The halftime break between the second and third quarters lasts a full twelve minutes—plenty of time for the players to catch their breath and recover.
During that stretch, both teams' cheerleaders take the field, putting on performances to keep the crowd pumped up.
From the sidelines, Mike watches his school's cheer squad doing their thigh-dance routine. He plows through a pile of little desserts and a small bunch of bananas while he's at it.
After pacing around a couple of laps to help the food settle, Mike feels like he's got most of his energy back. Gotta love the hidden perks of having a beast-mode physique.
Glancing over at the rest of the Melford guys, their eyes are still lit up with excitement, but you can clearly see the exhaustion written all over their faces.
That fast-paced quarter really drained them big time. Twelve minutes isn't enough to fully bounce back from something like that.
As both cheer squads clear the field, the third quarter kicks off.
Before heading out, Mike gathers the team in a huddle one more time, everyone stacking their hands in the middle.
"One, two, three—"
"Melford!"
"Victory!"
...
"Once we're out there, keep an eye on your positioning. I'll read the defense and get the ball to you when the lane opens up..."
On his way to the midfield, Mike pulls aside little George and Sam to give them a quick heads-up.
Mike has a gut feeling that in the third quarter, the other team is gonna throw everything they've got at him personally.
Sure enough, right from the start, after Austin scores a couple of touchdowns, they switch to a pocket defense on D—specifically designed to shut down Mike's rushes.
The Austin squad eases up on covering Melford's other players, forming a pocket formation that blocks all three lanes Mike could normally attack through.
Holding the football, Mike can't help but feel relieved that he'd tipped off Sam and George earlier.
Right then, with nobody on him, Sam sneaks out toward the sideline.
Mike spots it, creates just enough space, and lofts a high arcing pass. The ball sails in a perfect parabola and drops right into Sam's hands.
Sam, ready for it, takes off sprinting toward the end zone the second he catches it.
Austin's guys are caught off guard—didn't think Mike would even throw in a situation like this.
After all, in the earlier parts of the game, Mike barely passed at all.
In this low-probability scenario, Austin's quarterback reacts fast. He leaves a few guys to keep containing Mike and leads the chase toward Sam.
In that short delay, Sam already racks up over ten yards.
Unfortunately, Sam's a power-back type—speed isn't his strongest suit.
Just as he's about to cross into the end zone, Austin's players catch up and tackle him to the ground.
"Nice job! That's it!" Coach George yells from the sideline.
Even though Sam got stopped, it opens up a whole new scoring threat for Melford.
If Sam keeps this up, one more drive and he'd definitely punch it in for a touchdown.
Sam hops back up, realizing the same thing. No frustration on his face—just pumped and ready to go again.
Whistle—
Melford's second down starts. Mike takes the snap and immediately gets swallowed by the pocket again.
"Sam!"
Mike forces a little separation and rifles another solid pass.
With Mike drawing most of the defense, Sam catches it clean and finally punches it into the end zone for a touchdown.
46:47
Melford ties it back up, and they've still got a chance for a two-point conversion.
Sam, hyped after scoring for the team, celebrates with a backflip while clutching the ball. Then he runs straight to Mike for a big high-five.
He's been dying to do that.
Seeing how stoked Sam is, Mike slaps him on the shoulder and says, "Great job, man!"
With morale sky-high, the Melford guys pour everything into the two-point try and convert it for another score.
48:47
Melford takes the lead again.
The pace stays blistering after that. Mike keeps dishing nice passes to Sam on offense.
Thanks to Mike's insane ability to pull defenders, Melford actually dominates the scoreboard for the first half of the third quarter.
But as the quarter winds down, Austin's quarterback starts respecting Sam more and assigns extra guys to cover him.
Slowly but surely, Sam stops being an open target.
The next time Mike hits Sam with a pass, he only gains a few yards before two Austin players bury him.
"You okay?" Mike helps a sweaty Sam to his feet, sounding worried.
"I'm good," Sam says, wiping sweat off his face.
You can tell Sam's stamina isn't on Mike's level. A few high-intensity plays and he's already gassed.
The rest of the team—who've been going full throttle for two straight quarters—look about the same. Their energy has visibly tanked.
Mike realizes it: from here on out, it's probably gonna be on him again.
Melford's offense turns back into the Mike Show—him breaking tackles solo.
All the way to the end of the third quarter, Mike relies on pure personal dominance to keep the score close.
63:62
Melford down by just one.
But besides the scoreboard, the team's overall vibe isn't great. As stamina fades, so does their fire.
(Ad break or whatever—clean version here, first release of the novel.)
Plus, to stay in it, Mike burned a ton of energy in the second half of the third.
He's tough, but not invincible—and no matter how strong one guy is on a football field, he can't shake eleven guys swarming him forever.
During the third-quarter break, Mike's so wiped he just sits there, not feeling like talking. The rest of the team isn't much better.
Truth is, Melford's never played a game this intense before.
"You guys are all champs. Win or lose today, I'm proud of every one of you," Coach George says, seeing how hard they've fought. He doesn't want to pile on pressure, so he's keeping it encouraging.
Getting this far is already pushing Melford football to its absolute limit.
Gotta hand it to Austin—as a powerhouse program, their players' conditioning and team chemistry are leagues ahead of Melford's.
The fact the game's still this close is 100% because of Mike carrying them.
The two-minute break flies by. Seeing the guys still haven't recovered, Coach George burns their last timeout to buy a little more rest.
Another two minutes later, Mike wipes the sweat off his forehead, grabs his teammates, and heads back out.
"Mike..." Coach George calls.
"Yeah?" Mike turns, holding his helmet.
"Nothing." Coach was about to tell him to ease up a bit—fatigue makes injuries more likely.
But when he sees the determination in Mike's eyes, he swallows the words. Instead, he bumps his fist and says, "Go get 'em."
"Will do." Mike grins, slips on his helmet, and steps onto the field.
Both teams line up at midfield again.
Whistle—
Austin has the ball. From the jump, they've focused on team play, so their stamina is holding up strong.
With blockers clearing lanes, their quarterback easily picks up two more touchdowns.
71:62
Right out of the gate in the fourth quarter, Austin pulls ahead.
Next drive, Melford's offense faces the same heavy blitz on Mike.
Mike forces his way out a couple times but can't fully break free. He shifts his eyes to little George deep downfield.
Right now, George's only got Austin's safety on him. Compared to the swarm around Mike, that's a huge window.
So Mike finds a tiny pocket and launches a deep bomb.
Little George sees the ball coming, adjusts his route, and goes up for it.
But he doesn't respect the safety enough—in the moment he catches it, the defender blasts him and knocks the ball loose.
That's a big no-no in a game like this.
Whistle—
Melford loses a down. The fumbled ball rolls back toward midfield.
Basically, little George's lapse wastes a golden opportunity.
And now that Austin's quarterback has seen Mike's plan, he starts double-teaming little George too.