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I watched him pace the sidelines; he always looked so nonchalant. Although tonight I couldn’t understand how he could be. This is what everyone believes to be his last game as the Wildcat’s head coach. Coach Moore and Marshall City had fallen behind to their cross-town rival the St. Peter’s Patriots 38 to 35 with just under two minutes remaining. Although the Wildcats have won only six games the last five years, Coach Moore will always be considered a local legend as he took this school to five state championships and came away with three victories in them in his forty-two years as a head coach. The team he led this year was very young, although a good foundation they just didn’t have what it took to be successful with a very tough instate schedule. The Wildcat’s were fighting to keep their selves from falling to 1-9 on the season everyone just hoping they could get that victory for their coach’s last game.

            The Patriots just scored their final field goal and were ready to kick the ball off hoping to hold the Wildcat’s and send their team to the playoffs. I watched Coach Moore as he stared up at the sky; whenever he looked his most relaxed that was when he was the most focused. Number twenty-five, Tyler James received the kick and returned it to the twenty-five. 1:47 left. Coach Moore sent the play in a quick screen to the left side gained six yards. With no timeouts remaining the clock ran and they Wildcats switched to their hurry up offense. The clock is ticking; the ball is snapped quick slant across the middle caught, taken down at the 45-yard line. Back to the line, clock still rolling down to under 1:20, everyone in the crowd is on their feet. I myself being the offensive coordinator had to block it all out, all the pressure; this had to be my time to shine. I was widely believed to be who would be chosen as Coach Moore’s replacement for the head-coaching job. Although I pretended to not worry about that possibility it has been in the back of my head since I first heard the rumors about his retirement.

            “Coach!” I heard Coach Moore yell. “Send the damn play, the clock is moving!”

            I quickly sent the play in with our quarterback, it was a quick three step drop with four different receiver options, all going to the sidelines. The ball slung from the quarterback’s hand like a bullet. As I watched in float through the air I realized the ball was not headed towards anyone of our players, the only person in the vicinity of the balls destination was wearing a red and blue uniform, far from the gold and green that we were sporting. There seemed to be a moment of silence throughout the whole town as the ball hit their free safety’s hands. I could see Coach Moore’s eyes light up as the ball hit off the player’s numbers and dropped to the turf. Lucky. Only one minute left with fifty-five yards to go. I called in another play this time a 5-step drop all deep outs. Completed at the forty-nine and a broken tackle, finally brought down at the Patriots thirty-one yard line.

            “GET TO THE LINE!” Coach Moore yelled.

            The boy’s really hustled you could see how important it was to them even the guys on the sidelines had that look in their eyes like they were vying for a state championship. They all felt that way, although they were only trying to end the season 2-8, they were fighting for so much more than that. I signaled the play in, quarterback drops back gets hit ball is loose. I watched the ball bounce across the turf I tried to yell but nothing came out, I watched our season spring up into the Patriots linebacker’s hands before he lost control and kicked it out of bounds. The ref indicated that he never maintained possession before he knocked it out of play. We had another chance. Third down, clock stopped with 52 ticks left. The boys were tired; they didn’t have much left in them. We had to end this. I called it in, max-protection, and all streaks. Our quarterback had a good arm as long as we could give him some protection. The ball was snapped the line sprung off the ground, and before you knew