Baird Hoskins blew his whistle. “Take two minutes, and Bee Town goes on offense.”
On the sidelines, the Panthers milled around, giving each other high fives, feeling good. The practice squadders joined in until Tully called for everyone's attention.
“Let's not celebrate too soon,” he said. “Time to show what we can do defensively. I'm going to start the same team as on offense and I'll substitute a lot so you'll get playing time. Remember, you play defense with your eyes and brains too. Stay alert, know where the ball is, and never forget your job on every play. Don't try to be a hero and do it all yourself.”
“Right!” Sable Cash agreed. “If you're on the line of scrimmage, make sure you don't get faked out of position, don't leave big holes to run through. If you're on a receiver, look for feints and don't get beaten deep. Talk to each other! Don't get your signals crossed.”
As they ran on the field, Cap said to Sam, “Watch out for the tall blond guy, Vernon, I think his name is. He can fly.”
Sam nodded. “He was covering me before. I'll give him room but not too much.”
As the Cobras came to the line of scrimmage, their quarterback looked at the Panther defense, which wasn't giving him any clues. They had Ben and Fritz on the line, on either side of the center. Hoot and Mick were the linebackers, a few yards deep, with Sam and Cap in the secondary.
As the ball was snapped, Cap stayed in place and saw a receiver break toward him. He held back until he saw the quarterback flip a lateral to a running back and realized the end coming at him was a blocker. The Cobra lunged but Cap shoved him aside and ran to his left, in the direction of the play. He saw Ben double-teamed and Fritz chasing the runner from behind. Hoot got a hand on the runner's arm and slowed him down. Cap hurled himself forward and dragged the man down after a three-yard gain.
Sam patted Cap on the back. “Way to hustle!”
On the next play, the quarterback dropped back. Ben put pressure on him, and Cap saw Sam going deep, covering speedy Vernon Dewey. His man raced toward him, stopped abruptly, and pivoted toward the center of the field. Cap reacted quickly, but the receiver was open for a second, long enough for the passer to hit him with a bullet pass. Cap slammed into the man, but the pass was good for eight yards.
There was cheering from a handful of rooters in the bleachers. Cap stood up and brushed himself off. Hoot grinned at him.
“Good recovery, man. You dropped him before he could turn it into a big gain.”
On the next play, the Panthers stonewalled an attempted run up the middle, with Ben plugging the hole and making the first hit and Mick and Fritz finishing it off.
Between plays, Sam whispered to Cap, “Watch for a pass. I have a hunch.”
Sam and Cap dropped back a few steps as the Cobras came to the line. Cap saw that Vernon Dewey was on his side of the field.
“Don't let him get behind you,” Sam called. “I'll help if I'm not too busy over here.”
On the snap, Vernon turned on the afterburners and sprinted straight toward Cap. Cap backpedaled, then pivoted and ran as hard as he could, trying to stay between the receiver and the goal line. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Sam racing hard, looking to help out.
The ball soared toward Vernon, who saw it at the same time Cap did. Both tried to get under it. Incredibly, the Cobra put on an extra burst of speed and got a step on Cap, who thought for a second that Vernon would make the catch. But a hurtling figure in blue and gold launched itself at the ball and tipped it with one outstretched hand. Sam crashed to the ground and Vernon made a grab for the ball, but Sam had deflected it so that it hit the ground, incomplete.
Cap helped pull Sam to his feet. “What a play! You saved six points, for sure.”
Sam stood up and brushed himself off. “I thought Hoot said this guy was helpless.”
Cap chuckled. “Now we know better.”
The Cobras stayed away from long passes, but their short passing game, mixed in with a few runs, got them good yardage. On their ninth play they scored a touchdown. Cap was on the sidelines at the time, replaced by Jimmy two plays before.
Jimmy was a good tackler and played well against the run, but he wasn't as good at covering receivers as Cap. Vernon beat him badly on one pass play, faking him and getting past him for a twenty-yard run after a catch.
Cap overheard Sable mutter, “I told that boy to watch out. That skinny kid has good moves.” Sable went to Tully. “We ought to double-team that kid on pass plays.”
Tully shook his head. “We double-team him and we leave someone open. Maybe I'd do it in a game situation, but not here.”
“You're the coach,” snapped Sable, clearly not happy about the fact.
Jimmy subbed back in moments later. On their next-to-last play, the Cobras pulled a stunt play, with the quarterback lateraling to a halfback. Then, as the Panther defense rushed in to stop the run, the halfback pitched back to the quarterback. Cap looked over his shoulder to see a Cobra end, all alone, going deep. He took off after the receiver, knowing he wouldn't catch him in time.
