Gladiators of the Gridiron

The crowd was still behind the Dons, and a fierce chase on the punt forced the Cats’ returner to call for a fair catch. The Cats started their drive at their 20-yard line.

Coach Hoang called his defence together. ‘They’re strong, we knew that coming into today’s game, but we’re strong too. They’re clever, but we can use that against them. When I tell you to “squeeze” here’s what I need.’ He grabbed a couple of the Linemen by their shoulders. ‘Squeeze close, but crash outside on the snap.’

The Linemen nodded silently. Coach Hoang turned to his secondary, singling out a Safety. ‘When this happens, if it looks like a run, I need you to come down in a low zone over the middle, if they go for Play-Action, they’ll try to flip it over the top again, it’s your job to stop that.’

‘I’m on it, Coach.’

Coach Hoang looked up at the young, hopeful faces around him. Their dreams were his burden, he needed to find a way to protect them. ‘Go out there and get it done, stop them and give your offence another chance.’

Rabbit led the charge onto the field.

The Dons didn’t start in their squished formation, Coach Hoang knew it wasn’t the right time, the Cats needed to be comfortable for it to work.

The Cats, however, started with a run, another one straight up the gut that gained 6 yards, still, Coach Hoang didn’t call for his Line to squeeze.

Rabbit’s man was targeted next, on a Curl route. The catch was successful, Rabbit’s short arms swiped helplessly as the Receiver held the ball out in front of himself. Rabbit clung to his arms and waist and held the Receiver up, stopping them from progressing further than the 9 yards they’d already earned.

The Cats continued to take bits and pieces from the Dons’ defence, little chunks of yardage at a time, as they worked their way across half-field, and past the Dons’ 35-yard line.

With a new first down, the Cats continued to run the ball down the Dons’ throats, this time they blasted through the middle for 7 yards.

Now Coach Hoang moved up to the sideline. ‘Squeeze!’ he shouted.

The LBs shifted lower, and the Dons’ Linemen all squished together, three of them side by side, shoulders touching. The FS crept forward a step.

The Cats were momentarily confused, before the QB turned to his team and started relaying orders. Another run was called, this time a Toss to the outside, but at the snap, the Dons Linemen burst outwards, barrelling into their opposition, knocking them off balance and forcing their way to the edges.

The LBs crashed down, and the RB was met with surprising resistance. The Cats only picked up a single yard, and were now faced with third down. The Dons remained in their squeeze.

‘Come on.’ Coach Hoang muttered to himself as he watched.

The Cats snapped the ball, and it looked like they’d try another run, this time to the opposite edge. However, it was a hand-off instead of a Toss, and a fake one at that as the QB came away with the ball.

‘Play-Action!’ the Dons’ sideline screamed.

The Cats’ TE faked a block and slipped by the blitzing defenders. He looped behind the LBs who had stepped up and turned towards the ball. The QB lobbed the pass over. Coach Hoang’s eyes lit up and his hands shot into the air. ‘Yes!’

The Safety dropped down, stepping in between the ball and the TE. Their hands came up for the interception but the ball bounced off, falling to the ground. The Safety had dropped it. The Cats had dodged a bullet.

The Dons’ supporters groaned loudly. Ty rolled his eyes. Coach Hoang put his head in his hands.

It was fourth down, and after the brief scare, the Cats lined up for a field goal. The Dons’ defence came off the field, Coach Long clapped loudly. ‘Good work out there, boys, I need to see more of that, great stop, great stop.’ He made sure to approach the Safety personally and pat them on the helmet, telling them that they’ll get the next one.

The Cats scored their field goal, and pushed their lead out to 10–0. Bella sat beside Coach Hoang as the scoreboard ticked over. ‘It’s better than a touchdown,’ she said.

‘Not if we don’t start scoring,’ he answered.

A long pause dragged on as they watched the two teams set up for kick-off. As the ball soared into the air, Bella said: ‘Do you think we can win?’

‘Every game is winnable. No team is unbeatable. … But, there’s a difference in skill, I won’t lie about that. This game’s going to be hard.’

‘I should’ve guessed overcoming teams with heart alone would’ve hit a wall.’

‘It will.’ Coach Hoang smiled. ‘We’ve not run into that wall yet.’

The Dons started their drive from the 25-yard line. The Cats’ defence was as aggressive as ever, but the Dons were quick and snappy to combat it.

