Goal Line (11 page)

The ball was snapped, and Ronde kept his eyes squarely on the quarterback. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw his man make a move and head for the corner of the end zone. Knowing what would happen next, he sped off after him. He reached his man just as the ball did.

Ronde reached out and batted it away. But instead of it going out of bounds, the ball bounced off the top of the receiver's helmet and back in toward the end zone. Before it hit the ground, it was grabbed by one of the Bears' other receivers for a touchdown!

Ronde couldn't believe it. He'd made the play perfectly, and yet he'd cost his team a touchdown! An extra point later it was 14–0, and things were going even worse than they had gone the week before.

On the sidelines things were ominously quiet. Gone was the noise and the confidence the team had shown on the bus ride over. In its place was a gloomy hush, filled with dread and the smell of defeat.

What now? Ronde wondered how they could ever turn this around? And what else could the team do to play the way they could? The way they used to?

Okay, so they'd had a few unlucky breaks so far. But Blue Ridge seemed better prepared than the Eagles. They had obviously been thinking about this game, and about beating the Eagles, since last year's play-off game. The Bears were a team on a mission. How were the Eagles going to stop them, now that they were already in a deep, deep hole?

Late in the second quarter things got even worse. With the team behind by 14–0, Coach Wheeler had no choice but to take to the passing game. Manny Alvaro, now an eighth grader, was talented but still inexperienced. His two wide receivers were seventh graders, right out of elementary school with almost no game experience.

It was a recipe for disaster, and Ronde wished Coach would have stuck to the running game. Ronde was sure that if he'd done that the defense could have held the Bears scoreless the rest of the way, and the Eagles would still have had time to catch up.

But with Tiki going nowhere, and Luke showing his inexperience as a blocker, Wheeler obviously felt it was time to try something different.

Bad move. Manny overthrew Frank Amadou on a long bomb on first down. Then, after a screen pass to Tiki that was almost intercepted, Manny made a bad decision. Felix and Frank Amadou were supposed to do a crossing
pattern. Frank, though, messed up his cut, and the two brothers wound up right next to each other, along with both cornerbacks and the free safety.

In spite of there being a crowd, Manny threw the ball straight into the traffic. It was batted around by at least three players before being intercepted by the safety and run back all the way to the Eagles twenty-two!

On the very next play, the Bears ran a quarterback option to the weak side. Ronde, all the way across the field, could only watch in disbelief as the quarterback leapt over two Eagles defenders and into the end zone for another score!

A loud groan went up from the Eagles bench. Ronde tore at his hair in frustration, but he couldn't take the time to dwell on the situation. It was his turn to take the kickoff. With only forty-five seconds left in the half, he took the kick, knowing that if the Eagles didn't score now, they'd be down by twenty-one points at the half.

Somehow he had to give his team a chance to put some points on the board!

After grabbing the ball out of the air, he sped straight downfield, sidestepping one, two, three defenders. They were left grabbing air while Ronde kept on running.

“Good things come in small packages,” he kept telling himself as he dodged bigger, slower, clumsier players who could have crushed him if they'd been able to catch him. “Good things come in … small … packages.”

He stutter-stepped his way past another of the Bears, and broke into open grass. There was the end zone, straight ahead of him. Nothing between him and it but—

“OOOF!” Somebody smacked into him just before he hit the goal line. Somebody he hadn't seen coming. Ronde hit the ground, and the ball went flying away from him.

“Nooooo!!” he cried in vain, as two huge, beefy Bears fell on the ball in their own end zone. An Eagles player touched them up for a safety. The Eagles were on the board, all right. Only instead of a seven-point touchdown, they'd scored only a two-point safety!

The gun sounded the end of the half with the Eagles trailing 21–2. The team headed into the locker room, and Ronde followed them, wondering whether his team had any fight left in them.

Ronde entered the visitors' locker room to find a downcast bunch of Eagles. His first instinct was to say something, but then he remembered what Tiki always said. You couldn't try the same tactic time after time and expect it to keep working the same way.

