Long Arm Quarterback (5 page)

He was thinking about what he'd call next when he felt a tap on his shoulder, turned, and saw Jimmy standing there.

“Coach wants me in,” said the other boy.

Cap nodded wordlessly and ran off the field. He only let me run four plays, that's not fair, he thought.
When he got to the sidelines, he thought Tully might explain, but his grandfather said nothing, just patted his shoulder and
kept his eyes on the field. Sable Cash ignored him completely.

Candy came over and said, “You looked pretty good in there.”

Cap snorted. “Yeah? Then how come I'm over
here?
After four plays!”

“Well…” Candy hesitated. “Maybe it was calling the long pass. I know Mr. Cash gave Grandpa an earful about it.”

On the field, Jimmy tried a short sideline pass that Mick caught for a six-yard gain. Steve Flynn went in for Fritz and caught
an eight-yard pass out of the backfield.

“Way to go, boy!”
boomed Sable Cash. “He's making good play selections,” he said to Tully. “He's got a quarterback's mind.”

Tully nodded and leaned closer to Cap. “Sable has a point, son. Jimmy's good at mixing his calls, and. you still have to remember
that those long bombs aren't the kind of play you can call too often. They can really destroy a team's momentum.”

Sure enough, Jimmy picked up another twelve
yards on his next two plays: a pass play to Ben at center, with Ben carrying two tacklers ahead for four yards, and a run
by Vince around right end, with Hoot making a great block.

But on his next play, Jimmy's pitchout was wild, and Hoot couldn't reach it before a Cobra defensive player fell on the ball.

Jimmy glanced over at the sidelines, clearly upset, and Tully clapped and hollered, “It's all right, don't let it get to you!”

After Jimmy gained six yards with a pass over the middle, Tully sent Cap and Fritz back in. “You have four more plays,” he
told Cap, “make 'em count!”

On the next play, Cap hit Mick with a down-and-out pattern for ten yards, putting the Panthers on the Cobra ten-yard line.
He sent Sam into the corner of the end zone and Mick to the other side of the field, then shoveled an underhand pass to Ben.
Ben plowed straight ahead for six yards to the four. A running play, Fritz carrying up the middle with Cap making a block,
picked up only one yard.

Cap had one more play and wanted to score
now.
He sent three receivers into the end zone, but as he looked the field over, there were Cobras too close to
all of them to risk a pass. On the other hand, there was nobody on the line.

Cap flipped the ball to Fritz, who was back to block, then slammed into the first Cobra defender to get close. Fritz lowered
his head and bulled forward, carrying the ball over the goal line.

The referee held his hands straight up, signifying a touchdown, and the other Panthers surrounded Fritz, cheering and pounding
him on the back.

Cap had made the four plays count, he had called the plays that brought the Panthers their first touchdown. Sure, it was only
a scrimmage, but he felt good about it anyway. And, he thought, maybe even Mr. Cash would be impressed. He, Cap, could play
this game too.

B
aird Hoskins blew his whistle. “Take two minutes, and Bee Town goes on offense.”

On the sidelines, the Panthers milled around, giving each other high fives, feeling good. The practice squadders joined in
until Tully called for everyone's attention.

“Let's not celebrate too soon,” he said. “Time to show what we can do defensively. I'm going to start the same team as on
offense and I'll substitute a lot so you'll get playing time. Remember, you play defense with your eyes and brains too. Stay
alert, know where the ball is, and never forget your job on every play. Don't try to be a hero and do it all yourself.”

“Right!” Sable Cash agreed. “If you're on the line of scrimmage, make sure you don't get faked out of
position, don't leave big holes to run through. If you're on a receiver, look for feints and don't get beaten deep.
Talk to each other!
Don't get your signals crossed.”

As they ran on the field, Cap said to Sam, “Watch out for the tall blond guy, Vernon, I think his name is. He can
fly.”

Sam nodded. “He was covering me before. I'll give him room but not
too
much.”

As the Cobras came to the line of scrimmage, their quarterback looked at the Panther defense, which wasn't giving him any
clues. They had Ben and Fritz on the line, on either side of the center. Hoot and Mick were the linebackers, a few yards deep,
with Sam and Cap in the secondary.

As the ball was snapped, Cap stayed in place and saw a receiver break toward him. He held back until he saw the quarterback
flip a lateral to a running back and realized the end coming at him was a blocker. The Cobra lunged but Cap shoved him aside
and ran to his left, in the direction of the play. He saw Ben double-teamed and Fritz chasing the runner from behind. Hoot
got a hand on the runner's arm and slowed him down. Cap hurled
himself forward and dragged the man down after a three-yard gain.

Sam patted Cap on the back. “Way to hustle!”