On first down they went with a Screen pass out wide, though the pair of DBs were relentless and brought the Receiver down after only 3 yards.

Rabbit got the ball next with a run, and his speed outside was still a problem for the Cats, though they were focusing on protecting the edge more, and he only got 4 yards before he was tripped up.

The Dons already had their backs against the wall, and couldn’t afford another scoreless drive. The QB dropped back for a pass. The Cats’ blitz was fierce and in his face within seconds. Every Receiver was tightly covered, but Rabbit had leaked out into the flat. He flipped the ball over to Rabbit just before being knocked down.

Rabbit adjusted to the pass’s wobbly flight, and caught it inches from the ground with his fingertips. He spun away from the LB chasing him, and scampered away down the sideline. When the secondary collapsed on him, Rabbit stepped out.

The play gained 11 yards, and kept the Dons’ offence on the field.

Rabbit was called over to the bench for a rest. Coach Long slapped him on the back as he ran by. ‘That’s what I love to see, Max.’

Bella looked him over as he sat on the bench. He was always the littlest player on the field, but his heart was the biggest. She wondered if she was looking at their key to victory.

If not the key, he at least seemed to be the engine of the offence, as while he was on the bench, the rest of the team stalled. The next two plays resulted in 0 yards for the Dons, and Rabbit’s break only lasted a minute before he was sent back out on third down.

With 10 yards to go for another set of downs, of course, the Dons looked to the air. The QB dropped back, the TE stayed in for extra blocking, and while the blitz was beaten back initially, the Receivers couldn’t get open downfield.

No matter whether they ran Outs or Digs or Posts, none were open enough for the QB. His eyes lowered to Rabbit who had once again darted out of the backfield, this time running an Angle route as he started drifting out to the flat once more before cutting sharply towards the middle of the field.

Fading away from the blitz that had finally broken through the Dons’ wall, the QB zipped the ball over to Rabbit. Rabbit was locked onto the ball, watching it draw closer as he reached out for it.

A hand shot out in front of Rabbit. Rabbit slammed into a slab of muscle and fell onto his ass. The MLB batted the pass down and Rabbit was left to reorient himself. A few of his teammates gathered and helped him back onto his feet, but the Dons had failed again, and as the game moved into the second quarter, they were forced to punt the ball back to the Cats.

The heads of the offensive players sunk lower as they rested on the bench. Concern was etched across the faces of both Coach Long and Norman.

‘The defence needs to keep applying pressure,’ Coach Long said. ‘If we can hold them to a field goal, we can stop them completely. Offensively, we’ve exposed their cracks. They’re aggressive, and that blitz is strong, but we can beat them with our run game, we just need to leverage that to help out our passing some more.’

Coach Hoang moved over and whispered something in Coach Long’s ear.

Coach Long nodded, then looked at Rabbit. ‘How are you holding up, Max? You had some good runs out there.’

Rabbit grinned. ‘I-I’m good, Coach, promise. I can keep going.’

‘Haha, never doubted that, Max. We’ll lean on you a lot today, offensively that is, but you might not play much defence in this next quarter.’

‘Oh…’ Rabbit’s smile faded.

‘Is that alright?’

Rabbit’s grin returned and he nodded vigorously. ‘Mhm. No problem, Coach.’

Coach Long patted him on the shoulder. ‘Nothing against your defence, Max, we just need a bigger effort from you offensively and can’t afford to run you ragged on both sides of the ball.’

‘I-I understand. I’ll get us a touchdown, don’t you worry, Coach.’

After a short punt, the Cats’ offence came out with a new look. One WR was replaced with a FB, so the loss of a CB in Rabbit wasn’t noticed as much anyway.

Coach Hoang worried about the new formation, and called for the Dons to squeeze before the first play. He knew it wouldn’t bring about the same interception opportunity, but thought it was still the best way to combat the run look the Cats gave off.

The Cats were unfazed by the shift, and seemingly welcomed the challenge as they ran the ball on their opening play. This time they weren’t baited into the false openings around the edge of the line, instead, the HB followed his FB up the middle as the Dons’ D-Line crashed outside.

The LBs ran down too wide as well, and so the RBs rushed right by them. The FB met his first bit of resistance in the Safety who had dropped down from his high coverage, and both players tumbled to the ground after a heavy collision.

