Chapter 61

While Bonnie was putting the snacks away, I poured us a coke over ice and put some chips and salsa out for a late snack.

I was sending texts like a crazy man all the while.

I sent one to Priscilla, then to Ms. Maria and another one to Angie. Shit, I almost forgot!

I sent one to Brandy telling her what I had planned and she answered right back with the phone number I needed. At the end of her text, she put ‘smokin hot wknd’.

I put the number in my phone Brandy had given me and sent Rae Anne and Ashlee a text. Rae Anne sent me a text right back and told me they had permission if their mom and brother could have a new Outlaw T-shirt.

‘dun deal’ I sent back.

Ms. Maria sent me a text that she would be there way before dark.

Priscilla sent me a text and told me she’d be there before dark also.

I was all set for the biggest surprise I had ever pulled!

Now if it would all work out.

“Who were you texting so hot and heavy?” Bonnie asked when she sat down to drink her coke.

“My guys on the team.”

I made sure everything was closed up, then went to pee before I went to my room.

Bonnie was lying on her belly with her legs spread and that sexy, killer ass just waiting for me to cover her bet.

“Hurry, Rick. I need you like never before. I just love days like today. It was special from the very start until this great finish for a perfect day.”

“You’re getting sexier every day, Bonnie. You even act sexier when you’re happy, did you know that?”

“I feel sexy too. I hope when Gage and I do it, it feels this good.”

“Do it?”

“Well, I hope when he fucks me from behind it feels just like this. Hurry, Baby. I feel like I could get a cum already like this.”

“Do you think you’ll ever get him to make love to you and another girl at the same time?”

“I’ll get Molly to help me and we’ll break him in right. OH DAMN, Fuck me hard, Rick.”

“You like talking about Gage fucking you, don’t you?”

“Yes! Now fuck me deep.”

“What would you do if you were with Angie and Gage saw you?”

“I’d beg him to come fuck both of us. That sexy woman makes me drool when I look at her.”

“I saw him looking at her too while she was kicking and thrusting. She does look good. She and Brandy made the car steam up the other night.”

“Brandy told me all about that. I was weak in the knees when she got through describing it.

“Fuck me hard, Rick. I’m getting close ... NOW, DO IT NOW!”

I fell forward beside her, my right arm on her back. My right leg between her legs, my thigh on her sexy ass and I was totally spent.

“Pull the sheet up and lay on me just like this. I love you, Outlaw.”

I didn’t set the clock and still woke up a little after 6:00. I left Bonnie in bed and went to shower. When I was dressed, I woke her up and followed her sexy, sleepy ass to the shower. Satisfied she was awake enough to shower, I went down to fix our cereal. She came down yawning and sat at the table naked to eat.

As soon as she ate her cereal, she jumped up, kissed my cheek then ran to her room.

We started out a little early on our rounds. Ben, Em and Tara were ready. When I stopped for Brandy she ran from the house with her long hair blowing back behind her.

She leaned over for a kiss and we were off.

We went in the school building as soon as we arrived and in no time we were scattered in all directions. I had one direction in mind as I headed down the hall toward Angie’s classroom.

There were two students in the back of the room and I walked to her desk before she looked up.

“Rick,” she whispered and jumped to her feet.

“Morning Ms. Jorgenson. I brought this by to show you, since I didn’t get to last night after martial arts classes,” I said and handed her the new iPhone with the confirmation text from the park on the screen.

“Thank you for this information.” Was all she said as she looked up and smiled.

“Here’s the rest of the stuff you’ll need,” I said and handed her the charger, cords and booklet. I had put a note in there telling her we’d pick her up at her apartment tomorrow after school. I pulled it out of the booklet and handed it to her.

I walked to the door and turned back to see her standing there holding the phone, wide eyed. I winked at her and went to assembly.

I felt good.

We boarded the team bus a few minutes before 2:00 and were rolling in minutes. It’s an hour to West Plains and we always arrive in plenty of time to warm up and loosen up when we travel to an away game.

The capacity of their football stands is about half what ours is and they have open bleacher seats instead of stadium seats. The crowd on the visitor’s side was arriving early and we could tell, the stands would be full for our game.

Our band was here and they were arranging their chairs on the grass at the end of the bleachers.

When we went inside to put our pads and jerseys on, our coaches were huddled together and never looked up until we were dressed and ready to play.

