The two-minute timeout ended quickly. When play resumed, Mike immediately noticed three or four pairs of eyes on the opposing team casually—but very deliberately—glancing his way.
Coach George had been right. He'd become their top priority.
Mike glanced toward midfield and saw that Aaron was in pretty much the same situation. Three defenders—including Tucker—were locked onto him.
That timeout had made the opposing head coach's plan crystal clear: shut down Aaron and Mike completely.
If they could neutralize those two, Milford's offense and defense would both go dead in the water.
It was a crude, straight-up "decapitation" strategy—but against the current Milford team, it worked frighteningly well.
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As Austin's offense began the next play, Mike barely had time to move before three defenders swarmed him.
They formed a triangle around him, not attacking outright, just steadily squeezing his space.
Clearly, their goal wasn't to take him down—just to contain him.
If Mike had room to sprint, or if it were one-on-one, he was confident he could blow past all three of them.
But boxed in like this, with no space to maneuver and opponents who refused to fully commit, breaking free quickly was nearly impossible.
And in a game where everything changed in seconds, that was all they needed.
Just a few seconds of delay was enough to give their quarterback plenty of room to operate.
At midfield, Aaron was also trapped by three defenders, Tucker among them.
In that brief window, Austin's quarterback slipped past Milford's first line of defense with ease.
At that moment, Sam—who hadn't been taken seriously by the opposing team—quickly organized the remaining players to form a second defensive line.
Having already locked onto the quarterback, Sam launched a sudden side attack, charging hard at the ball carrier.
This time, Sam's timing was nearly perfect.
On the sideline, Coach George spotted it and almost cheered—
Boom!
A violent collision echoed across the field.
But the result was disappointing.
The quarterback stumbled a couple of steps… then regained his balance.
Sam, on the other hand, bounced off and landed flat on the grass, sitting there in a daze.
The fierce look he'd had just seconds earlier was replaced with pure confusion.
Mike, still stuck in the defensive cluster, noticed what happened. Seeing Sam's awkward fall, he seriously wanted to shout, Dude, what were you even trying to do?
The quarterback powered through, protected by his blockers, and cruised into the end zone for another touchdown.
The play ended. Mike shoved past the defenders still in front of him and walked toward midfield.
There, Aaron—still double- and triple-teamed—was knocked to the ground again.
As Mike approached, the three defenders surrounding Aaron finally backed off.
All except Tucker.
As he passed, Tucker deliberately kicked Aaron's helmet.
The kick didn't do much physical damage—but the disrespect was off the charts.
"You're dead," Mike growled, charging forward the instant he saw it.
Sensing Mike's fury, Tucker smirked and tensed up, bracing for impact.
No words were exchanged.
The clash was inevitable.
Boom!
In the violent collision, the bigger Tucker was the one who hit the turf.
It wasn't until Mike grabbed the front of Tucker's pads that the two Austin players who'd been watching for entertainment finally reacted and rushed in to pull him off.
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Just as Mike was fighting three players at once, the head referee arrived at the scene.
Amid the roaring crowd, the ref pulled out a yellow flag and called a penalty—on Mike.
Then he glanced at the three Austin players, hesitated… and put the flag away.
Mike immediately protested. "Number 23 kicked our captain in the head. That deserves a warning."
Possibly influenced by the noise from the stands, the referee replied, "I didn't see number 23 kick anyone. I only saw you initiate unnecessary contact."
It was blatant favoritism.
Plenty of fans had clearly seen what Austin's number 23 did. There was no way the head ref hadn't noticed.
Mike had expected the penalty.
What really pissed him off was the obvious bias.
Just as Mike was about to argue again, Aaron got up and quickly stopped him. Getting into it with a referee during a game was the worst possible move.
At that moment, Tucker—now back on his feet with help from teammates—noticed the anger on Mike's face.
When the referee turned away, Tucker flashed a throat-slitting gesture at Mike, then looked at Aaron with a vicious, taunting grin.
Focused on the game, Aaron didn't care much about the provocation. Seeing Mike on the verge of exploding again, he said quickly, "Mike, don't. It's still game time. If you get ejected, we're done."
The truth was simple: Milford could only rely on Aaron and Mike. If either of them left the field, the game was effectively over.
Realizing this, Mike forced himself to calm down.
He shot Tucker one last icy look, then turned and walked back to the defensive end.
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The game continued.
Five yards from Milford's end zone, Austin High lined up for the extra point.
This time, they played it safe and sent out their kicker.
From the five-yard line, kicking through the uprights was far easier than risking a two-point conversion.
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With clean protection, Austin's kicker nailed the kick.
The ball sailed cleanly through the uprights.
15–8.
Austin extended their lead once again.
Soon after, both teams reset at midfield.
Now, possession went back to Milford.
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At the snap, Aaron had barely taken two steps with the ball before Tucker was on him again.
Even after two sharp cuts, Aaron couldn't shake the defender.
With his run stopped, the smartest option was to pass.
But when Aaron looked toward Mike, he saw him swarmed by four defenders.
Forcing the ball to Mike right now would've been a terrible decision.
That's when Aaron spotted something else.
Deep in the opposing secondary, wide open, was wide receiver Georgie.
At the last possible moment before being taken down, Aaron shifted his stance, twisted his hips, and launched a long pass.
The football arced through the air and dropped perfectly into Georgie's hands—more than fifteen yards downfield.
A textbook deep throw.
Georgie froze for half a second after the catch.
Then it hit him—he and Captain Aaron had just pulled off a beautiful play.
Heart racing, Georgie tucked the ball and sprinted straight toward the end zone.