The HB hurdled over the two bodies, and was met further upfield by the second Safety, where he was finally brought down after a gain of 17 yards.

Coach Hoang grumbled. He called the defence out of their squeeze, though stacked the line and the box* with more bodies to keep the run in mind as the Cats kept their FB in play.

*The box refers to the area from offensive tackle to offensive tackle and the 5-yard depth in front and behind the offensive tackles.

The Cats still refused to back down from the challenge, and instead took it on head first as a challenge of their own. They continued to ram the ball into the Dons’ wall, charging into it fearlessly, arrogantly, repeatedly.

Never did they have the same level of success as their first of that drive, but they continued to make good progress down the field. The Dons were simply overmatched and overpowered, unable to stop the Cats’ long, grinding drive until the Cats scored a touchdown.

The Cats never called a pass, and ran the ball into the endzone on the ground alone. This was a gut punch to the team and crowd alike, and the Dons’ supporters grew quieter as the lead extended.

With a successful extra point, the score jumped up to 17–0, but a grander statement had been made.

As the battered defence dragged themselves back to the bench, Coach Long welcomed them. ‘It’s alright, it’s alright. It’s just the first half, we’ve got plenty of time to catch up.’

Coach Long wheeled into their path, a scowl on his face. ‘It’s not alright! Nothing about that was alright.’ He stopped the boys from sitting on the bench. ‘That was pitiful! You let them walk all over you, and if that’s what you’re gonna do for the rest of the game, we might as well’ve never gotten off the bus. You’re better than that. Look at them.’ He pointed across to the Cats’ bench.

The players looked up from the ground and across to the Cats. The atmosphere and attitudes on the other bench were the complete opposite, it was smiles all around for the Cats.

‘They’re mocking you, laughing at you. Are you going to sit there and let them?’

There were a few discordant, mumbled “no”s.

‘What was that?’ Coach Hoang asked, turning an ear towards the players.

‘No, Coach,’ they answered in one, strong voice.

‘Good! Then the next time you’re out there, play like you mean it! Don’t let them walk all over you. Fight back! Hit them hard and wipe those shit-eating grins off their faces!’

‘Yes, Coach!’

Coach Hoang calmed some. He looked at Coach Long and cleared his throat. ‘I apologise for the language, Coach.’

Coach Long shook his head. ‘By all means, Coach, they’re your defence. You know how to reach them best.’

Coach Hoang nodded and moved back. Coach Bella looked between him and her father. She couldn’t ever imagine her father yelling at his players in such a way, he was always so calm and soft-spoken. Maybe too easy on them at times.

JJ had watched the speech with a broad smile. ‘That’s it, there’s still plenty of time for a comeback, just gotta start putting in the work.’

Ty laughed. ‘They can try all they want. It won’t change anything. They’re outmatched.’

‘So what, they should just give up?’ JJ side-eyed Ty. ‘Mierda. Never give up. It takes heart to win.’

‘Heart means nothing in the face of a superior foe.’

‘Should we give up then? Aren’t the Vikings and Bears superior seeing as they already beat us?’ As JJ’s voice grew more heated, the rest of the varsity team looked over, listening to the argument intently.

Ty snarled. ‘No one’s superior to me.’ He looked at JJ darkly. ‘I’m the best. The strongest. And it’s the duty of the strong to crush the weak. Heart be damned. I’ll rip their pathetic heart out myself if that’s what it takes.’

JJ turned away from Ty’s dark gaze. ‘That’s YOUR heart talking, Ty. Everyone fights with heart, even you. Heart wins championships.’

‘Strength prevails over heart.’

‘Maybe the strength of your heart is the most important of all.’

Ty turned away as well, mulling over JJ’s final comment.

A few chuckles came from the onlookers surrounding them. ‘Fucking psycho,’ Stephen muttered, drawing more chuckles from Deshaun and a few others. Ty acted as if he hadn’t heard them.

After kick-off, the Dons offence focused on the run game as well. However, they didn’t see anything near the level of success the Cats had.

Rabbit was fast, yes, but the Cats were strong, and even a single extended hand felt like an iron shackle if it managed to latch onto him. If he was too close to the edge when he burst around the outside, all it took was one desperate swipe to catch his arm, and Rabbit would be slowed enough for the rest of the defence to wash over him like a wave.