“Listen up, Men. The team you’re about to play would like nothing better than to knock you off the ranks of the unbeaten in Texas. If you go out there thinking this little town and this little team won’t be that hard to beat, you’ll be proven wrong. They are going to come at you with everything but the school buses and they are going to play you as hard as any team you’ve played to date.

“I’m not telling you they play dirty, but they will come at you with a fire in their hearts so be ready.

“Just remember the things we practiced and the things you’ve been told by your coaches. Play like Mavericks and play with that same attitude and intensity you had when you played Stratford.

“Defense, I want you men to play your best game of the year. Stuff them and stop them on each play. I want to see some hard hitting, I want to hear some hard hitting, and I want to see some fumbles out there.

“Offense, I want you offensive linemen to take over the line of scrimmage. I mean make it yours and make holes that even I could walk through.

“Ben, we’re going to run a lot of spread offense and some of our bread and butter running plays. We’re depending on you to read and react, we want you to take your offense down the field like you own this place.

“Dalton, Toro, we’re expecting big things from you two. You better not let us down either!

“Dalton, if we win the toss, we want the ball!”

Coach Clark held up his hand and we took a knee on the floor around him.

None of us had made a sound since Coach Miller started talking. When we came up off that floor, we came up like a horde of raging animals.

I ran straight for the center of the field and stopped as the team took a knee around me. I looked around at the bleachers and they were packed. People lined the fences and people were sitting on cars and standing in the backs of their pickups.

“Look around you, Mavericks. This is a big game to them. What they don’t know yet is, this is a bigger game to us than they’ll ever realize. This is our pride and this is what we have committed ourselves to do. We don’t just play the game, we play our game - and we play our game to win.

“Play with that Maverick Pride and let’s beat these Warriors so they will know, The Dalton Gang just rode through their town and we own it!“

I was yelling by the time I stopped talking and when we ran for the sidelines, there was a roar from our fans and there was a roar from our team behind me.

They won the coin toss and elected to receive.

“LaRussa, you know what to do. Pin them back!” Coach Clark told him before he ran out on the field with his tee.

They had two return guys and they were at the back of the end zone. They had no intention of returning the kick, they were going to let the ball go into the end zone for a touch back.

The ball hit at their five yard line and bounced high in the air before it tumbled and rolled across the goal line.

Our fans roared to their feet when they saw what had happened and they were still roaring when our defense took the field.

On first down they ran off right tackle and the runner was stuffed for a three yard loss. They tried the left side and lost another two yards. On third and fifteen their quarterback rolled out for a screen pass. Our guys broke through and forced him to run toward the other end. He was trapped and lost even more yardage as he backpedaled. He tucked the ball and took a sack at the five yard line.

They would have to punt from their end zone and we knew we would have a short field even if they kicked it out of bounds to keep us from returning the punt.

“Get ready, Dalton. Here comes your baby,” Toro said as the ball sailed toward the sidelines and I took it on the run just inside the chalk line. I was at their thirty-five by the time I looked down field and picked out an alley to run through.

Ben and Toro were following our blockers, waiting for an opening. Ben hit one player and Toro took out the one next to him. I hit that hole and made a hard cut to my right, then another to my left. I was running hard for the corner when I saw a defender leave the middle open and run to his right to cut me off. I veered to my right and hit that hole running as hard as I could right up the middle. There was no one but the ref standing in front of me in the end zone.

That was a short run and I wasn’t even breathing hard when I handed the ball to the ref. I slapped my left hand across my left ear and met Toro, Ben and the others as they ran to me.

Our fans were screaming and the cameras in the bleachers and on the sidelines were flashing as we ran off the field. Coach Chad ran out on the field to meet me. He grabbed me up and swung me around and around before putting me down.

Coach Miller and Coach Clark were right there to grab me next. They went down the line, slapping the hands of the cover team, patting them on their backs and congratulating each of them as we celebrated.

LaRussa’s kick hit at the ten yard line. Again there was no one there to receive the kick and the ball rolled into the end zone.

The refs brought the ball out to the twenty yard line and the Warriors were already lined up.

Their quarterback was in the shotgun with one running back. The halfback was standing next to the quarterback and the ball was snapped to him, not the quarterback. They were running what they called the Wildcat, which a lot of teams use to create confusion.

The runner took off to his right and cut upfield. Just as he hit the open, Hendrix hit him. The halfback went one way and the ball went the other way as Hendrix scooped the ball up and ran five yards before they swarmed the big guy and took him down.

By the time the ref had the ball set, our offense was on the field. Ben called the play and Toro shifted to left end as I ran out past our wide receiver on the right side.

