Chapter 22

Historically, or at least for the last oh so many years, the last football game of the season found Jefferson High playing the role of spoiler against another typical conference powerhouse, Central High School. Central always seemed to be in a heads-up battle for at least a share of the Conference title, and at the very least, an invitation to the state tournament, based upon their overall record. This year, things were a little different. Jefferson High was undefeated; Central had already lost once to last year's champion and another loss would eliminate them from the race, but even worse, would assure Jefferson winning the title outright. It was going to be a very hard fought game.

Practice in the week leading to the game had been brutal as well, with players on both sides of the ball hitting and tackling as hard as they would in an actual game. At one point, during the Wednesday afternoon practice, the play was called where Kyle runs the delayed angle pass route. Of course, the defender always looks bad on this play, and even in the practice, it was no exception. The Jefferson High deep safety was twenty yards away from Kyle when he caught the ball, which brought a fair amount of criticism to the safety from the defense coach. Later, in the locker room, the hapless defender sought out Kyle, and without warning, punched him in the jaw and the kicked him in the chest.

"What are you doing out there? Trying to make me look bad just so you can shine for the coaches? Some of us are really tired of you getting all the glory, Kyle. We work hard too."

Of course the yelling and screaming, along with the fight, brought an instant response from his other teammates, and the two players were physically separated immediately. But the tension remained and lingered throughout most of Thursday as well. The complaint that the defender was making was valid. When Kyle ran that particular play, every defender appeared to have been asleep, and they did look very bad. At some point in the day, Jason, his mind on anything but classwork, had another idea. He told the offense coach that he would like to meet with him and Kyle before practice.

"Coach, I know it is your job to come up with the plays, but I've been thinking about something. We're sure that Central scouts have been to every one of our games, and I'm sure that they have seen Kyle do his thing on that delayed angle pass route. I doubt if they will be fooled by it tomorrow night. But, what if, to set the trap, we let Kyle do his thing the regular way once. Of course the defenders will be back there, and probably not fall for it, and we may not even complete the pass. But then, the next time, instead of throwing it as hard as I can, Kyle will beat feet out there like normal, the defended will move even further back, and then I will loft one up so that Kyle has to come back for it. Of course, the defender will be so far away, he'll never get close, and Kyle can just run around and pick his route to the goal afterwards. Even if we do that more than once, they'll not know which version of the play we're going to run."

Friday afternoon brought rainstorms, very heavy rainstorms that would be challenging, if they continued. By game time, the heaviest rain had slowed to a light mist and everyone was thrilled that the new artificial turf drained so well. Yes, it was slippery as all get out, but it wasn't sloppy and muddy. Footing, secure footing, would be a problem for both teams and it led to several unforced errors including fumbles by both teams. Of course, it didn't help that the Central High linemen were each about fifty pounds heavier than the guys from Jefferson, and that some of their playing tactics "inside the trenches" were not quite within the rules. On several possessions, Jefferson was faced with a fourth down and long yardage to go, and on three of those occasions, with the ball near the thirty yard line, Kyle was given the opportunity to attempt a field goal. In each case, Kyle had been successful, but on the last attempt, one of the Central rushers had rolled into Kyle just as he kicked the ball. Kyle was very slow to get up and limped off the field, his left leg sore from his hip to his toes. It was a penalty infraction, but since Kyle made the field goal, no flag was thrown. Kyle remained on the bench, even though Jefferson trailed by two than points with less than two minutes to go. As they had all season, the Jefferson offense moved the ball steadily up the field, sometimes gaining five yards, other times only two. But, as they had all season, the Central defense surrendered those same yards very begrudgingly. Sensing that victory was theirs if they could hold Jefferson out of the end zone, the Central defense stiffened even more and Jefferson faced fourth and seven on the Central forty two yard line.