章節 146: A Cat’s Claws
'Yes! That's exactly what we need from you!' Both coaches Norman and Long were ecstatic as the offence returned to the bench. 'That was a great pass. And a damn good route too.'
Stephen thudded onto the bench, a cocky grin spread across his face. 'I told you they couldn't guard me.'
Ty was surprised. Looking at the scoreboard, his shoulders no longer felt as heavy. "Just any pick will do now. All I need is to set up a field goal for them." It seemed a much easier task than getting a pick-six, but there was still one problem: how to goad the QB into throwing at him.
He'd have his answer soon, or at least the chance to find one, after Archie returned the kick-off to the 28-yard line.
'Don't let your offence's work go to waste! Lock them down and give your team a chance to take the lead,' Coach Hoang said, watching the defence stream onto the field.
Both sides cheered loudly; Dons supporters were trying to keep their team's momentum, whilst the Cats' supporters were crying for their team to break it.
The Cats started this all-important drive how they did most drives: handing the ball to Archie. Even rushing through the opening Blob made, Archie was taken down after only two yards. The Cats' run threat had been almost nullified, even without his overly long braid.
'Aren't you going to do something?' Ty asked Vance. The two stared at one another. The first two quarters had been made irrelevant, and now, almost halfway through the third quarter, the game had begun anew. Except this time, it didn't seem like the Cats could rely on Archie.
The Cats would have to rely on Vance. Vance's hands shook as he tightened his gloves. The shaking stopped after a breath. 'I won't let our season end here.'
'It's not up to you anymore. Your fate is in my hands,' Ty said.
Vance looked at him, a coldness to his placidity now. 'Then I'll take it from you.'
At the snap, Vance slipped by Ty's press with narrowed shoulders. He twisted towards the middle and got inside leverage as Ty turned to run alongside him. Vance pushed forward further, then shimmied to the outside, dragging one leg behind him.
He snapped towards the middle after his feint, and when Ty went to follow, he bumped into Vance's trailing leg and stumbled for a moment. That moment was all the separation Vance needed. He caught a pass on a Cross through the middle of the field, and raced ahead. JJ brought him down after 8 yards.
Ty crouched down, glaring at Vance, glaring at the leg he had stuck out. As he massaged his shin, he looked around at the officials; of course, there hadn't been a flag even when Vance tried to intentionally trip him. "Receivers never get flagged."
If it was going to be like that, Ty could play more physically too. The next play, Vance tried the same trick, with the same trailing leg. This time, Ty expected it, and pushed forward to smash through what was in his path.
Both players tripped over, legs tangling up as they tumbled to the ground, and the ball soared past them. This time, flags flew in.
Of course, Ty was the one penalised with pass interference. He slammed a fist on the ground, glaring up at the nearest official. 'That's bullshit! HE tripped ME.'
The official looked at Ty unsympathetically. 'You wanna add an unsportsmanlike onto that penalty? Watch your language, kid.'
Ty snarled. Vance was helped up by his teammates and walked off, dusting himself down like nothing had happened. Ty's eyes bored a hole in his head the whole way back to the huddle.
Ty's glare still wasn't gone by the time he and Vance stood before one another again. 'You have to resort to playing dirty now that you know you can't win?' Ty spat.
'You're the one who fouled,' Vance said. 'There's nothing dirty about securing the best position for yourself. If you want to stop me, get there first.'
Ty couldn't let himself be led around. He wouldn't allow it. As the two ran out on the next play, he kept his eyes lower, focusing more on Vance's feet and where they were planted. He wouldn't get tripped up again, he wouldn't get trapped.
But, he was so focused on Vance's legs and feet, that he forgot that wasn't the only part of Vance's game he needed to worry about, his foot placement wasn't the only tricky thing about his body control. The QB lofted another pass towards them, and just before it reached them, Vance nudged Ty aside ever so slightly, but to an unaware Ty, it might as well have been a full fend-off for how well it threw him out of the contest.
Vance's Go route ended with a comfortable catch for 13 yards before Ty recovered and dragged him down.
In the Dons' huddle, Ty could feel the eyes on him, the hateful, spiteful looks. He deserved them all. 'Hey, keep your head up,' JJ said, looking at Ty compassionately. 'We've got this, okay?'
'Hurry up and back up all your fuckin' shit talkin',' Deshaun said before the huddle broke apart.
Vance rushed ahead on his next route. Once more he easily broke through Ty's press, but Ty wasn't even thinking about backing off. Side by side they ran, this time with Ty having inside leverage, forcing Vance towards the sideline.
Ten yards out, Vance planted a foot to the inside, he slammed into the ground forcefully, his foot right between Ty's legs. He shot off towards the sideline, and before Ty could stop himself, he tumbled over Vance's leg.
Vance caught the ball during his 10-yard Out route, but before running out of bounds he turned back upfield, skirting down the sidelines.
With Ty picking himself up from the turf, looking around for a flag that didn't exist, Zayden was the one who had to race over and knock Vance out of bounds, but only after a gain of 17 yards.
The Cats cheered loudly, already within range of the go-ahead field goal, but they didn't even look close to slowing down.
Ty tore at the grass as he stood, teeth grinding away at his mouthguard as he cursed the officials and their passing to cheating scum offences. "I can't even fucking touch them but they could probably clothesline me and get away with it. It's not fair."
