As Ty stopped in front of him, Number 89 reached a fist out towards Ty. ‘Good luck to you and your team.’
Ty looked at the extended fist, then raised his own, however, instead of bumping the gentle giant’s fist, Ty hammered his down on top of 89’s … but 89’s hand didn’t budge.
89 smiled, slowly retracting his hand. ‘I was only wishing you luck ‘cause you’ll need it.’
Ty stepped back, chewing on his mouthguard.
The game soon started, and the first play was a run. 89 burst forward, having an explosive first step for someone his size.
Ty prepared to brush 89 aside, standing his ground as he turned his gaze to the Falcons’ RB. Suddenly Ty found himself on his back, staring at the darkening sky.
A stampede passed over Ty as the run continued past him, and was put to an end when the RB ran into JJ after a pick up of 5 yards.
A hand thrust out in front of Ty’s face. Ty followed the arm back to Donte, one of the team’s OLBs, who looked down at him with pity.
‘You alright, lil bro?’ Donte asked.
Ty smacked the hand aside and pushed himself onto his feet. ‘I’m fine.’ He stomped back to the huddle without another word from him or Donte.
On the way, he passed by a group of Falcons, congratulating the RB, who in turn applauded 89. ‘Great block back there, Big E!’
89—Big E—looked at Ty as they passed each other, his smirk told Ty that he should’ve accepted the fist bump. Ty only scowled in return.
The next time Ty lined up before “Big E”, he stayed back a few extra steps, giving Big E more space.
The next play was another run, and this time, Ty was the aggressor rushing towards Big E. Ty didn’t worry about using any techniques or trying to brush off Big E’s block, instead, he focused on avoiding the block altogether with his speed as he dashed to the outside. However, as he did so, he ran right into Donte, and the RB squeezed past through the opening on the inside of both defenders. As Ty and Donte took each other out, Big E could move forward and laid a block against JJ this time, the run gained 9 yards and a new first down for the Falcons.
Donte forcibly pulled Ty to his feet now. ‘Yo, what the hell was that? You gotta know your lane, and stay in it. If you’re gonna loop around outside, let me know beforehand.’
Ty shrugged him off again. ‘Fuck this, I shouldn’t have to deal with this shit. I’m not a LB or a Linemen, I’m a fucking CB.’
‘Tell the coaches that, if you don’t wanna deal with this shit and wanna go back to covering a WR, say that, and I’ll take that big fucker, number 89.’
‘I didn’t say any shit like that. 89 is MINE. I’m not backing down from a challenge I’ve already accepted.’
‘Then stop complaining and stay in your lane.’
‘Hey, hey, hey.’ JJ moved over to break the two apart. ‘We’re all on the same team, we’re all hermanos. We’re all trying to win, so save that fighting for the other team.’
With a fresh set of downs, it looked like the Falcons would stick to the ground. As the QB turned to hand the ball off, Big E came forward to block Ty. However, when Ty dove towards the inside to get by Big E, Big E didn’t even try to stop him.
It was Play-Action, the QB kept the ball and looked to throw.
Donte bumped into Big E as the TE sped by to the outside and then turned upfield. Ty scrambled after him. The QB floated the ball towards Big E. Without turning his head back, Ty leapt into the air, watching the position of Big E’s hands as he prepared to catch the ball, Ty guessed the trajectory and swiped at the air above his head, knocking the ball out of its flight.
Ty landed on the turf at the same time the ball did, staring at Big E. ‘Keep running; The air belongs to me.’
Big E flashed a smile that was more of a grimace and returned to his huddle.
It wasn’t like they took Ty’s advice to heart, but the Falcons weren’t about to stop doing what was working. They kept running, and this time, whilst Ty initially skirted around Big E to confront the RB, just before he could lay the tackle, Big E sideswiped him and knocked him out of the way. However, that meant RB ran into Donte’s path, and Donte pulled him down after a gain of 3 yards.
The Falcons kept the ball rolling, and despite staring down the barrel of a 3rd down—and Ty’s warning—they returned to the air. Big E wasn’t the target this time, instead, they hit a Receiver on the opposite side of the field for a gain of 7 yards and another first down.
As the Dons huddled together afterwards, JJ said. ‘It’s alright, keep at it, don’t let them get to you, we just need to stop them three times, that’s all. We’ve got this.’
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The short speech inspired the Dons to stuff the Falcons' next play—a Draw that only netted them 2 yards but taught them a valuable lesson: they can’t run up the middle. Not only was JJ the closest to the middle and always willing to crash down and smash apart anything up the gut, but even the DTs were formidable obstacles.
On their next run, the Falcons targetted Ty and Big E’s side, and again, right as Ty was going to make the tackle, Big E hit him from the side and pushed him out of the contest; the RB gained 5 yards on the play.
On 3rd down, the Falcons were headed towards Ty’s side again. Whilst they weren’t racing away down the field this way, they were getting consistent gains, and when all they needed were 3 more yards, it was as safe a bet as any.
That’s why the Dons committed so heavily to stopping the run on that side, and that’s why, when the RB stopped in his tracks and cut back to the opposite side of the field, running against the grain of his blocking, it worked so well.
He ripped off a 15-yard run before he was finally pushed out of bounds and right into the waiting arms of his bench.
