Ty stepped foot onto the Dons’ home field. He’d arrived early. The JV game hadn’t started yet, but it would soon. The stands were mostly empty, and the sun was shrouded by thick clouds for once.
Today was the day. It was the last game of the season … yet, it didn’t feel any different. “Will next week feel different?” he wondered.
As he sat right behind the Dons’ bench, he thought about why this game would be any different in the first place. So what if it was the last game of the regular season? They were already going to Regionals, only the worst team in the division would miss out.
The JV team was abuzz with tension and excitement at the prospect of this being the final game of the season. Ty watched as the representatives for both teams met at the centre of the field for the coin toss.
The Dons won this toss and deferred the kick.
Ty felt calm, sharp, focused. His leg trembled ever so slightly.
The Dons’ defence took the field after the opening kick resulted in a short return by the Gauchos, and the game was underway.
Bella paced along the sideline, chewing on her lip as she watched.
The Gauchos' offence wasn’t as unpredictable as the Dons had expected, at least not with how the JV counterpart played. That didn’t mean they were pushovers. They were well-coached and played with precision. Thanks to a dominant pair of TEs, they opened the game with a touchdown.
These TEs controlled the flow of the offence. If the Gauchos were running, they were great run blockers, either working together to dominate one side, or sealing off both edges separately.
They weren’t slouches when it came to helping out with the passing attack either. They were great aerial threats, and both of them could reel in a remarkable catch when they needed to.
They worked in perfect unison, and the rest of the team followed that cohesion. And on closer glance, these young studs were in fact, twins. Identical, down to their stride and stance, even their uniforms crinkled and stained the same.
If it weren’t for the different numbers on their jerseys, you would’ve had a hard time telling them apart, they were like clones that had been manufactured.
When the Dons had their first offensive drive, they learned that these twins weren’t problems that only their defence would have to deal with either.
The twins were now lined up as part of the Gauchos’ defence, positioned as a pair of MLBs.
The twins controlled the middle of the field, whether the Dons tried to get by through the air, or on the ground, the twins smothered everything, and the Dons fell well short in their attempt to even up the score, and quickly had to punt the ball away.
Immediately, the pressure was on, and the Dons were already on the back foot.
Ty leaned forward in his seat, listening in as Coach Long turned to his daughter and asked her how she was going to slow the Gauchos’ offence down.
She stopped pacing, chewing on her lip. ‘…I don’t know,’ she said.
As she racked her brain trying to come up with ANY solution to the problem, the Gauchos—still led by the twins—tore chunks of yardage from the Dons’ defence, and looked well on their way to another touchdown.
Ty sat back. How easy would things be if HE had a twin? He wouldn’t have to worry about a second Receiver ripping through the other side of the defence. Give Ty a secondary full of himself, and he’d win the national championship in a heartbeat.
‘We need to fill the box,’ Bella finally said. ‘Clog up the middle of the field, force them outside where they’ll run into their teammates.’ She knew the plan wasn’t the best, but she had to act fast and put a stop to these twins quickly before the game got out of hand.
Her band-aid solution worked well enough to slow the Gauchos down and force them to kick a field goal. It was better than another touchdown, but still, the margin widened, and more pressure fell onto the Dons.
After the kick-off, however, Bella had a much clearer idea of how the Dons were going to smash past the Gauchos’ defence.
Coach Long stood beside his daughter. ‘What’s the game plan, Coach?’ he asked.
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‘A Dagger?’ She looked up from her whiteboard, looking at him for approval.
He raised a brow. ‘Go on.’
‘Well, it’d be good because … it’ll attack them right where they think they’re the strongest.’ She drew a long line up the middle of the field. ‘The deep route will draw away the Safeties. Then you have a mesh right here.’ Another two lines were drawn going across the field left and right. ‘Will suck in those MLBs, and that’s when the Dagger slips right into their backs.’ And finally, she drew a deep Cross through the middle of the field.
Coach Long squeezed her shoulder. ‘Atta girl.’
The play went off without a hitch, just the way she drew it up, and instantly, the Dons were 20 yards further downfield.
And, if it wasn’t broken, there was nothing to fix. She threw the same scheme at the Gauchos again. This time, one of the twins stayed back, sitting and waiting for that Dagger over the back. However, that meant Rabbit was open underneath, as the other twin could only cover one of those shallow routes.
No matter what choice the twins made, they always left someone open. Now it was the Gauchos’ turn to scramble for a way to stop the offensive onslaught they were facing.
