.
‘Come on, Titans, you can do it.’ Jasmine sat on the edge of her seat, hands clasped together before her face as if in prayer.
Jackson bit the inside of his cheek, watching on silently, whilst Tommy rose to his feet and led the crowd on a chant of “Let’s go Titans”.
Kenny hunched over within the Titans' huddle as they prepared to overcome this last hurdle. He’d barely been involved with the game before this drive, he’d been held in check by the Spartans’ defence, and worst of all, they hadn’t even used multiple defenders to do so, so his teammates hadn’t been freed up by him drawing extra attention either.
He was letting everyone down. But that stopped now.
He took his position in the formation and eyed the annoying shit who had been holding him back throughout most of this game. Not anymore.
He took a deep breath, then rushed forward as the ball was snapped.
As he fought to break through the tough press, it felt as if heavy, iron chains were holding him back, wrapped around his chest, crushing his ribs. He bit down harder on his mouthguard, eyes quickly glaring over at the nearby official who had been letting this go on for the whole game without ever calling a holding penalty.
But he couldn’t wait to be bailed out by a penalty that he knew would never come. He forced himself away from the CB’s grip, then curled towards the outside. When the CB committed to blocking off this route, Kenny whipped back around and sprinted downfield again.
Pete fired the ball over and Kenny leapt into the air. He was wrapped up and tackled before he even hit the ground again, but his hands were around the ball, and as he was slammed down, he maintained his grip and completed the catch for a big gain.
The crowd cheered loudly, but the Titans didn’t have any time to lose basking in the adulation. They rushed to the line of scrimmage and snapped the ball to get the next play underway.
This time, Kenny batted away those rough, cold hands, and after feinting to the outside again, he darted inside with a quick slant and caught the ball for what was a shorter gain, but a gain nonetheless.
The Titans kept the ball moving. Pete found Kenny repeatedly until they were just within the red zone, where they used their second of three timeouts. 42 seconds remained on the clock.
Kenny was on fire, and he wasn’t about to cool down now, even with the repeated timeouts bringing a pause to the action. It was up to him if the Titans were going to get their first touchdown. Everyone knew it.
When Kenny lined up in formation again, he could barely contain his smile when he saw he was still left one-on-one with a single CB.
At the snap of the ball, he pushed forward through the hard press, backing the defender up. He stepped inside. All the time through the drive he’d been abusing the defence’s desire to protect the outside of the field, and all his receptions had come over the middle of the field. Just to set this moment up.
When the defender jumped inside, he shoved them by and broke away to the outside, leaking out to the back corner of the end zone as Pete lobbed the ball over.
Kenny dashed over and planted his feet just within the boundary of the end zone, catching the ball on his chest before he was shoved out of bounds, but his feet had never left the ground until after he had caught the ball.
An official raced over, whistle blaring. They raised their arms, signalling a Titans touchdown.
‘Oh my god! He did it!’ Jasmine burst to her feet again, jumping up and down and clapping loudly.
The brothers exchanged a look, grinning as they both got to their feet and joined the chorus of cheers.
‘Man, what a beautiful route,’ Tommy said.
‘A perfect catch too,’ Jackson said.
‘What do you think they’ll do now, lil bro? Will they go for the tie? Or the win?’
Jackson sat back down, thinking it over. ‘Well… knowing Coach Otsen, I think he’d go for the win.’
Jasmine sat down, looking confused. ‘What do you mean? How can they win now, isn’t it just going to be tied?’
‘Normally, yes. Most of the time you go for a kick after a touchdown, and that’s worth one point, so that would be a tie, yes, but, you also have the option to go for another, uhh, normal play from the 2-yard line, which, if you can get the ball into the end zone again, nets you 2 extra points instead of just 1. That way they could try to win now.’
‘But, that way is a little bit harder, and if you mess up, then the game won’t even be tied, the Titans’ll just lose,’ Tommy explained.
‘Ohh. So, you think they’ll go for the win? What happens if the scores are tied? Is it just a draw or is their overtime?’
‘There’s overtime, another ten minutes, though the first team to score a touchdown wins. Or, if you score a field goal and stop the opponent from scoring, then you win as well,’ Jackson said.
‘Geez, even a tie sounds risky then, I’d definitely go for the win now, just do the same thing Kenny did before and score again that way.’
‘Hahaha, you make it sound simple,’ Tommy said.
However, to their surprise, Coach Otsen decided to go for the tie, and the Titans set up in their kicking formation.
‘Hm… a trick play?’ Tommy wondered.
‘Umm, I don’t think Coach Otsen would do that,’ Jackson said.
And he didn’t. There was no trick, no deception with this play, Nick booted the ball through for the extra point, and the game was tied with barely any time left.
Tommy relaxed as the Titans lined up for kickoff. ‘Now the defence just needs to make a final stand, and this game will go into overtime. Then who knows who’ll win, it’s practically a whole new game once you get to that point.’
‘Oh my god, please just win, I can’t take this,’ Jasmine said, still on the edge of her seat and now with her fingers crossed on either hand.