“Come on, you guys,” Ronde urged. “Don't give up now. We've got thirty minutes of playing time left!”

A few heads looked up at him, a few pairs of eyes with almost no hope left in them. Over in the corner Coach Wheeler stood leaning against a locker, arms folded over his chest, waiting to see what his captains had to say before taking the floor himself.

Ronde looked at Tiki, waiting for him to say something. He was the famous public speaker, after all. He couldn't just expect his twin to do all the talking when the game was on the line.

Tiki looked around the room slowly. “You guys look like a pack of beaten dogs,” he said. “Well, I don't know about you, but I'm not beaten. Ronde, are you beaten?”

“Nuh-uh, not me,” Ronde said quickly.

“Let me tell you something,” Tiki continued, “and you seventh graders listen up especially. We're gonna win this game, okay? I guarantee it.”

Everyone was listening now. Tiki's sudden—and to Ronde's thinking, reckless—guarantee had gotten their total attention.

“We've got a bunch of veterans on this team who know how to play the game and who know how to win. Right, Paco?”

“That's right!” Paco said, with a look of fierce determination on his chubby face.

“We've come from behind before. Well, maybe not this far behind, but so what? Who wants to stand up and tell me we can't do it?”

He looked around the room. The other Eagles were looking around too, waiting to see if anyone wanted to argue with Tiki.

No one did. “Good,” said Tiki. “I guess you all agree with me, then.” He waited. Silence. “Well? Do you agree
with me? Are we gonna get up off the floor and beat these guys?”

“Yeah!” said several of the Eagles.

“I hear something, but I can't make it out,” Tiki said, cupping his ear.

“YEAH!!” everyone shouted.

Tiki nodded slowly. “That's what I thought. When that gun sounds, I want to see every one of us ready to play.” He looked over at Coach Wheeler. “Coach? It's all yours.”

Wheeler smiled. “You heard it, gentlemen. A victory has been guaranteed. Are you all gonna make a liar out of Tiki?”

“NO!!” everyone roared.

“Are we gonna win this game?”

“YEAH!”

Wheeler clapped his hands. “Okay, then. No more of those gloomy faces. Let's all think about how we're gonna play our game. Veterans, this game is on your shoulders. Rookies, just relax and follow the veterans' lead. Be ready for the ball to bounce your way—because it will, just when you least expect it. Be opportunists, and let's make every break count!”

As they made their way back onto the field, Ronde glanced over at Tiki, who was unusually quiet and intense.

He sure hoped Tiki was right and they wound up winning. Because if they lost after that guarantee of his, Tiki was going to look like a total loser.

Down by nineteen points, the Eagles had to start out on defense. With their big lead the Bears just kept the ball on the ground, eating up as much clock as they could, and keeping the ball out of the hands of the Eagles offense, especially Tiki Barber.

Ronde was getting frustrated. Why didn't they ever throw the ball to Ronde's man and give Ronde a chance to make a play? He couldn't even blitz and sack the quarterback if the Bears were just going to run it every play!

He could only hope that the Eagles' defensive line and linebackers could hold against the relentless Blue Ridge ground attack. Rob Fiorilla, Sam Scarfone's replacement, was big, strong, and fast, but until now he hadn't shown a nose for the ball—that instinct you got from playing a lot, that told you where the runner was going to be heading.

Now, though, he seemed to be learning fast. On two plays in a row he stuffed the run, stopping it cold. That brought up a third and nine at midfield. Ronde smiled, rubbing his hands together. This was his chance. On third and long the Bears would have to pass.

Coach sent in the play—a safety blitz. That meant that Ronde would have to dog his man, staying close to him while the safety made a run for the quarterback. If the safety failed to get to the quarterback, Ronde would be alone on his man, with no help.

Well, that was fine with him. He was as ready as he'd ever be. He stared across at his man—a tall, rangy boy
with long, powerful legs. Ronde'd been able to stay with him all day, though, because the kid's moves weren't all that great.

Now Ronde gave him a hard bump coming off the line, so that the kid was in no shape to receive the pass. Ronde looked over to see the quarterback scrambling away from the blitzing safety.