They too, tried to stack the middle of the field with more defenders, but then the Dons could switch to a run attacking the outside.
Bringing down one of their Safeties was the fatal mistake the Gauchos made. With only one man to beat, it turned the deep vertical route from a decoy, into a legitimate threat, and that threat hauled in the Dons’ first touchdown.
The first quarter soon ended with a score of 7–10.
During the break, Bella was still trying to come up with a plan to stop the Gauchos’ offence.
Ty didn’t know what the issue was, but then again, this was the JV team. He knew they were all hopeless. It still should’ve been easy to cover either of those twins. Sure, they were fast and tall—for JV—but that’s it, they weren’t crisp through their cuts, and they were too direct, too honest. Plus, they hadn’t reacted well once things stopped going according to plan, that would’ve been why they were still stuck in JV—they couldn’t adapt on their own.
‘You know,’ Coach Long said, ‘When a head coach is stumped and doesn’t know what to do, the good ones always turn to their coordinators and lean on them. That’s why you have them, to help you out when you’ve got no other options. Use them.’ He gestured to Coach Hoang, and nudged Bella in his direction.
She looked defeated as she stood before him. ‘I’m sorry … what do you think we should do?’
‘First, let’s stop their run. They’re dominating the Line with those TEs, they’re basically another pair of O-Linemen out there. So, we let them win, but we let them win where we WANT them to win. We stack the Line and purposefully leave open a gap, it’s bait for the RB, and if they take it, one of our LBs will be waiting for them.’
Bella’s eyes flicked about as she ran the idea over in her head. ‘Yeah, we just have to hold our positions instead of trying to get through their wall. If we hold steady, and don’t let them shove us out of position, there will only be one opening, an opening we’ve already planned for.’ She grinned.
‘Then when their RB sticks their head out of that hole, we crush them.’
‘Okay, but … but what about when they pass?’
‘It’s a bit harder, and we’re going to need some good coverage from you boys.’ Coach Long looked back at the defenders. ‘But if you feel those TEs starting to leak out for a pass, you can’t let them. Smother them. Play right up on them, and don’t even think about getting around them if it's a run. I want you playing more like O-Linemen yourselves, don’t let them get around you even a step, keep them in place for as long as you can. That’s all you have to do, no matter what kind of play they run, you hold them steady and stand your ground. Stop them from running their routes, and plug up the gaps in any running lanes.’
The Dons were eager to get back on the field and try their new plans. They started the second quarter on defence, and things started well. The new schemes were a huge success, and the Gauchos’ drive stalled before a minute of game time passed.
However, the Dons weren’t the only ones who had made some defensive adjustments, and they too struggled to get anything going on their first drive of the second quarter. But, unlike the Gauchos, their offensive woes wouldn’t continue for the rest of the game.
Leaning on Coach Hoang’s advice, the Dons defence became stalwart, and held the Gauchos scoreless for the rest of the game. No matter what the Gauchos tried they couldn’t do anything to break through the wall the Dons had erected.
Runs to the outside were stuffed—the edges were sealed and neither twin could open up a lane. The middle was much the same, it was congested, and the only hole the Gauchos’ O-Line could pry open was the exact hole the Dons wanted them to make. Any time a RB would break through, they’d be running straight into the open arms of a Dons MLB.
They didn’t have an easier time passing the ball either. Anything deep was taken care of with ease. The middle of the field was too congested. Then, if they tried anything shallow and wide, the Dons—following Rabbit’s unrelenting lead—swarmed the Receiver and brought them down for a short gain if anything.
The Dons were a suffocating blanket that slowly but surely choked the life out of the Gauchos’ offence.
Offensively, the Dons didn’t blow them away, but they adapted bit by bit to the defence they were shown, and eventually broke them down.
If the Gauchos clogged up the middle to stop that Dagger from sinking into their back, they’d attack the outside more, stretching the defence wide and picking up yards that way. Then, if the Gauchos spread out, and tried to cover those vulnerable sidelines, the Dons would carve them up through the middle, attacking those isolated twins as they continued to struggle with the Dagger.
When all was said and done, and the game was over, the score was 24–10 for a Dons’ victory.
They closed the season on a high note, and Coach Long let the boys bask in the cheers for a while before he directed them to the locker room where the celebrations continued.
The JV team had passed their last hurdle, and now their real challenge would begin as their dreams for Regionals and State success took wing.