When the ball was snapped, I ran to the five yard line, faked a cut to the outside, then cut hard back toward the middle. Ben hit me with a high-hard fastball as soon as I cut and the ball passed between two defenders before they could react. I stepped into the end zone and we were up fourteen — zip.

Coach Clark told LaRussa to kick a short squib kick down the middle and let it roll toward the end zone. The little guy gets better with each game and he nailed a perfect drive right down the middle of their fairway. They let it roll and tumble and again the ball barely rolled across the goal line.

The Warriors came out and lined up in the spread offense with five receivers. Their quarterback was in the shotgun and as soon as the refs blew the whistle the ball was snapped. He hit his wide receiver on the left for ten yards and he turned to run down the sidelines. Our corner back nailed him in his gut with his shoulder pads and the ball came out. Jimi Gonzales scooped the ball up and returned the fumble to the ten yard line where they knocked him out of bounds.

Coach Clark had the offense in a huddle and called the first play on the sidelines. We ran out and lined up in the Power I. Ben called a short count and Harlan snapped the ball. Ben rolled out to his right, then faked a pitch back to me. He whirled to hit Toro in the end zone for the TD.

Our fans were about to tear the bleachers down and their home crowd was silent as we ran off the field.

We were up twenty-one to zip with five minutes left in the first quarter. The Warriors never regained that cocky little strut they had when the game started.

On their next series, they did make a first down on a pretty good run around the right end. Then our guys bucked up and stopped them on third and three. I was hoping the coaches would let me try to block the punt but they didn’t.

Their kicker punted the ball toward the sidelines. It hit the chalk line and rolled out of bounds at our thirty-five yard line just as the clock ticked down on the first quarter.

“No huddle, guys. Ben, we’ll only pass on third down. Run that ball like a herd of stampeding Mavericks,” Coach Miller yelled at us before we went out to start the second quarter.

Five running plays later, I scored on a dive off left tackle behind Toro and Riggler. We ran the ball all the second quarter, scoring on each drive to end the first half up forty-eight to three. They did hit on a long field goal to end the half.

During halftime our coaches praised the whole team, something that was very rare during the game.

We received the kickoff to start the second half and they kicked the ball short to one of our up guys. He took it on a fair catch at our thirty-two and we were off and running again.

We had our running game clicking and we rolled up the yards on that first drive. No matter how hard they tried, they never ripped the ball out of my hands.

On second and goal from their six yard line, Ben hit me on a screen pass to the right and I followed my blockers into the end zone.

We kicked off and they called for a fair catch on their nine yard line. After two running plays off left tackle, on third and four they tried the right side for no gain.

Again they punted short and our up guy called for a fair catch at their forty-six. Three running plays later, I scored from the twelve yard line on a power sweep around right end.

That was it for us.

The coaches cleared the benches with six minutes left in the third quarter. We ran the ball the rest of the game and our second string offense scored three more TDs, while our second string defense only gave up fifty yards on the ground and one more field goal.

After the game, Coach Miller was talking to us as we knelt or sat in the floor around him. He was smiling, something he’s started doing a lot here lately.

“Mavericks, we’re proud of you! You went out there and played like the winners you are today. You could have played half as hard and still won, but you’re better than that, and you want to prove each week that you’re better.

“Once again you showed the people who write about sports and keep up with high school football just how well disciplined and dedicated you are as a team. You’ll have even more articles written about you after this. This may not have been the biggest challenge you’ve faced so far, but it was the biggest test for a young team. You passed that test when you showed the sports world that you refused to have a let-down while playing a weaker team.

“Do you men even realize that you-did-not-have-even-one-penalty on offense or defense? You men kept your cool and you played like true winners no matter what they threw at you or how rough it got out there. Penalties can kill a good team, but not MY MAVERICKS.

“We’re going to let you pick which player gets the game ball again this week. Just like last week, I’ll call three names and you’ll tell the team who you want. We’ll take a voice vote after that.

“Dalton!”

“LaRussa, Coach!”

“Bateman!”

“LaRussa, Coach!”

“Riggler!”

“LaRussa, Coach!”

LaRussa had tears in his eyes as Coach Miller softly drop-kicked the ball to him and he reached up to catch it.

We were still cheering and congratulating him as we changed clothes and packed our gear for the trip home.

When we came out of the dressing room there was a double line of fans, friends, band members and family members lined up for us to pass through on our way to the team bus. We waved and slapped high fives and pumped our fists in the air as we walked through that friendly gauntlet of fans, family and friends.