Runs on the inside were near impossible because of the same issue, all it took was one hand in the gap, and it basically blocked the whole thing off. If they grabbed onto him, it was like trying to pull a mountain.

With their run-focused attack, the Dons managed to earn a couple of first downs before the Cats cracked down and they were forced to punt.

The Cats' offence took over, confidence at an all-time high. Coach Hoang’s words echoed in the ears of the Dons’ defence, but as the Cats’ drive began, it seemed the fire from a speech alone wouldn’t be enough to tip the scales.

The Cats started marching downfield with more runs, taking their sweet time as the clock ran lower and they pushed to half-field.

JJ rose from his seat. ‘C’mon, Dons! Stand up and fight!’ He started a chant of Dee fence, the rest of the Dons’ crowd soon joining in.

Hoping to silence said chant, the Cats continued in their attempt to steamroll the Dons. The HB weaved through the line, though as they slipped through the gap, a hand jutted out and pulled at the ball. The RB twisted, one of their arms loosened from the ball. As this happened, another Don pushed through the FB’s block and smashed into the distracted HB.

The HB was buried in the tackle, and the ball bounced away, tumbling back through many legs and rolling towards the Cats’ endzone.

‘Fumble!’ The Dons’ sideline erupted, screaming and cheering for their team to jump on the loose ball.

The Dons surged forward like a tidal wave. The Cats’ QB dived onto the ball, curling around it. Dons piled on top of him, and officials raced in, whistles shrieking.

The Cats had recovered, but they lost a couple of yards in the process, and their HB was shaken up. He was taken to the sideline for an evaluation, and the FB stepped up for the next play. The Cats stubbornly stuck to the run.

The FB huffed like a bull before he got the hand-off, but his flaring nostrils and anger did little to help him push through the rejuvenated Dons defence. They wrapped him up and wrestled him down after only a couple of yards.

The Cats were on third down, and still with 10 yards to go. Their hand was forced, and they finally returned to passing, going with an empty backfield.

It wasn’t just the Dons’ run defence that was re-energised, however, their blitz came at the Cats like they were shot out of a cannon. The QB had little time to throw, and when he did target the Out route right at the chains, he overthrew it, and the ball sailed into the crowd.

The Cats would have to punt.

There wasn’t much time left in the half, and they hammered the ball deep, pinning the Dons within their 10-yard line.

There was still time for the Dons to mount a touchdown drive, they still had timeouts to do so, but so did the Cats, and if the Dons failed three passes in a row and handed the ball right back to the Cats, it’d undo all that hard defensive work, especially if the Cats scored before the half.

Conservatively, Coach Long elected to run the ball, then he could plan for the rest of the drive depending on the result and the Cats’ reaction to it.

Rabbit didn’t want to give him a choice to worry over.

With the defence making their remarkable stand, and the Dons still held scoreless, Rabbit remembered how Coach Long was riding on him to be the heart of the offence. It was up to him to make a difference, and if he wasn’t able to do so defensively, the way he wanted, he’d do it with his legs on offence.

Another Toss was called. Rabbit bundled the ball tight against his stomach. He eyed the edge. The Cats’ defenders had been creeping further outside to cut off his outside runs. They’d gone too far. There was a gap just inside the Offensive Tackle, Rabbit went for it.

His arms squeezed the ball tighter—he didn’t want to make the same mistake the Cats’ RB had—as he burst through the gap.

Arms from left and right shot out like spears as he ran through the gap. They latched onto him and wouldn’t let go, he was stuck in a vice, and weighed down by two anchors. His legs kept pumping, he couldn’t stop now, he had to be stronger, he had to keep running!

He ripped away from the hands. A LB charged straight for him. Rabbit juked to the outside, leaving the LB lunging at shadows.

Rabbit raced forward, a Safety rushed down to meet him. Rabbit’s eyes widened like a deer in headlights. “Left or right?” His mind jammed … so he stopped listening to it, he let his feet lead him.

He leapt into the air, the crowd rose with him, jumping out of their seats, even the Cats’ supporters were amazed as Rabbit hopped right over the defender.

Rabbit landed in a sprint, continuing down the sideline with no one in front of him. No one could catch him.

With Cats nipping at his heels but unable to reach him, Rabbit escaped into the endzone.