Free First and Ten by Jeff Rud

defense must have been thinking the same thing. On first down, Brown streaked upfield ten yards before cutting quickly outside. Lionel Pierce, playing middle linebacker, followed Brown through the backfield along his down-and-out route. He obviously felt the ball was going to the Stingers’ best receiver too.
    Kyle James rolled out to the right, the same side as Brown was cutting. He cocked his left arm and began to pass the ball to his favorite target. But at the last second, he tucked it under his arm and cut directly upfield. The fake seemed to catch the entire Wildcats team by surprise because the middle of the field was wide open. Pierce had committed to covering Brown, and James easily scampered for fifteen yards and a first down.
    The Stingers now had the ball at midfield with more than three minutes left on the clock. They broke their huddle quickly, with James dropping back about five yards behind center Steve Donnelly in a shotgun formation. The long snap came back to the South Side quarterback, who again looked downfield at Nate Brown who was steaming down the right sidelines. Once again, however, it was a decoy. James whirled and threw to Steve Chase, the halfback who normally didn’t do much in the offense except block. Chase had slipped quietly out of the backfield and run ten yards up the middle. He caught the pass and was tackled by a swarm of Wildcat defenders. The Stingers had another first down.
    Matt could hardly contain himself on the sidelines. He wasn’t playing, but it was almost more exciting to watch the end of this game. It was like some of those last-minute nfl cliffhangers that had mesmerized him on Sunday afternoons. The game was down to the wire.
    The next two downs didn’t go as well for the Stingers. James was sacked for a one-yard loss, and then Steve Chase dropped an easy seven-yard pass that he should have caught. That left third down with the Stingers desperately needing to keep the drive alive.
    The large Central crowd was cheering, “DeeFence! DeeFence!” as the Stingers broke their huddle. Once again, James dropped back into the shotgun. He took the snap, began to roll to the right, but then he reversed his field and went left, away from his wall of blockers. Three Central defenders, including Pierce, were furiously bearing down on the South Side quarterback, who by now was on a dead run toward the left sidelines.
    Just as it appeared certain that James was going to be caught by his pursuers for a huge loss, his left arm flashed forward. He had managed to get away a long pass down the left sidelines. The ball was headed on a high spiral toward Brown and the Wildcat defensive back who was still covering him tightly.
    The two players went up for the ball and crashed violently into one another in midair. Matt and his teammates could hear the collision all the way over on the far sidelines. The ball tipped off Nate Brown’s fingers, hung delicately in the air for what seemed like a second, and then it fell toward the ground. But the Stingers’ receiver somehow managed to snake his left hand around the ball as he descended to the turf. Brown had made an unbelievable one-handed catch to move the Stingers to the Central fifteen-yard line.
    The South Side bench was going crazy over the circus catch. But their celebration was short-lived. Although Brown had made a spectacular play, he had also injured himself. He was still lying on his back on the field as the officials spotted the ball for the next play.
    Coach Reynolds sent Matt, Phil and Charlie onto the field to help Nate. It was his right ankle. The ninth-grader had twisted it as he crashed to the ground. The managers each grabbed an arm and Matt helped hoist Brown as they maneuvered the star receiver to the sidelines.
    There were less than two minutes left on the clock now, and Coach Reynolds again called a time-out. “Kyle,” he said, looking at his quarterback, “if we can get this in the end