Kenny’s head was hung low as he returned to the huddle. He and his teammates had no time to sit on the bench.
The successful extra-point attempt pushed the Golden Hawks’ lead back out to a full touchdown, at 20–13, and the crowd was thrilled.
Nick came over to Kenny, smacking him lightly on the back. ‘Hey, keep your head up. Don’t worry about that play, we’ll get the points right back, yeah?’
Kenny nodded. ‘Yeah, yeah of course. Let’s get it, dude.’
The two bumped fists, then separated for the kickoff.
Kenny’s return got to the 33-yard line before he was stopped, and it was there that the Titans started their campaign to win back those points.
Surprisingly, Kenny wasn’t matched up against Dexter this time, the antagonistic boy wasn’t anywhere on the field for the start of this drive.
Looking around at the formation, Kenny saw the Hawks were back to using that defensive triangle against him. He frowned.
“Why would they go back to this? I know their one-on-one didn’t work before, but, this wasn’t really working either.”
For the first play, they started conservatively, testing the waters with another run from Isaac.
There was a decent surge, and with some determined running after the first bit of contact, and thanks to a strong effort from Vincent up front, Isaac was able to gain 5 yards on first down.
Next up, the Titans would look to move the ball through the air.
Kenny drifted forward, feeling for the soft spot in the defence, however, as he settled into what he thought was the open patch of grass within that Bermuda Triangle, one of the defenders broke out of the formation and moved to mark him personally, like he was playing Man Coverage instead.
Petey looked all around for a target, but finding none open, his gaze returned to Kenny. He threw the ball into the grass intentionally, a yard or two in front of Kenny’s feet; an uncatchable ball, for both the offence AND—most importantly—the defence.
Kenny’s frown had deepened when he returned to the huddle.
Petey addressed the team briefly. ‘Hey, they’re still guarding Kenny mano-a-mano. Let’s have him make some space and someone can drift into it for easy yards.’
The others were all in agreement, though as Kenny retook his position, he was still trying to understand what the Golden Hawks were up to and why they’d changed their plans around like this.
He looked at the defender that had marked him on the last play. They were number 37. They stood away from Kenny, acting as if they’d be sinking back into a zone.
“Let’s test your wheels then. If you’re giving me so much space, you must be scared of my speed.”
For this pass, Kenny came forward and then slanted towards the centre of the field, away from number 37 who stood more to the outside of the field.
While he straightened up his route aiming to go straight down the middle of the field, Kenny was watching #37. That was when he ran directly into another Hawks defender.
#37 hadn’t moved in from his position nearer to the boundary, he hadn’t even tried to chase Kenny into the middle of the field, instead, another point of the triangle had been the one to close in and pick Kenny up.
Kenny stumbled after the bump, almost losing his footing. The new defender was right on his hip. Kenny was bewildered by the surprising strategy, but he shrugged it off. He wasn’t the primary target of this play anyway.
As Kenny was so tightly defended, Petey looked away from him, and instead looked to the area where Kenny had come from. He saw Nick drifting towards it. He was just about to throw the ball, when he noticed two defenders sitting on the pass, just waiting for it so they could pounce and pick it off.
Petey pulled his arm back down, the ball almost spilling free as he readjusted his grip and held it against his chest. He was so focused on the Receivers downfield, that he never noticed the defender who slipped past the O-Line.
Petey was completely blindsided. He was crunched in the tackle. It was a miracle he held onto the ball, helped in large part by him strengthening his grip after almost losing it on his own just moments before.
Even so, the Titans were pushed back even further than where they had started this drive and were brought to fourth down.
‘Hm. They’re good,’ Tommy said. ‘Desert Sunrise’s coach has plenty of tricks up his sleeve, and I doubt we’ve even seen half of them.’
Coach Otsen didn’t have to think about it long before he settled on punting the ball away.
Of course, the Titans didn’t even give the Hawks a chance to return and run them around to try and further tire them out, as Nick just booted the ball out of bounds downfield.
Again, Dexter was a no-show. Not that Kenny was complaining.
But the Hawks weren’t going to use their aerial might this time, instead, they punished the Titans on the ground.
Their running game utilised their small, quick-footed O-Line as the Guards, the Tackles, and even the Center could pull away from their blocks and get out into the open to lead the charge for their RB on any given play.
These pulling Linemen were always able to get in the way of the first Titan defender who came to make a play on the ball carrier, and off the back of these powerful runs, the Hawks marched downfield.
Thankfully for the Titans, this strategy seemed to run out of steam as the Hawks neared the red zone—the fast pace even taking its toll on the Hawks themselves—and with heightened efforts from Isaac and Petey, the Titans were able to put a stop to these runs.
Though the Hawks were within field goal range, and after the kick, their lead extended to 10 points: 23–13.
