Chapter 7

Vivian asked Tag if he wanted a date for the coming Saturday, but he turned her down. There was a public dance being held in the Hawthorn Armory on that day, and Tag had already committed to taking Jane. Prior to that, though, was the upcoming game with Baylor. Hawthorn's Tigers had the home-field advantage throughout the Championships; in other words, they did not have to make any bus trips.

The Baylor team showed up just after noon and were fed lunch in the Hawthorn HS cafeteria. Some of the students wanted to poison the food the visitors ate, but saner students pointed out that the food was so boring that the Baylor team might go to sleep after eating it! Their coach took them to their locker room, and the Baylor team was not seen until they came out on the field for their warmup exercises.

Meanwhile, the Hawthorn Tigers went through their usual pregame routine for a home game and generally relaxed. They were not afraid of the Baylor team after all of the work that they had put in over the last two weeks. Coach Harkness worried that his team might be too complacent, but coaches are constitutionally unable to go through a day without worrying about something.

Baylor won the coin toss and deferred until the second half. That was fine with the Tigers, so they took the ball with enthusiasm. The weather was as nearly perfect for a football game as one could hope for with no wind or rain. Even the spectators were comfortable as they settled in to watch the game.

Somehow, the Baylor Kicker was inspired! He kicked the ball so that it was recovered by Hawthorn on their own 3 yard line with no runback. Uh-oh, now Coach Harkness had something to worry about. He sent Tag onto the field with orders to run the ball for three plays, unless they managed to get a first down. He was worried about the Punter not having much space to work with because the ball was so near the goal line.

Tag followed orders, and he sent the Fullback over Left Tackle with the ball, and the Tigers picked up 8 yards. The punter now had the room he needed if he had to kick, so Tag decided to keep the ball himself and run around the right end of the line of scrimmage. He had the two men in the backfield to block for him, plus he had the Tight End on the right and the pulling Left Tackle and Left Guard as more blockers. Tag figured that he was a cinch to get the 2 yards needed for the first down.

They ran the play as they had practiced it, and it was as effective as a screen pass would have been with all of the blocking that Tag had. He gained 23 yards on that one play before he was bumped out of bounds to end the play. The ball was now on the Hawthorn 34 yard line, and it looked like the Hawthorn Juggernaut was well into its stride. The next four plays worked the ball to the Baylor 29 yard line, and had pulled the entire Baylor defense up to defend against another run.

This was what Tag had been waiting for, and Coach Harkness signaled for a pass. This was a pass play in which there were three close potential receivers and one deep receiver if everything went according to plan. Of course, nothing ever does go according to plan, so the three close receivers were reduced to one when his two fellows fell down. The third close receiver was too well covered for Tag to chance a pass to him, but the deep Wide Receiver was wide open in the end zone.

Tag picked him up as he was frantically waving to Tag for him to throw the ball. This was a fairly long pass for this level of high school play, but Tag knew that he could do it. Tag was well protected on this play, so he did not have to scramble. Tag had plenty of time to set up, and he heaved the ball in a perfect spiral to the Wide Receiver. That worthy caught the ball and held onto it as if his life depended upon it. However, he was so excited over his catch that he tripped over his own feet and fell to the ground. Fortunately, an official had seen that the catch had been made in the end zone, so he blew his whistle and signaled that a touchdown had been scored.

The PAT was good, and the Tigers were leading 7-0. This was the kind of result that the team had expected from Tag, but Coach Harkness was relieved to begin breathing again. There was a lot of exuberant celebrating on the sidelines and in the stands, but not enough on the field to draw a penalty flag. The offensive team was cheered as they left the field, and the kick off team went out to do their thing.

The Kicker put the ball out of play, and the defense did a superlative job of holding the Baylor offense. This was a "three-and-out" series of downs for the Baylor offense, and they had to punt the ball back to the Tigers. Tag led them down to another score, and the PAT made it 14-0, Hawthorn.

This was the story of the first half. Baylor never made a 1^st down and the Tigers scored every time they held the ball. At the end of the first half, the score was 42-0 in favor of Hawthorn's Tigers. The stands went wild as the teams exited the field for the half-time break.

During the break, Coach Harkness had a talk with Tag and the pass receivers. He said that the defense was not on the field long enough so that the offensive line was getting too tired. Also, the score was becoming embarrassing, so he wanted Tag to concentrate on deep passes during the second half. Since this was Tag's forte, Harkness was going to let him call the plays. Harkness would return to calling plays if it became necessary, but he wanted Tag to have a chance to run the game from the field. His idea was that deep passes were harder to complete, so Baylor should have time to break up some of the passes and Harkness would not look so bad to the Coaches' Association. That thought was not communicated to the players.

The Hawthorn team went back onto the playing field to start the second half of the game. Hawthorn's Kicker put the ball into the end zone, so it automatically came out to Baylor's 20 yard line. The Tiger defense was so hyped up over their performance in the first half of the game that it was another three-and-out for Baylor. The punt was average and was caught on the Hawthorn 40 yard line. The man who caught the ball ran it back for an exciting 17 yards before he was tackled. The ball was placed at the Baylor 43, and Tag went back into business.

For some reason, the Baylor team was looking for a long pass, so Tag dropped the ball just over the line to the Half Back. That man ran the ball for 9 yards. The next play was a screen pass to the same Half Back, and he picked up 14 yards before he was tackled. The ball was now on the Baylor 20, and there was hardly room for a deep pass.

