Chapter 5

Memorial’s first game of the season was against Henry Clay High School. Not only was Clay the defending Kentucky state champion, being also located in Lexington, Clay was Memorial’s archrival. And being neighbors, Clay was all too well aware of what had befallen the stars of Memorial’s prior team. They were really expecting a walk-over.

The pivotal play proved to be the kickoff. Clay had won the toss and elected to receive. Tanya placed the ball on the kicking tee and, when the referee’s whistle sounded, she really booted it. Clay’s two deep receivers watched the ball hit the ground in the end zone and bound toward the end line so they trotted toward the sidelines. They fully expected the ball to go over the end line for a touchback and then be brought out to the 20 for Clay’s first offensive play.

But that’s not what happened. Instead, on its second bounce, the ball landed on its nose and then skipped back to sit on the ground five yards behind the goal line. A very alert Memorial cover man was on it like a cat. With the ball cradled in his arms, the referee’s arms went up signaling a Memorial touchdown. Tanya’s extra-point kick split the uprights, so with only seconds gone in the first period Clay was down by seven.

There are two things that can happen in such a situation. One is to ignore it and get on with the game. The second is to seek to fix blame. Unfortunately for Clay, they went the second route. And because of the blame-game, the Clay players focused on not making a mistake rather than thinking about the play they were trying to run. The results were disastrous. Mistakes seemed to pyramid on themselves. And the Memorial defense preyed on every one. Fumbles were recovered, passes were intercepted, and, even though Memorial had no offense, they didn’t really need one that day.

Tasha accounted for two scores by punting the ball dead on the 1-yard line once, and the 2-yard line later. Capitalizing on the hyper-tense Clay players, Memorial got safeties both times. And Tanya even kicked a 50-yard field goal.

The combination of a truly aroused Memorial defense coupled with a demoralized Clay offense resulted in the final score of 14-0.

The Memorial stands went utterly berserk! Going to the game expecting to see a slaughter, they had seen their boys triumph. And to make the day even sweeter, their vanquished foe was the hated Henry Clay High School, the defending state champions! Could anything be sweeter than that?

It was very late Friday night following the Memorial-Clay game when Kevin Carlisle finally reached Jumbo Jones on his cellphone.

“What in hell are you calling me for at this time of night?” Jumbo growled. Then he looked at a clock and added, “Holy shit! It’s almost four o’clock!”

“I called to find out if you have any part-time deputies you could activate to full-time status,” Kevin replied blandly.

“And what the hell is that supposed to mean?” Jumbo demanded.

“That means that you won’t be seeing eight of your deputies any time soon.”

“What?” Jumbo screamed into the phone.

“It seems that four of the Bluegrass security guys were in a quiet little bar — not in your jurisdiction, unfortunately — when they were accosted by eight of your off-duty deputies. One of your guys was heard to say something like, ‘We’re going to fix you bastards for what you did to Junior,’ or words to that effect.”

“And... ?”

“Bad move, Jumbo,” Carlisle replied. After pausing for a moment he continued, “They should stick to beating up drunks. Unfortunately, the Bluegrass guys weren’t drunk — they weren’t even close — and they’re in top shape. What you know — or sure as hell should know — is that they’re all ex-Rangers, and the ones who weren’t Rangers were SEALs. Your guys are now all hospitalized — in the prison ward, by the way — with at least one broken major bone each. The leader of the band — your chief deputy, I understand — has a broken jaw, broken arm, broken leg, and a shoulder broken in three places. They might — or might not — be able to put him back together.”

Kevin paused, and then his tone of voice changed completely. “What the fuck are you doing, Jumbo? Are you out of your fucking mind? Against that outfit, you’re so damned overmatched it’s ridiculous! I warned you to lay off but apparently you didn’t listen. I hope to hell you’re listening this time!”