‘Your run game’s strong too! Come on Titans! Don’t give up yet!’ Jackson cheered louder. The game was still in its third quarter, but time wasn’t exactly on the Titans’ side.
After a short kickoff return, the Titans started their drive with a play-action pass, and while Kenny still struggled to get open, Freddy found some free space and caught the pass for a gain of 7 yards.
Next, Isaac picked up JUST enough yards for the first down as he and Vincent bulldozed over the Hawks’ D-Line together.
Again, there was another pass on first down, and again, Kenny failed to get any separation. However, Petey did find Isaac slipping out of the backfield for a gain of another 3 yards at least.
Kenny was getting frustrated. ‘These guys are so weird. Like no matter where I go there’s always someone in front of me.’
‘I guess it makes sense that a team named “Golden Hawks” has good air defence,’ Nick said.
‘They’re not the Legion of Boom, we can beat these putas,’ Petey said.
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Lonnie slowly nodded. ‘Yeah … let’s keep trying, guys … even if that is a lot of effort.’
‘Come on, Kenny, you can do it,’ Jackson said, his good leg bouncing rapidly.
‘He must feel like he’s surrounded every time they go for a pass,’ Tommy said to Jackson. ‘It’s a sophisticated scheme they’re running, I’m shocked a JV team can even pull it off. Those three players zoning off that side of the field must have a lot of trust in one another and years of communicating. They probably played in middle school together too. It can look random, how a different one is seemingly leaving their position to play him man-to-man each play, but what they’re doing is watching him, and whatever way he goes, whether it be outside, inside, or straight ahead, the closest defender is the one who covers him personally, while the others shift accordingly and cover the absent defender’s zone as well.’
Just as Tommy was explaining it, Kenny once again failed to break away from the containment, and as no one else could get open either, the Titans’ play resulted in 0 yards, as Petey had to throw the ball away.
Kenny stood bent over in the next huddle, head down, hands on his knees as he mentally replayed the previous plays, looking for any hint at how to get past this new defence.
He couldn’t find anything as the memories sped past him, but his mind looked back to a previous practice session, when he was working with Shane.
He took a deep breath and readied himself.
At the snap of the ball, Kenny burst straight across towards the middle of the field in a very flat slant, then when the inside defender—number 44—came down to confront him, he stopped and pushed away, heading back to the outside.
His feet pounded along the turf as he wheeled around the outside and turned upfield, drifting back behind the outside defender #37, using him as a shield to get separation from #44. Both defenders looked confused, but both gave chase now. Kenny raised his hand, calling for the ball.
Petey saw his chance, and threw the ball over. It was a bit behind Kenny, but he leapt into the air, twisting and turning as he stuck a hand out. Before he even had a chance to snag it, it was swatted out of the air as a backpedalling #37 slapped it aside.
Kenny groaned loudly, hanging his head back. As he returned to the sideline to catch his breath before the team would take up their punting formation, Petey came over to him. ‘Hey, sorry, amigo. I was a little off on that pass.’
‘It’s alright. I thought I had them but I guess not. … Fuck.’ Kenny shook his head.
‘Listen. We’re not giving up yet. Don’t get excited, but we’re faking the punt,’ Coach Otsen said. ‘Nick. I need you to trust yourself. It’s just an open pass, like you’re playing catch. The target won’t have anyone near them, and you can trust in your teammates to make sure no one will be coming to tackle you either.’
Nick looked pale. ‘Uhh… o-okay?’
‘Frederick? You’re catching the ball. Just ignore everything else and move out into the open. Then catch it and run like hell, got it?’
‘G-Got it!’ Freddy squeaked.
‘Good! Now get out there and act natural, dammit. They won’t expect anything if you keep your mouths shut and your hands still.’
The Titans took their usual formation for a punt. Both Nick and Freddy, despite doing their best, failed to keep their hands from shaking as they stood, awaiting the snap of the ball. They hoped the Hawks didn’t notice and suspect anything.
When the ball was snapped and flung into Nick’s hands, he instantly postured to throw, turning to find Freddy who had slipped away from the chaos of nearly twenty boys caught in a scrum in the middle of the field. Freddy was WIDE open, not a soul was anywhere around him.
Nick lobbed the ball over gently. Freddy caught it and looked around—he was still in the open. He spun and sprinted downfield, as quick as his long, uncoordinated legs could carry him, and he got pretty far until the Hawk who had been perched far downfield, awaiting the punt, came in and tackled him.
Still, the Titans had flipped their field position just like that, and now, instead of having to punt, they were in field goal range with a new set of downs to work with.
The few Titans supporters in the crowd cheered loudly while Coach Fowler fumed on the sideline.
The Titans didn’t get very far after their clever trick. The Hawks’ defence became MUCH more aggressive. Practically every defender on the field was sent blitzing after Petey when he dropped back to pass.
He could only drop to the floor in surrender as multiple defenders swarmed over him.
