Free Touchdown Tony Crowne and the Mystery of the Missing Cheerleader by Peter Guy George

aren’t there! What is going on?
    “—and so I end with a favorite quote of mine from the great Notre Dame coach Knute Rockne, ‘Win or lose, do it fairly.’” Coach Tiny raised his fist into the air, smiled and thundered into the microphone, “LET’S PLAY!” As soon as Coach Tiny uttered the word “play,” the pep band erupted back into the Bobcats’ fight song and all the Dersee fans stood, pumped their fists and chanted:
    “You don’t wanna fight with the ‘Cats! Hey! You don’t wanna fight with the ‘Cats! Hey!”
    “The ‘Cats will take you down! Hey! The ‘Cats will take you down! Hey!”
    “You don’t wanna fight with the ‘Cats! Hey! You don’t wanna fight with the ‘Cats! Hey!”
    When Coach Tiny handed the microphone back to Smilin’ Bob he asked, “Is your buddy up in the press box with you?”
    “Yeah, he’s up there.” Smilin’ Bob replied, smiling.
    “Good, deliver this message to him.” Coach Tiny spoke a few words into his ear, pivoted and strode toward his sideline, his big jaw jutting out as if he was going to play in the game.
    Smilin’ Bob returned to the press box, sat down, swallowed a gulp of cold coffee and said, “I got a message for you from your old pal Tiny.”
    “Really? What did my old pal Tiny have to say?” Hunter Dunwoody asked as he peered down at the football field.
    Smilin’ Bob turned to Dunwoody, chuckled and said, “You ain’t gonna believe this one, but he said, ‘I guarantee we’ll win this game.’”
    Dunwoody put his binoculars up to his eyes, studied the sidelines and remarked crustily, “We’ll see, we’ll see. The Lions are tougher than he thinks.” Dunwoody put his binoculars down, looked at the roster sheet and asked, “Where did this number 75 come from? Judd Judson? Is he new? Whaddya know about him?”
    Smilin’ Bob arched his eyebrows, shrugged and said, “Nah, I don’t know a thing about him.”

Chapter 13- The Kick Off
     
     
    The Lions won the coin toss and elected to receive the opening kickoff. Coach Tiny assembled the kickoff team around him and proceeded to go over their lane assignments. Tony only half-listened to him, he was more concerned with finding out what happened to Ash. As he stood in the huddle surrounding Coach Tiny, he peered up into the stands, locked eyes with his mother and mouthed the words, “Where-is-Ash?” His mother with a worried look, shook her head and mouthed back, “We-don’t-know!” Tony closed his eyes in frustration and tried to think of what he could do to help.
    “—and Tony, make sure you keep containment on your side. Everybody got it?” Coach Tiny’s gaze darted around to each player. “Good. Get out there and have a good game!”
    Tony ran to his spot next to the Lions’ sideline still thinking about Ash’s disappearance. His mind was churning through all the possible reasons for Ash not coming to the game and how Felicity could be involved, when he realized the “THUD” he heard was Tim Crossman’s opening kickoff. Tim’s kickoff, probably due to the butterfly’s in his stomach, was hooked to the far left-hand side of the field away from Tony and bounced twice before being cleanly fielded just inches from the thirty-yard line out-of-bounds marker by the Lions speedy returner, Matt Bishop.
    Matt thought about running up the sidelines until he saw a big number 75 bulldogging his way through two blockers and bearing down on him. Without thinking, Matt feigned the first Bobcat tackler to the right and then scooted on a parallel path along the thirty-yard line to the opposite side of the field.
    Using his own feint to get past the first blocker without any contact, Tony ran down the sideline until he saw how far the ball sailed to the left and he, as well as the other Bobcat players on his side began to naturally drift to the center of the field instead of staying in their lane.
    As soon as Coach Tiny saw Matt Bishop fake the first tackler and head toward the other