Ronde's man was getting up now, signaling for the pass to come his way. The quarterback saw him, and Ronde did too. Diving in front of the receiver, Ronde snatched the pass out of thin air and held on to it for the interception!

It was the break the Eagles desperately needed. Now the offense took over, with Tiki shouldering the load. He slashed right through the Bears defensive line like a hot knife through butter, eating up yards by the dozen. In no time at all the Eagles were knocking at the door.

Manny took the snap at the three, and tossed it quickly and softly over the heads of the defenders, and into the waiting arms of Frank Amadou. Touchdown, Eagles!

On their next offensive series of downs, the Bears kept to the ground again, still using the same strategy. Only this time the Eagles were ready for it. They loaded up their linebackers to stuff the run, and after a couple of first downs, they were able to force another third and long situation.

This time the Bears threw to the side of the field farthest from Ronde, avoiding him. They connected for a
first down and were able to use up most of the third quarter before the Eagles defense finally held firm and forced a long field goal attempt, which missed.

The Eagles offense now started to mix in some quick passes. Some to Tiki, a couple to Justin, and one bullet to Felix Amadou that set the Eagles up at the Bears twenty. That's when Coach Wheeler called for the Statue of Liberty play.

It was a trick play, one they'd practiced since last year but had used only once. On the snap, Manny dropped back to pass, held his arm back—and Tiki grabbed the ball from him, running around the end. Before the defense knew what had happened, Tiki had turned the corner and was heading for pay dirt!

Only a last-minute tackle stopped him short of the goal line, but they scored on the next play anyway, just in time for the end of the third quarter.

They switched ends of the field and kicked off to the Bears. Ronde flew down the field and was about to pile into the ballcarrier when he was blocked in the back and taken down. He got up yelling, trying to get the ref's attention. “That was a penalty!” he screamed, but it was no use. The refs were not watching. Their eyes were downfield, where the Blue Ridge return man was scampering all the way into the end zone!

“NOOO!!!” Ronde moaned, grabbing his helmet with both hands. An extra point later it was 28–16, Bears.

“Never mind!” he yelled at the stunned Eagles players as he got back to the sideline. “We're still going to win this one! Stay focused! The ball's gonna bounce our way. Just be ready for that one big break!”

He clapped his hands with all his might, and some of the players started nodding and agreeing with him, clapping their hands along with his.

Seeing that they were going to be okay, Ronde ran back onto the field to receive the kickoff. He got the ball up to midfield and then turned it over to Tiki and the offense. “Let's go!” he shouted to his brother.

“Don't worry. I got this,” Tiki assured him, saluting.

And he did. Only not in the way he might have thought. The Eagles were still in passing mode, with Coach Wheeler trying to make up ground quickly. But Frank Amadou, after making a spectacular grab, tried to turn it into a long gain. The safety blindsided him, knocking the ball free—and right into Tiki's hands.

Ronde could see that his twin was surprised, but only for an instant. It was the lucky bounce they'd both been talking about, and Tiki ran with it, all the way to the end zone!

Back within five points after Adam's extra point, the Eagles kicked off again. Time was getting short—just three minutes left—and the Bears weren't about to change their strategy. As long as they had the ball, they were going to try to kill off the minutes and seconds by running it every play.

Only on third down plays would they go to the air, and only if they needed more than five yards for a first down. Ronde batted down one of those passes, but the Bears went for it on fourth down and got the yardage they needed.

However, on the next third-down play, Ronde got the call he wanted from the coach—a blitz—and he laid a solid hit on the quarterback for a crucial sack!

The Bears missed another long field goal attempt, and the ball went back to the Eagles. Time for one last drive before the clock ran out.

Tiki took the handoff on the first three Eagles plays, and each time, he ran for a first down. Now the team was in Bears territory, but the Eagles, out of time-outs, had to throw to the sidelines to stop the clock.

And that's when disaster nearly struck. On a square-out pattern Justin Landzberg grabbed the ball, only to lose it when he got hit by the safety, who came flying through the air to knock the ball loose.