The Titans tried a draw play to counter the overaggressiveness, but Isaac couldn’t find a way past the wall of bodies before him, and even he was dropped behind the line of scrimmage for a loss of a few yards.
Time wound down in the third quarter and passed over into the fourth. Luckily, it had given time for the Titans to formulate a plan to reclaim the yards they had lost, put them back into field goal range, and potentially earn another first down.
After the last break in the game, Petey took the opening snap of the final quarter and hurriedly flipped the ball out over the top to Lonnie.
With long strides, he raced across the turf, but unfortunately, was brought down just before the first down marker.
Down by 10 points, Coach Otsen put his trust in Nick’s leg, and the Titans were able to cut the lead back down to just one touchdown.
Despite not coming away with another touchdown of their own, the rest of the Titans still got around Freddy and Nick, praising them for turning a complete failure of a drive into a miraculous 3 points.
On the kickoff afterwards, Nick even sent the ball flying over the back of the endzone completely with an absolutely thumping kick.
Then, as the two teams lined up opposite one another, Kenny cringed to find Dexter back on the field.
‘You guys must’ve thought you were so slick with that fake punt, huh?’
‘And where have you been? Did your coach realise how worthless you were?’
Dexter smiled. ‘Hah. No. Coach was just making sure I was more than well-rested for when he needed me to come in and finish off this game. You did well, struggling like the worms that you are. But smile, be happy that you can finally stop struggling and just give up.’
‘Touchdowns are still 1–0 in my favour. So talk all you want, you’re still nothing but a detriment to your team.’
‘We’ll see about that.’ Dexter kept smiling.
Kenny was goaded into getting close and pressing Dexter at the snap of the ball.
Dexter batted Kenny’s hands down as the two pushed against one another and Dexter worked downfield. Then, Dexter gave a harder shove as he stopped and turned back.
Kenny skidded but whirled around. He saw Dexter pass by in a blur, heading further inside. Kenny stopped again and turned inside, reaching out, trying to grab Dexter, but nobody was there.
Dexter was gone, drifting closer towards the boundary as he streaked upfield towards the endzone.
A pass with a rainbow-like arch fell directly into Dexter’s hands. Lonnie raced to get across, and was ready to push Dexter out of bounds around half field, when Dexter suddenly cut back inside and left Lonnie in the dust.
No one else was in Dexter’s path, and nobody could catch him before he ran in for a touchdown.
Just like that, the lead shot out to 14 points, (30–16) and it was all Kenny’s fault.
With the following kickoff, the Hawks also booted the ball out of the back of the endzone for a touchback.
When the Titans huddled together to go over their offensive game plan, in desperate need of a touchdown if they were to have any hope of a comeback, Kenny saw Dexter looking over from the Hawks’ huddle.
‘Petey. Get me the ball. Trust me, I’m going to get open. Look deep. I’ll get those points right back, I promise.’
‘Hey, I believe in you. We all do, amigo.’
The others nodded.
Kenny looked over to the Hawks again, then grabbed Petey by the shoulder and stared into his eyes. ‘A fake sweep. I’m faster than this guy. Everyone just needs to protect Petey and buy me time to get downfield.’
‘We can do that … right guys?’ Lonnie looked around.
‘We’ve got your back. Go embarrass that fool,’ Isaac said.
The huddle broke apart, the Titans fired up for one last push.
When Dexter and Kenny stood before one another, Dexter held up a finger on either hand, signalling 1–1.
Kenny held up three fingers of his own, predicting a 2–1 outcome, and he made sure the “1” was his middle finger.
Dexter laughed before he hunkered down into his stance.
Petey tapped his foot back and Kenny left his stance, running across behind the formation. Dexter was a bit caught off guard but took off and mirrored him. As Kenny passed by Petey, he broke into a sprint, and the ball was then snapped.
Dexter raced after Kenny, and when Kenny hit full speed, he shot upfield. The two almost collided, Dexter had to pull back at the last moment so as not to give away a penalty, and when he recovered from his stumble, he was a few steps behind Kenny and the gap was widening.
Petey saw the opening and heaved the ball as hard as he could.
Kenny looked back, ready to catch the pass and run into an open touchdown of his own.
But the game had taken its toll on both boys. After fifty minutes of intense football, with minimal breaks, Petey’s strength wasn’t all there. The ball was falling behind Kenny.
Kenny lurched to a stop and tried to jump back for the catch, but his legs gave out and he stumbled to the ground.
Dexter, who was lagging behind, turned his head and found the ball plummeting right towards him. With a grin so large it almost consumed his whole face, he turned and caught the ball right on his chest.
He looked down at Kenny behind him, who desperately lunged forward. Dexter jumped away from the weak attempt at a tackle and sped away from the fallen Receiver. He was knocked down after a brief run of 15 yards, but it didn’t matter, his interception had sealed the victory for the Golden Hawks.