Matt R 5Lo

Football

The sun was giving me burns on my arms and legs. It was a Sunday morning. The other team looked humongous, well bigger than us. We were in Darien. I was bouncing off the walls in practice. I was the captain of the team with the quarterback (Daniel), the fullback (Charlie), and one of the running backs (JJ). We won the toss and elected to receive. In our league there are no kickoffs so we started at our own 20 yard line.

The first few plays of the game were silent. Darien got the ball and scored on a run up the middle. At the end of the quarter the score was 7-0 Darien. We had the ball and the next play was a screen pass to Dylan. The next thing that I saw was Darien in the end zone. That meant they had a pick six (an interception that they scored on). The extra point was good and the score was 14-0 Darien.

Darien’s game plan for defense was to stack the strong side. So we had a strong side to the left and a run to the right. That play I got the ball, I broke through the line of scrimmage, there where three Darien players I had to get past and Charlie blocked one. I got hit hard by one of them, but stayed on my feet. I faked a cut inside then went outside and was off to the races only one guy on Darien was close to me. The whole Wreckers crowd was on there feet, screaming and cheering. I was at the 20, the 10, the 5…

        Someone was holding onto me but I kept running pulling them into the end zone with me. The first one to give me a side bump was J.J.  I saw a flag go flying and I was so upset. I was screaming my head off because I thought it was a holding penalty or a block in the back. Finally the referee said it was an unnecessary roughness penalty on the other team. I trotted back to the sideline. When I got to my sideline coach Scott said that the best part of that run was when you had your initial hit and kept your feet moving. Now the score was 14-7.

        The first play for Darien was a passing touchdown. Now our defense was collapsing. It was our ball and J.J. and I were driving down the field with run plays. In the red zone (the 20 or in) I got the handoff and broke a tackle around the outside… just then I felt a hand on my horse collar. The defender threw me and I went flying. Flags went flying all over the place.

        I was breathing extremely heavy. I couldn’t stand up easily. I got up and it was a 15 yard penalty. Now we were at the 1 yard line. The play was a pitch to the left. Daniel hit me with the pitch I got jammed back a few yards, but was determined to get into the end zone. I used every last bone in my body to push forward. Finally, I fell down hard into the end zone.

        The ball felt like it was in my stomach and I was out of breath. I got help to stand up. The whole side line was on there feet. Screaming and shouting, “Nice job, Matt”. Then Darien ran out the clock. Although we lost we played a great game.

        I learned from that game that scoring doesn’t matter, defense does matter. Because if you have a good offense but a bad defense the other team will score every time.