That fact made no difference. For the first time in his career as a Quarterback, Tag was not able to scramble and was sacked for a 6-yard loss. Uh-oh, it was now 2^nd down and 16 yards to go for a 1^st down. Obviously, the Tiger offensive line was showing its fatigue, so Tag called for what was humorously called a "Notre Dame student body left." This was simply a case where the Quarterback kept the ball, and everybody else on the team blocked for him. This play was rarely practiced by the Hawthorn Tigers, but it was fun to do, so everybody was excited about giving it a try. If it didn't work, so what? They were within field goal range.

The ball was snapped, and the whole team ran with Tag around the right end of the line of scrimmage. A couple of the players were actually laughing as they ran! The play was such a surprise to the Baylor defense that Tag had no trouble scoring a touchdown. Again, the PAT was good, and the score was now 49-0, Tigers.

The defense did its thing again, and Baylor had another three-and-out. This punt was not so good and it was run back to the Baylor 7 yard line. Coach Harkness was now so embarrassed by the score that he sent in the entire second level offensive team. By this time, the substitute Quarterback was a better player, and he managed to generate a touchdown. The PAT was good. Now it was 56-0, and Coach Harkness was getting worried. There seemed to be nothing that he could do to keep the score from ballooning.

Well, he was right to worry: the score was 84-0 by the time the gun went off to end the game. Every man on the Hawthorn team had played, and they still couldn't hold the score down. Oh, well, that was the way life went sometimes.

Most of Hawthorn's players were exultant about the game and the score, but Tag really felt sorry for the guys on the Baylor team. There was nothing that he could do about it, but there it was. Tag stayed to the bitter end of the celebration and gave interviews to an unknown number of reporters.

He rarely was so accommodating to reporters, but he wanted to give Susie time to give up and go home. He did not want her to waylay him for sex. He didn't know why at first, and then he realized that he felt like he would be cheating on Jane. It was pushing midnight by the time he walked out of the locker room, and he had been right: there was no Susie there to ambush him. Tag went home, was congratulated, and went to bed. This had been a very tiring experience.

The newspaper the next morning told the town that the next game would be against Ashford, so Tag had some idea of what to expect. Tag slept until noon and ate a brunch that would have killed an ordinary man—there was so much to it. Nevertheless, he was ready to take Jane to the dance in time, and she was ecstatic to be going to her first dance in two years.

About half way through the dance, a student at the local college had cut in on the couple. Tag was a little annoyed, but did not make a scene. He stepped back and let the guy dance a slow dance with Jane. They had danced for less than two minutes when Jane suddenly slapped his face. Tag had been watching them dance in a blue funk, so he was up and out on the floor just as the punk started to hit Jane back.

"NO SLUT GETS AWAY WITH SLAPPING ME!" he shouted as what may well have been the top of his voice. Just as he was about to throw a punch at Tag, who was holding his right arm, the security guards showed up and escorted him out of the building. The crude tough said to Tag, "I'll see you outside, Fucker!"

Jane had burst into tears as Tag arrived to rescue her, and Tag led her to a table. He said, "Honey, why did you slap that fool, and why are you crying?"

Jane's eyes got big, and she said, "Tag, do you know you just called me 'Honey?'"

"No, I didn't think about it at the time, but I do realize that I meant it. Now, tell me why you are so upset."

"That was one of the boys from high school last year whom I refused to date when he said that he wanted to f ... fuck me. He said that he was a better fucker than you, and he wanted another chance at me. I didn't even think to refuse; I just slapped him. I'm crying because he will now want to fight you, and it's all my fault!"

"Don't you worry about me. I'm bigger and faster than that fool. He doesn't stand a chance if he attacks me."

They talked for a couple of minutes longer until one of the security guards came over to them. He said to Tag, "Aren't you Tag Green, the football player?"

"Yes, I am. Why do you ask?"

"That fool I helped out of the building a few minutes ago spent a lot of time shouting threats at you. Do you want me and my partner to walk you and your date to your car? That idiot had two friends with him, and one of them has been arrested on an assault charge. He threatened a plain-clothes detective with a knife. He was a juvenile at the time and the judge turned him loose with a gentle slap on the wrist. I am concerned that you or your date could be hurt by one of them on your way to your car."

"Oh, Tag, let's leave now, and I want to take them up on their kind offer to walk with us. Please, I have lost interest in the dance, and I am scared of what might happen."

"Okay, if that's the way you feel, that's what we will do. Yes, Sir, as the lady said, we would appreciate it if you walked us to our car."

The security man signaled his partner, and the two of them walked with the couple to Tag's car. Uh-oh, the car had been thoroughly trashed! The tires were slashed, all of the lights were broken, the upholstery was slashed, and all of the windows were broken. It was obvious that nobody was going to drive that car anywhere for a while.

Tag thanked the two security men for their courtesy and sent them back to the dance. Meanwhile, he used his cellphone to call Jim at Tag's Chariots and explain what had happened to the car. He asked for a truck to move the car and for somebody to bring a car around so that he could take Jane home.

Jim said that he would be right there as soon as possible. Just as Tag hung up, Jane screamed. Tag took advantage of his football reflexes and swung around to confront three men about 19 or 20 years old. One of them was the asshole who had insulted Jane, and the other two were cronies. The two cronies carried knives and the asshole was swinging a short length of chain.