Gladiators of the Gridiron

All the Titans had to do after that, was kneel with the ball and run out the rest of the clock—their victory was assured.

When the game was officially over and the timer hit zero, the celebrations began in earnest. The crowd showered the players with applause and even the varsity team got around their juniors and congratulated the JV team on their win.

Lonnie, Petey, and Kenny were seen as the saviours of the game. When they made it to the locker room, even Coach Otsen struggled to get the boys under control.

‘Alright, settle down, settle down. I know it feels good to get a win over a team that beat you before, but it’s just one game after all, calm down boys. We’ve got another one coming next week.’

The chatter slowly died down.

‘That’s not to say that I’m not proud of you and the way you performed today. You were all incredible. You all deserve your flowers, but, the man of the hour is the man who secured our victory today and ended the game. There’s only one game ball,’ he held it aloft, ‘and that ball goes to none other than Lonnie. Get up here.’

Cheers picked up once again as Lonnie stood and ambled over to Coach Otsen. He took the game ball, a little embarrassed to be in the limelight, then he shuffled back to his locker and sat back down.

‘Now get your asses home safely and I’ll see you all at practice on Monday.’

‘Yes Coach!’

Outside in the stands, the atmosphere was still electric, the crowd riding their high as they sat in anticipation for the varsity game.

Jackson sat alone, Tommy having gone off to get them food in between the games.

‘Is this spot taken?’

Jackson almost jumped out of his seat when he heard Jasmine’s voice. He looked up and saw her standing there, grinning at him. She was always surprising him.

‘Hehe. Sorry, did I sneak up on ya?’

‘Uh, no I was just, spacing out, uh, th-the seat isn’t taken so um, b-be my guest.’

‘Thanks.’ She sat down next to him.

Jackson gawked at her. Seeing her turn up here had totally stunned him.

‘Hm? Who’s this?’ Tommy said, having returned with a couple of hotdogs. He looked from Jackson to Jasmine and back again. Jackson looked as if he hadn’t registered the fact that his brother had returned so Tommy spoke up again. ‘Jackson!’

He snapped out of it.

‘Aren’t you going to introduce us?’

‘Oh r-right, sorry.’

Jasmine giggled.

‘Um, th-this is Jasmine, she goes to my school, and uh, Jasmine, this is Tommy, my older brother.’

‘Nice to meet you,’ Tommy said.

‘Hehe, same.’ Jasmine grinned up at him.

‘Ah sorry. Here you go, bro.’ Tommy passed off one of the hotdogs and then wiped off his now free hand before extending it towards Jasmine. She shook it firmly. ‘Sorry I didn’t get you a dog, didn’t think we’d have guests.’

‘Oh no, you’re fine. I ate before I left.’

Tommy shuffled past and took his seat. ‘Did you just get here?’

‘Yep.’

‘That’s a shame, you missed a hell of a game, didn’t she, bro?’

‘Huh? Oh y-yeah, the game just now was incredible.’

‘Hm? I thought the game hadn’t started yet?’

‘Ohh no, no the JV teams just played each other, the varsity game is about to start soon, but, before that, there’s always a JV game.’

‘Ohhh.’ She nodded. ‘No wonder the place feels so pumped up. Oh man, I’m sorry, I didn’t know there were gonna be two games, I just heard about the varsity game. I would’ve liked to have seen it.’

‘You would’ve loved it,’ Tommy said.

‘Heh, I bet. But hey, I’m pretty excited for the game I will get to watch, if the first one was anything to go by, this should be awesome!’

‘Haha, definitely. I’ve only seen this team play a few games but it’s always great to watch them play.’

‘Mm… it is,’ Jackson said, ‘but, it probably won’t be as exciting as the JV game. See, our Varsity team is undefeated so far, and they’ve already beaten this team. It’ll probably be another easy win for them.’

‘Hey, the JV team had already been beaten and they just came out today and avenged that loss. The same thing can happen with the varsity teams.’

‘Well, either way, I’m still excited, and I mean, maybe they won’t be able to handle the pressure of keeping their streak alive, you never know until you find out.’

‘Hmm, that’s true. I-I’m sure it’ll be good.’

Jasmine smiled, settling into her seat more comfortably.

Kenny emerged from the locker room and made his way over to the stands. He scanned them as he made his way up the steps and his eyes soon found his parents, but they also found Jackson and the others as well. He made his way towards Jackson and co first. ‘Yo.’

They looked over at him. ‘Hi, Ken.’ Jasmine waved.

‘’Sup, Kenny? You were awesome out there.’

‘I’ll say, some of those catches you made were incredible, especially coming from a freshman.’

‘Thanks. I don’t think we’ve met.’ He stuck his hand out to Tommy.

Tommy clasped it firmly. ‘Tommy. I’m Jackson’s brother.’

‘Nice to meet you, Tommy. I’m Ken, but you can call me Kenny.’

‘Nice meeting you too, Kenny.’

Kenny stayed standing. ‘So you guys saw the game? Was pretty good, huh?’

‘I didn’t.’ Jasmine pouted. ‘Sorry.’

‘Oh … nah, it’s cool. I mean, I know everyone comes here for the big boys anyway.’

‘You guys definitely stole the show though,’ Jackson said.

‘Hah, thanks, man.’

‘Everyone who missed it really missed out.’

‘I’m right here …’ Jasmine pouted more.

‘Ah! No, I didn’t mean it like… I’m sure this next game is gonna be awesome too.’

She burst out in laughter. ‘I’m just messing with you, I know it’ll be great, even if it’s super one-sided I’ll probably enjoy it.’

Kenny looked over to where his parents were sitting. They looked impatient and miserable now that he wasn’t playing. He sighed and hung his head back. Then an idea came to him. He looked at Tommy.