As Nick prepared to do the honours of kickoff, he looked up from the ball and glanced over to Coach Otsen on the sideline.
Coach Otsen gave a subtle nod.
Nick took a deep breath and stepped forward, his eyes locked on the ball once again. At the last second, he twisted his hips as he kicked. He made a solid connection with the tip of the ball, and sent it bouncing along the ground, though in a diagonal line towards the sideline instead of straight down the middle of the field.
The Spartans players were caught completely off guard, already with their backs turned to the Titans so they could sprint back and form their blocking walls in front of their returner, the ones on the right side of the front lines scrambled to get back around as the ball came tumbling towards them.
The ball took a mad hop just before it reached the first Spartan and bounced over his head. He stretched out, swiping at the ball to no avail. As it passed him by, Kenny swooped in, plucking it out of the air with a graceful dive. When he hit the turf, he curled up around the ball.
The crowd was in a state of shocked awe, leaving a couple moments of silence before they erupted in cheers again. Jasmine stared bewildered, the crowd’s jubilation only adding to her confusion.
‘What just happened, what just happened?!’ She shook Jackson roughly.
‘Th-That was an onside kick! The Titans have the ball again.’
‘WHAT?! HOW?!’
Tommy laughed loudly and Jackson went on to explain. ‘When you kickoff like that, well, it’s not any one team’s ball yet until they claim it, so the first team to grab the ball earns possession of it. S-So there’s this thing called an onside kick, where the kicking team will kick the ball in a way that gives them a chance to recover it. Now, they can’t just tap the ball forward a bit and grab it themselves, it has to travel at least 10 yards, or have been touched by a player on the returning team before the kicking team can touch it. But it’s really risky! If you try a short kick like that, and the returning team gets it, well, they’re pretty much in field goal range already, so, that’s why you don’t see it until desperate times at the end of the game like this, or when you think it’ll catch the other team off guard.’
Jasmine was still in shock as the Titans lined up in an offensive formation, now having the ball for one last drive in regulation, with less than 30 seconds remaining.
‘Hahaha, and you said he wouldn’t try a trick play. He went for the tie so they’d think he was okay with going to overtime, and then he lined up like it was a normal kick until the last second. They never knew it was coming, that’s why it worked. Now the Titans just need to get within field goal range and they’ll have a chance to win!’ Tommy said.
‘And if they don’t get the field goal, then the game’s still tied and they’ll go to overtime anyway, it’s the best of both worlds… Coach Otsen is amazing.’
The brothers were glued to the game as they watched the final drive commence.
Kenny was still the man to watch, and this time, he bypassed the Spartans’ tight press by jumping to the outside right away. He skirted along the sideline, sprinting full speed. He had only one goal in mind, and that was a deep bomb along the sideline.
There was no need for feints or tricks, it would just come down to a straight contest between him and the CB, and how well Pete could throw.
He looked back over his shoulder, watching the ball as it floated through the air. He and the CB tussled for prime position. Kenny held him at bay, giving himself just enough room to extend, diving backwards as he stuck a hand out. He snagged the ball from the air, and just before he hit the ground his second hand got to it, holding it firmly as he crashed.
He rolled and sprung to his feet; the catch was successful, though he was ruled down by contact the moment he hit the ground as the CB had landed on top of him for a moment, but there was no time to celebrate. He flicked the ball over to an official and hurried back to his formation, the clock still ticking down as the Titans rushed to the line of scrimmage again.
Coach Otsen didn’t call timeout as he watched the seconds tick by, and when Pete snapped the ball, he didn’t spike it into the turf to stop the clock either. Instead, he handed it off to Isaac who rushed ahead through the middle of the field. Once he was brought down, Coach Otsen FINALLY called timeout with only three seconds remaining.
In just those two plays, the Titans had made it to the Spartans' 29-yard line, and whilst they were closer than Nick’s 50-yarder, it still wasn’t a guarantee that this one would go through from this distance.
Nick spent the timeout sitting in silence on the bench, taking deep breaths like he was trying to enter a meditative state.
No one bothered him. He already knew what he had to do; he already knew the entire game rested on his leg.
Coach Otsen addressed the other players, emphasising how important it was that they laid their bodies on the line for Nick on this upcoming play and gave him enough time to get the kick off. No matter what happened, they couldn’t let the Spartans block the kick.
When the Titans marched onto the field, the air was too electric to be silent. It crackled with anticipation, and the crowd couldn’t contain their excitement and fears, a loud murmur filled the stadium, and Nick did his best to block it out.
He took his stance on the field. He’d done this thousands of times before. He told himself that this one was no different to any of the others. He took a brief look at the goalposts, then his eyes lowered to the spot on the field where he knew Pete would place the ball.
He gave the okay, and Pete signalled for the snap.
Pete caught the ball and planted it without a hitch, everything went smoothly. Nick stepped into the kick and thumped the ball as sweetly as he’d ever kicked one before, and from the moment it left his boot he knew:
He knew they had just won the game.