Blanchard: 'By whom?'
Paul: 'The team.'
Blanchard: 'But why?'
Nat reached for the volume. Buck Coffey's voice was beginning to crack as the excitement took its toll. To compensate for the fading strength and clarity, Buck was just getting louder. When East Pike walked to the line on first down, Buck was practically yelling into his microphone.
Ball on the eighteen, clock still at three twenty-five to go. East Pike has a grand total of three first downs and sixty-one yards of offense in the second half. Everything they've tried has been stuffed down their throats by an inspired bunch of Spartans. A magnificent turnaround, the gutsiest performance I've seen in twenty-two years of calling Spartan football.
Silo: 'Go for it, Buck.'
Handoff right side, for one, maybe two yards.East Pike is not sure what to do right now. They'd love to burn some clock, but they need to get some first downs. Three minutes, ten seconds, and the clockis running. Messina with all three time-outs left, and they're gonna need them. East Pike really dragging now, slow to the huddle, slow with the play from the sidelines, play clock down to twelve, they break huddle, slow to the line.Four, three, two, one, the snap, pitch right to Barnaby, who scoots around the corner for five, maybe six.A big third down now, third and three on the twenty-five, with the clock moving.
A car rolled to a stop near the gate. It was white with words painted on the doors. 'I guess Mal's back,' someone said. The Sheriff took his time getting out, stretched,surveyed the field and the stands. Then he lit a cigarette, the flicker of the lighter visible thirty rows up, on the forty-yard line.
Silo: 'Shoulda brought more beer.'
Spartans dig in.Wideouts right and left. In the shotgun, Waddell takes the snap, fakes right, then throws left, ball is caught at the thirty-two on quick slant by Gaddy, who is slammed down to the ground by Hindu Aiken. First down EastPike, and they're moving the chains. Two forty to go, and the Spartans need somebody on the sideline to start making some decisions. They're playing without coaches down there, folks.
Blanchard: 'Who was making decisions?' Paul: 'After they got the first down,Neely and I decided we'd better burn a time-out.'
Silo: 'I took the defense to the sideline and the whole team gathered around. Everyone was screaming. I get goose bumps thinking about it now.'
Neely: 'Volume, Nat, before Silo starts crying.'
First down at the thirty-two.East Pike breaks huddle, in no hurry, split backfield, wide right, the snap, Waddell back to pass, looking right, and he connects on a down-and-out at the thirty-eight. The receiver did not go out of bounds, and the clock is moving at two twenty-eight. Two twenty-seven.
From the gate, Mal Brown smoked his cigarette and studied the crowd of ex-Spartans sprawled loosely together in the center of the bleachers. He could hear the radio and he recognized Buck Coffey's voice, but he could not tell what game they were listening to. He had a hunch, though. He puffed and looked for Rabbit somewhere in the shadows.
East Pike at the line with a second and four, two minutes fourteen seconds to go in the game.Quick pitch left to Barnaby, and he cannot go! Hit hard at the line byboth Utleys , Ronnie and Donnie blitzing through every gap, it seems. They hit him first and the entire team piled on! The Spartans are ina frenzy down there, but they'd better be careful. There was almost a late hit.