The pass, however, was underthrown, forcing the end to wait for it and allowing Cap to make a touchdown-saving tackle. The Cobras were now twelve yards from the end zone and called a pass play, but Cap and Sam had both deep receivers tightly covered.
A safety-valve pass to a halfback was complete but Hoot and Steve brought the runner down six yards short of a score.
The unofficial score was tied.
The ref called both coaches over to confer and then announced, “We have time for each team to run six plays. Let's take five minutes and then it'll be Cowpen on offense.”
Tully got the Panthers together. “Let's see if we can score again. Play as if we were in the last two minutes of a tie game.” He paused for a moment. “Jimmy, you start, and the rest of the starting lineup is Hoot, Fritz, Mick, Ben, and Sam. We have six plays, so make 'em count!”
Cap called out encouragement to his teammates, hoping he didn't look as bothered by Tully's decision as he felt. Sable grabbed Jimmy by the arm and whispered a few last words before the teams took the field. Tully came over to Cap.
“Now don't worry—I'll send you in.”
Cap smiled as convincingly as he could. He thought that he had played as well as Jimmy—better on defense, for sure.
Candy must have noticed that Cap wasn't happy. She and Bobby Jo joined Cap. Candy punched her brother lightly on the shoulder.
“You're still the man,” she said, “and everyone here knows it, except for Mr. Cash, I guess. Don't let it get you down, bro.”
Jimmy's first play was a short pass to Hoot that got the Panthers five yards.
“See?” Candy whispered to Cap. “Too short. That's a good play if you want to eat up the clock, but that's not what we need to do now.”
“Right,” said Bobby Jo. “We need a big play, and you're the big-play man.”
Cap felt better.
Jimmy's next two plays, a run and another short pass, gained a total of ten more yards. Tully beckoned to Cap.
“Go in and open it up,” he ordered.
Cap saw Sable Cash scowling in the background as he ran on and gathered the team together. The Panthers were forty yards from a touchdown and had three plays.
He started with an underhand shovel pass to Ben at center, using his wide receivers to draw the secondary deep and out of position. Ben powered ahead, carrying a Cobra tackler the last few yards, and picking up twelve.
Cap then called a deep sideline pass, throwing to Mick for another fifteen yards and putting the Panthers on the thirteen-yard line.
He sent Mick into the.left corner of the end zone. Sam put on a burst of speed that forced his defender to accelerate to keep up. But Sam hooked in toward the goalposts, getting free for Cap's pass. Cap's throw was high, but Sam leapt up to bring it down.
Touchdown, Panthers! Cap wasn't pleased with his accuracy but celebrated with his teammates anyway.
With the Panthers on defense, Cap stayed in the game for the first three plays, during which they held Bee Town to only twelve yards. It seemed like they would keep the Cobras from scoring.
However, Tully sent in Jimmy, Steve, and Vince for Cap, Hoot, and Sam, and things suddenly changed. Steve blew an open-field tackle on a Cobra runner that allowed the runner to gain fifteen yards. On the next play, Vernon Dewey took off downfield, covered by Jimmy.
“Uh-oh,” Sam muttered, just loud enough for Cap to hear. “Jimmy can't keep up with that guy.”
Sure enough, Vernon sailed past Jimmy, who could only watch as Dewey caught the well-thrown pass in full stride and trotted over the goal line for six points.
Cap turned to Hoot, who was watching with his mouth hanging open.
“Great scouting report you gave us on that guy Dewey”
Hoot shrugged. “What can I say? He used to be helpless.”
Candy leaned in over Cap's shoulder. “If Grandpa had left you and Sam in, they'd never have scored.”
Recalling how Vernon had beaten him a while before, Cap replied, “Don't be so sure of that. Anyway, this is a scrimmage, and Grandpa needed to see what we could do—all of us.”
But in his own mind he agreed with Candy that all in all he was the better of the two quarterbacks.
The two teams came together to shake hands and congratulate each other. As Vernon Dewey shook Cap's hand, Hoot stepped between the two and faced the gangly blond boy.
“Great game! Hey, you used to play with us when you were little, remember? You were pretty bad.”
Vernon smiled. “Yeah, I guess I was, wasn't I.”
“Not anymore,” said Cap. “You almost beat us single-handed.”
“We would've beat you, except that fellow Sam can really motor. Good game, guys.”
“Panthers, let's head home,” called Tully. “Good work, everybody. See you tomorrow afternoon—and be ready to work.”