‘Dat’s what I’m talkin’ ‘bout Alejandro!’ the coach cheered.
Alejandro flipped the ball to the nearest official, and trotted back to the huddle with a smug grin.
‘Yo, lil bro.’ Donte came towards Ty, but Ty waved him off.
‘Worry about your shit, I got this.’
Ty took his stance a little closer to the line again. The Center snapped the ball, and again, Ty initially avoided Big E’s block. The added wrinkle was, that just before he’d meet the RB, Ty suddenly lunged towards Big E before he could get him from the side. One of Ty’s long arms struck as quick as a snake and hit Big E square in the chest, held him at bay long enough, then Ty used him as a springboard and pushed off towards the RB to wrap him up in a strong tackle and held him to a gain of only 2 yards.
Big E rubbed his chest, surprised by the sudden assault, then helped Alejandro up and over to the huddle.
The Falcons tried another Counter run, though this time they were stuffed for a loss of 1 yard as the Dons were more aware and cautious of the cutback, and the following pass, whilst avoiding Ty again, only netted them 8 yards and left them only a single yard short of another first down.
But the Dons’ celebrations were cut short as they realised the Falcons’ offence was staying on the field. They weren’t sending out their kicking unit despite being well within range; they weren’t going for the tie, they wanted the lead.
The Dons hurried to their positions, though as Ty lined up, Donte nudged him and muttered. ‘Outside.’
Ty’s brow furrowed, but he ignored Donte and focused on Big E. With how close the Falcons were to a first down, he knew the ball would be in Alejandro’s hands, though he didn’t know whether or not they’d try another run up the middle.
After the snap, Donte cut inside in front of Ty and engaged Big E as he tried to force his way towards the middle, cutting off the inner lane.
Ty had no choice but to dart around the outside; he came face to face with Alejandro. Ty finally had a good look at the boy, and realised he wouldn’t have been much older than him, a year at most, if Alejandro wasn’t also a freshman. Nor was Alejandro much bigger than Ty, maybe there was a couple of inches of height difference, and a few extra pounds of muscle mass, but Alejandro looked bulkier, having a stouter, more compact build rather than Ty’s slim, long-limbed frame.
Alejandro shifted towards the inside and Ty jumped to cut it off, but it was just a feint. Alejandro juked to the outside, Ty stretched out and got his hands on him. Alejandro swatted one aside, but the other clung onto his jersey. As Ty stumbled towards the ground, he tried to pull Alejandro with him, but he felt the stretching Jersey slipping from his grasp.
Alejandro was breaking free and would cross the chains to earn another first down … then he ran into a brick wall named JJ.
Alejandro crumpled to the turf, and though he held onto the ball, it didn’t matter, he hadn’t earned any yards, the Dons would be rewarded with the ball on a turnover of downs seeing as the Flacons had failed to gain 10 yards in their four attempts.
The small section of Dons supporters cheered, their volume more than making up for their lack of numbers as the Dons offence took over, congratulating JJ for his big hit as they passed him.
The praising of JJ didn’t stop when he sat on the bench, the coaches made sure he knew just how important that big hit and stop was for the state of the game. But as this happened, Donte sat beside Ty.
‘What do you want?’ Ty said.
‘Yo, what’s with the hostility? I’m just tryin’ to help. Look, I’m gonna sit on your inside now, and every play, no matter what, I’ll bump that TE. Now, if it's a run, he’s gonna bump me back and start blocking me, but, if it's a pass, he’ll run right by me and be all yours. Still, you’ll be in a better position if it is a pass, and he’ll be a second behind on his route, right? Then if it’s a run, you’re free to get past on the outside and cut off the RB like you did just before.’
‘That’s a great plan,’ JJ—who stood nearby—said, then resumed chugging his Gatorade.
Ty didn’t say anything, he didn’t have anything to argue with. It sounded like a solid plan, so he deferred to the experience of the two LBs who knew more about this sort of situation.
He wondered if this was the kind of shit that Slot corners (The Slot refers to the innermost Wide Receiver and Cornerback) had to deal with regularly, and was glad he didn’t have to worry about things like this when he was playing on the outside.
Back on the field, the Dons were marching down it, thanks in large part to Benny and Cole rather than Stephen and Chris.
The Falcons' defence was quite experienced with stopping the run, and Chris was struggling to break through for any major gains, likewise, thanks to practising against Big E, they weren’t too bothered by Stephen’s size—despite him having a couple of inches on the Falcons’ giant.
But on this drive, Cole and Benny picked up the slack and carved through the Falcons' defence together. Soon the Dons were knocking on the door of the endzone.
That was when JJ was called out to join the offence and took up his position as a fullback, and Cameron came on to replace Chris as he was better suited for these goalline situations where power was more valuable than agility.
Following JJ’s lead block, Cameron charged in for the final yard and put the first touchdown of the game on the board.
The extra point was good, and the Dons were in high spirits as their defence returned to the field after the Falcons' short kick return had them starting at the 21-yard line.
Ty was eager to enact the new plan Donte had come up with, and see how things would play out after implementing it.
Yes, they had stopped the Falcons from scoring on their first drive, but that was only because the Falcons were greedy and didn’t settle for the field goal; Ty couldn’t let them get that close again.