His teeth were still grinding when the next play began. Before the snap, Zayden had drifted closer to Ty, shadowing his match-up with Vance. Another catch like the last one, and the Cats would be right at the goal-line, Zayden couldn't let that happen, and if Ty couldn't win his one-on-one, he'd have to step in.
But even though he didn't think he'd shifted over that much, the further Vance faded to the outside, the further Zayden was pulled, and it was a change that didn't go unnoticed. The Cats' TE streaked through the middle of the field, right where Zayden had been all game, right where he SHOULD have been.
Zayden noticed a step too late, and the other Safety was a step too far away to get over in time. The TE caught the ball in stride, and the race to the endzone was on.
Both Safeties put their heads down, sprinting as if their lives depended on it. They met in the middle and the TE was sandwiched between them. The three of them were still stuck together as they crashed like a meteor. They'd stopped before the endzone, but the Cats were still within the 5-yard line now. The endzone was so close they could smell it.
The Dons huddled closely. 'Hey, they haven't scored yet,' JJ said. 'We can still make our stand. We can still stop them right now. Heh, if we're lucky, these gatitos won't settle for a field goal and will go for the touchdown even on fourth down. We won't give up any points, we won't let them take anything from us.'
'What the fuck happened last play?' Deshaun said.
'I fucked up. I was trying to cover for Ty,' Zayden said.
'I didn't ask for help,' Ty muttered.
'So I was just supposed to sit there and watch that guy burn you until he scored? Fuck me for trying to help.'
'Hey!' JJ cut through the nonsense. 'They're the enemy. Focus on them. You can't change the last play, you can only change what's ahead of you.'
Ty stayed silent. He knew Zayden was right, partially anyway. He probably would've tried the same thing if he was in Zayden's position. It might not have been Vance who brought the Cats this close to the endzone, but it had been Ty's fault they'd gotten this far. If they scored—even if it wasn't by Vance's hand—it would be Ty's fault.
The huddle broke apart with a disgruntled and disharmonious call of "family" before the Dons took their positions. Their formation squished down due to the lack of space, and how few yards the Cats needed.
JJ was just behind his Linemen when the ball was snapped. A run was coming, the Dons knew it, but even so, could they stop it?
Blob pushed forward, and Archie came surging behind him. Whilst Blob was preoccupied by a Linemen, Archie darted around him, and JJ did the same from the other direction. The two locked horns. Archie twisted, legs churning at the ground as he tried to push forward, while JJ wrangled him to the ground.
JJ skidded back a step and Archie pushed forward, but he dropped lower and lower, head and shoulder soon driven into the ground. He was barely a yard shy of the endzone.
JJ had won the first battle, but there were more to come.
At least that's what he hoped, and while technically true, the upcoming battle looked much different. Archie didn't get the ball on the next play, but the QB didn't look to pass either. When Blob surged forward this time, it was the QB who was right behind him, practically riding him piggyback style.
The Blob fell forward, and the Dons' wall crumbled under him. The Cats tumbled into the endzone and took the lead with a touchdown.
The extra point was a formality, and when the Dons' offence next had the ball, the score read 17–10.
Chris at least got to return the kick-off. He darted behind blocks and around tacklers until he was run out at the 34-yard line.
The Dons would have their chance to respond and tie the game again, but they'd have to get through a new defence to do so.
The Cats' formation had shifted drastically. Smoke was no longer covering Stephen, instead, he was standing off from Cole. Muscles had moved down to stand before Benny, and Jahsiah was in front of Stephen, along with another DB who was crouched low, rubbing his hands together.
His dark eyes didn't want to stay in one place, darting all around the field, but they always came back to Stephen. His shoulder pads jutted out from his skinny frame, the sleeves tucked into them. He had a flat, round face, and again he was impassive, near-emotionless, like many other Cats.
The Dons tried a run first, sending Chris Cole's way. But as Cole stepped forward to block Smoke, it was like trying to catch … well, smoke. Smoke slipped by unblocked, and as Chris came around the edge, speared him down for only a yard.
Cole apologised, but the mishap was brushed over; mistakes happen, no one held a grudge. Next, the Dons tested out the new look defence with a pass. Jahsiah, despite starting close to Stephen, he backed off when the ball was snapped, and the new DB was essentially left to guard Stephen alone, just with help ready to jump in at a moment's notice if Stephen tried for anything too deep or towards the middle.
Jay found Stephen with a quick Out, but the new DB pounced on him immediately and stopped his progress right after he caught the ball and the Dons only gained another 3 yards.
It was better than nothing, but it still brought them to third down. The rest of the defence pressed in, and Jahsiah watched Stephen much more intently this time. Smoke hemmed off Cole comfortably, looking like it didn't take any effort at all, and Benny struggled to get to his spots with Muscles blocking his path.
Eventually, Jay dumped the ball off to Chris in the flat, but Chris was a couple of yards shy of the first when a swarm of Cats knocked him out of bounds.
The Dons had gone three-and-out, and as the game moved into the fourth quarter, the Cats had a chance to push the game out of reach with another score.
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SeipoltMP
SeipoltMP With time winding down, can the Dons make the comeback?
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