Chapter 27
The First Game
I returned home from Hayley's, and made the first priority to find a decent hiding place for the $7500 she'd given me for the X-rated movies we'd made.
I lay down on my bed and wondered where this thing with Hayley was going. I was young, and saw no reason why it couldn't continue unabated, for as long as we wanted it too.
I remember glancing at the newspaper clipping framed over my bed, and the black and white photo of me in full football regalia. It was taken just after the game that put us in the state finals last year. Of course we lost the next game, and I was the major reason, or at least the two interceptions I threw were, but the new season loomed, and all was well with my little world.
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The First Game was an away game against Monticello, on the other side of the state. In the locker room at the stadium, J. P. Pacillo, the center, took the offensive line off to a corner. The coach wants the linemen to keep to themselves, like a family. A few of the guys are still horsing around, but most are getting serious. Shad Jackson, our monstrous defensive tackle at 6 feet, seven inches and 325 pounds, was banging his head rhythmically against the wall getting himself pumped up. Tucker Ferguson, leaned against the same wall, helmet under his arm, eyes shut, oblivious to the crash and thunder next to him.
Bert Tilstrom, the team manager and quasi-trainer, edged past both of them and came over to me with a roll of white tape in his left hand.
"Can I help you tape your ankles, Bree?"
Johnny Mack Brown was sitting on a bench between me and the water fountain. Already off in whatever world he goes to before a game starts building his concentration.
"Sure," I replied, and stuck my right foot out, and closed my eyes trying to visualize the first series of plays the coach had given me.
When Bert finished taping my ankles, I walked around the locker room, got a drink of water, patted Johnny Mack on the shoulder pad hard enough to break his concentration and look up at me.
"Gonna run it right at them, Johnny," I said and smiled. I nodded appreciatively at the newly transferred Johnson twins who now occupied the offensive guard positions, and I mean occupied with a capital O. They were named, Oringello and Lemingello respectively. Twin mountains of muscle, who along with my best buddy, J. P. and Marvin Webster at tackle, gave me a nearly insurmountable amount of protection as an offensive line.
"Right the fuck over 'em," Johnny Mack replied, and as I watched, his eyes glazed over and went back to wherever the hell it is he goes to at times like this.
Coach Spagnitello came into the room and called everyone together. I looked around at everybody. Ankles taped. Pads strapped on, with snowy white socks and pants. And over them, the bright, dark green jerseys.
"I want everyone giving everything they got for sixty minutes. No letting up. These guys are good. We're better, but just barely. Don't stop hitting until you hear the whistle. Make your tackles. Make your catches, and hit the hole when it opens, not a half second later. Contain, contain, contain!"
"Anyone makes a mistake, be sure it's at top speed. You all clear on that?"
"Yes sir!" everyone shuts on cue.
"I ain't ever lost a season opener." Coach's voice rings out through the locker room. "Not as a player. Not as a coach. That ain't gonna change tonight!"
His words fall, coming to rest in absolute quiet. Then he said, "Now let's have a moment of silent thought."
Heads bow, and I snuck a look around, then quickly bowed my head and stared at the floor.
"Amen," says the coach, a moment later, and then we're racing through the passageway and onto the field to sparse cheers from the small group that bothered to travel with us to the other side of the state.
Ten minutes later, following the National Anthem, and the coin toss, I stood with my hands under the center's ass, and with Monticello's overflow crowd roaring in my ears, I shouted, "Black twenty-three! Black twenty-three! Set ... Hut! Hut!"
I felt rather than saw the huge presence of Marvin Webster, my left tackle as he knocked the blitzing linebacker on his ass. Johnny Mack Brown, my running back, broke into the open space vacated by the linebacker, and with the Johnson twins protecting me in the pocket, I hummed the ball to him. Johnny Mack caught it and turned up field, taking the ball fifteen yards to their thirty-five yard line.
Two minutes later, it was first and ten - again. That was three first downs in the last four plays. We were on a roll.
"I can beat my man long," Curtis said in the huddle. I nodded, and called his number. My man, Maynard was right. He got two steps on a faltering corner, and took my toss in full stride for an easy touchdown. We led, 7 — 0.
It got easier, thanks to two interceptions by Johnny Demastri, our left corner, and a tackle by Tucker Ferguson that forced their quarterback to fumble on his twelve, with Tim Battle recovering the ball and taking it in. The final score was 33 — 14. We were off and running.
Some of the guys and me were having burgers at MacDonald's following the game, when the Pom-pom girls burst into the place.
I was busy wolfing down my first quarter-pounder when I heard a familiar voice say, "God, Aubrey, don't they feed you at home?" I turned, and flashed an open mouth filled with food at little Mary Stiller. She lived three houses down from me. A freshman, she was still underdeveloped, and had enough makeup on to pave Route 17, which ran past the MacDonald's.