‘Hey, you drove here?’

‘Yeah, what’s up?’

‘Do you think it’d be alright if I caught a ride home with you guys tonight? I mean, my parents are just over there,’ he pointed with his chin, ‘but they aren’t really the biggest football fans and only watch ‘cause they feel they’ve gotta support me and stuff. I know they’d rather get home ASAP but uh, I wanna watch the varsity game so if you could take me home later, well we’d get the best of both worlds right?’

Tommy listened intently as Kenny made his case. He looked where Kenny said his parents were sitting. Then he stood up. ‘I don’t mind taking you home later, but only if it’s alright with your folks, too. Let’s go say hello to them, I should probably introduce myself rather than be a total stranger that they might leave their kid with.’

‘Alright, that makes sense.’ Kenny started leaving the way over.

‘Hey, don’t take long—the game’s about to start,’ Jackson said.

‘Yeah don’t worry about it, we won’t be long, and we can still watch from over there.’ Tommy and Kenny moved away, leaving Jackson and Jasmine alone for the moment.

Jackson looked across at her and she smiled at him—his gaze quickly darted down to the field where the captains were gathering in the centre for the coin toss.

The Titans won this toss, however, Coach Otsen thought it was best to try and capitalise on the crowd, betting that they were still fired up from the finish of the previous game, and use that added momentum to give the offence an extra boost.

If they could score a touchdown to open the game, they might just win it off that one drive, he thought.

So the Titans elected to receive. The kickoff ended in a touchback as it was booted out of the back of the endzone (Jackson had to explain that the kicking team didn’t get anything for that and it just meant the offence would start with the ball at the 25-yard line), and soon the game got properly underway.

To start the game off, the Knights had two men marking Shane at all times. But the Titans weren’t worried about that; the best way to use momentum as a driving force in football was to run the ball down your opponent’s throat.

Mickey was the focal point of the Titans’ attack for the opening drive. He sliced the defence apart on the ground or rammed right through them. And thanks to their usage of the Read Option (the handoff variety), Wesley had his fair share of yards on the ground as well.

Throughout the opening drive, Jackson would explain the plays and strategies behind them to Jasmine, and would answer any question she had about the game, being much more comfortable when football was the topic of discussion.

It didn’t take long for the Titans to find themselves within the red zone, and then shortly after that, knocking on the door of the endzone as well.

Unfortunately, their touchdown was prevented for the moment when Mickey was stuffed right at the 1-yard line. Even as he powered ahead and pumped those legs as hard as he could, twisting and turning, he couldn’t push past that final yard, and was driven into the turf.

They still had more chances, as it was only 2nd down after that, so they were still in high spirits. Mickey was helped back to his feet and they set up again.

For the next play, they tried the Option again. Wesley kept the ball, however, the defender who came unblocked had eyes only for Wesley and wrapped him up before he could go anywhere, whilst Mickey walked into the endzone without the ball.

On the sidelines, Coach Otsen cursed loudly, stomping up and down. He turned to Coach Knight, verbalising his thoughts and rage over that mistake with a short rant. Coach Knight stood there in silence, occasionally nodding his head.

On 3rd down, they tried to score through the air. Wesley scanned the field after a shallow dropback. Of course, Shane was smothered by two defenders, even Mickey was covered as he streaked out to the flat.

Wesley only just saw an open man out of the corner of his eye, right as a defender broke free from their block and charged towards him. He tucked the ball close to his chest and went down, electing to go for safety rather than risk fumbling during the hit.

The Knights had made their goal line stand and kept the Titans out of the endzone—they would be forced to go for the field goal.

Coach Otsen was fuming now. ‘Wesley!’

‘Yeah, yeah. I fucked up, I know! My bad… we still got the fucking points at least.’

Coach Otsen glared at him. ‘Sit your ass down and replay those downs over and over in your head until you learn from the mistakes you made. That’s four points you left out there on the field. That’s four extra laps for you during the next practice!’

Wesley grumbled but took his seat.

The field goal went through the uprights and the Titans scored first, taking a 3–0 lead.

‘Why do they all look so upset? They just scored, didn’t they?’ Jasmine leaned closer to Jackson.

‘Well, yeah, they did but, they could’ve got more points with a touchdown, so they’re just upset at themselves for messing up.’

‘But they still scored. How can you be upset at points?’

‘Uhh… I mean, four points can mean a lot in the long run. You always want the most out of a drive.’

‘Hmm, I guess. Still shouldn’t be mad at scoring, no matter how little it is.’

‘Hah … yeah I guess.’

‘Look out, we might have a game on our hands after all,’ Tommy said. He and Kenny had returned. ‘That was a pretty important stop, with the momentum swing that’ll come after it, who knows what might happen.’

Jasmine seemed excited. She looked at Kenny with a grin. ‘What’d your mom and dad say?’

He sat down with them and Tommy took his seat again. ‘They’re cool with it. It’s just a ride home. Hah, I think they were just happy that I wasn't forcing them to stay.’ He turned his attention to the field. ‘I don’t wanna miss this game. I need to see how Shane shakes off that double team.’

‘That’s IF he can,’ Tommy said. ‘These teams have already played. Maybe during the time between now and the last game, they came up with a way to shut him down.’

‘The Knights were the closest to beating us. We only won last time because of a game-winning touchdown from Shane right at the end of the game. If they shut him down… we’ll lose.’

Jackson looked at Shane as he stood on the field. He stood tall and proud, the epitome of a Titan. Yet, he hadn’t touched the ball in that opening drive, and he still had to play on defence too … what if the Knights had found a way to nullify him there as well?