Needless to say, Jumbo was not used to hearing anyone speak to him that way. “Now you listen to me, Kevin Carlisle! I’ve got a reputation to protect. My nephew — my nephew! — is in the slammer, for God’s sake! You expect me to just sit and take it? Hell, every jealous bastard and his cousin will be looking to cut a piece out of my territory! Next time—”

“I don’t want to hear it!” Kevin nearly screamed. Then in a calmer tone he added, “Jumbo, you’re overmatched. Have you followed what’s happening with that Fisher girl? Do you have any idea how much money is being spent? My God, the Corcorans are spending it by the boatload! Jumbo, face facts: You left them alone so they left you alone. If it comes to a fight, they’ve got all the heavy weapons. Do you understand? And I sure hope you’re listening and listening good!”

Jumbo just grunted and hung up.

Incredibly, Memorial High achieved a season record of 7-2! They actually made the championship playoffs but met Henry Clay again in the first round. But that time, Clay had its act together and Memorial lost, but only by one point, 21-20. Given their situation it was a moral victory for Memorial.

The season had been interesting, to say the very least. First, the entire defensive unit played their collective hearts out over the entire season. They recognized before the first game that Memorial would have no chance if a game became a shootout. They were certain to lose. So the focus of the defense in every game was to hold the opponent scoreless. They couldn’t do that, of course, but no opponent ever scored as many as the 21 points that Henry Clay scored in the playoffs.

The offensive line vowed to protect their quarterback, Mike Barnes, at any cost. Although only a freshman, Mike demonstrated great leadership from the very beginning. But since he didn’t even weigh 150 at the time, his linemen knew that if he took a clean hit from a monster defensive lineman or linebacker, they could break him in two. Never did they get that clean hit.

For the first few games of the season, the defense — along with the kicking of the Corcoran twins — was the offense. Then the Tank began to rumble. He was born with good moves, and working with the twins his straight-ahead speed kept improving. With great blocking up front, he registered gains of ten yards, then fifteen, then more than twenty. And given that he was almost impossible for a single tackler to bring down, defenses had seven, then eight, then nine men in the box to stop him.

And then lightning struck. Mike had been calling almost all the running plays as play-action, faking a pass. It soon became like a scarecrow: Once the crows determine that none of their number have been killed or injured by the object, they would even start to perch on the scarecrow’s shoulders. So too with Mike’s fakes: opponents ignored the pass threat and stacked the line to stop the run.

But after an opponent’s kickoff, Memorial had the ball on its own 18-yard line. As usual, Mike appeared to handoff to Tank while he rolled to his right. But that time things were different. With nine men up close to stop the run, Ben Brewster had only single coverage from a cornerback. He put on a burst of speed that surprised the back and left him in his wake. Mike fired a pass that caught him in full stride and Ben just ran away from his lone pursuer.

And that play repeated with increasing frequency as the season wore on. The result was defenses could no longer rely on Memorial running the ball and had to be ready for a pass. This opened the middle for Tank to rumble. Beyond that, Tank began to be devastating as a receiver coming out of the backfield.

Tasha won the last regular-season game. Very late in the game, Memorial was trailing 14-7, when Mike connected with the Tank for a touchdown on the last play of the game, bringing the score to 14-13. Tasha and Tanya came out to set up for the extra-point try, and the opponents set in their normal defensive positions for a point-after attempt. Since they had been heavily favored to win — as virtually all of Memorial’s opponents during the season had been — they figured that Memorial would play for a tie — there was no overtime — and consider that a moral victory.

But that’s not what happened. Tasha was on her knees awaiting the snap from center. It came high, apparently forcing her up on her feet to catch the high snap. She caught the ball and then fired a pass to Ben Brewster standing uncovered in the end zone for a two-point conversion and a 15-14 win. And yet again the Memorial stands exploded in cheers.

There was one other oddity during the season: While the PA announcer would announce the names of the players making a play, with Tasha and Tanya, they were just numbers. When an extra point or field goal was kicked, the announcer would say, “Field goal and three points for Memorial. Kick by #1.” Similarly, when a punt rolled out of bounds at the 1-yard line, it was, “Punt by Memorial, #3.” And so it remained throughout the entire season.