On the next play, the quarterback dropped back. Ben put pressure on him, and Cap saw Sam going deep, covering speedy Vernon
Dewey. His man raced toward him, stopped abruptly, and pivoted toward the center of the field. Cap reacted quickly, but the
receiver was open for a second, long enough for the passer to hit him with a bullet pass. Cap slammed into the man, but the
pass was good for eight yards.

There was cheering from a handful of rooters in the bleachers. Cap stood up and brushed himself off. Hoot grinned at him.

“Good recovery, man. You dropped him before he could turn it into a big gain.”

On the next play, the Panthers stonewalled an attempted run up the middle, with Ben plugging the hole and making the first
hit and Mick and Fritz finishing it off.

Between plays, Sam whispered to Cap, “Watch for a pass. I have a hunch.”

Sam and Cap dropped back a few steps as the Cobras
came to the line. Cap saw that Vernon Dewey was on his side of the field.

“Don't let him get behind you,” Sam called. “I'll help if I'm not too busy over here.”

On the snap, Vernon turned on the afterburners and sprinted straight toward Cap. Cap backpedaled, then pivoted and ran as
hard as he could, trying to stay between the receiver and the goal line. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Sam racing hard,
looking to help out.

The ball soared toward Vernon, who saw it at the same time Cap did. Both tried to get under it. Incredibly, the Cobra put
on an extra burst of speed and got a step on Cap, who thought for a second that Vernon would make the catch. But a hurtling
figure in blue and gold launched itself at the ball and tipped it with one outstretched hand. Sam crashed to the ground and
Vernon made a grab for the ball, but Sam had deflected it so that it hit the ground, incomplete.

Cap helped pull Sam to his feet. “What a play! You saved six points, for sure.”

Sam stood up and brushed himself off. “I thought Hoot said this guy was helpless.”

Cap chuckled. “Now we know better.”

The Cobras stayed away from long passes, but their short passing game, mixed in with a few runs, got them good yardage. On
their ninth play they scored a touchdown. Cap was on the sidelines at the time, replaced by Jimmy two plays before.

Jimmy was a good tackler and played well against the run, but he wasn't as good at covering receivers as Cap. Vernon beat
him badly on one pass play, faking him and getting past him for a twenty-yard run after a catch.

Cap overheard Sable mutter, “I
told
that boy to watch out. That skinny kid has good moves.” Sable went to Tully. “We ought to double-team that kid on pass plays.”

Tully shook his head. “We double-team him and we leave someone open. Maybe I'd do it in a game situation, but not here.”

“You're the coach,” snapped Sable, clearly not happy about the fact.

Jimmy subbed back in moments later. On their next-to-last play, the Cobras pulled a stunt play, with the quarterback lateraling
to a halfback. Then, as the Panther defense rushed in to stop the run, the
halfback pitched back to the quarterback. Cap looked over his shoulder to see a Cobra end, all alone, going deep. He took
off after the receiver, knowing he wouldn't catch him in time.

The pass, however, was underthrown, forcing the end to wait for it and allowing Cap to make a touchdown-saving tackle. The
Cobras were now twelve yards from the end zone and called a pass play, but Cap and Sam had both deep receivers tightly covered.

A safety-valve pass to a halfback was complete but Hoot and Steve brought the runner down six yards short of a score.

The unofficial score was tied.

The ref called both coaches over to confer and then announced, “We have time for each team to run six plays. Let's take five
minutes and then it'll be Cowpen on offense.”

Tully got the Panthers together. “Let's see if we can score again. Play as if we were in the last two minutes of a tie game.”
He paused for a moment. “Jimmy, you start, and the rest of the starting lineup is Hoot, Fritz, Mick, Ben, and Sam. We have
six plays, so make 'em count!”

Cap called out encouragement to his teammates, hoping he didn't look as bothered by Tully's decision as he felt. Sable grabbed
Jimmy by the arm and whispered a few last words before the teams took the field. Tully came over to Cap.

“Now don't worry—I'll send you in.”

Cap smiled as convincingly as he could. He thought that he had played as well as Jimmy—better on defense, for sure.

Candy must have noticed that Cap wasn't happy. She and Bobby Jo joined Cap. Candy punched her brother lightly on the shoulder.

“You're still the man,” she said, “and everyone here knows it, except for Mr. Cash, I guess. Don't let it get you down, bro.”

Jimmy's first play was a short pass to Hoot that got the Panthers five yards.

“See?” Candy whispered to Cap.
“Too
short. That's a good play if you want to eat up the clock, but that's not what we need to do now.”

“Right,” said Bobby Jo. “We need a big play, and you're the big-play man.”

Cap felt better.

Jimmy's next two plays, a run and another short
pass, gained a total of ten more yards. Tully beckoned to Cap.

“Go in and open it up,” he ordered.

Cap saw Sable Cash scowling in the background as he ran on and gathered the team together. The Panthers were forty yards from
a touchdown and had three plays.

He started with an underhand shovel pass to Ben at center, using his wide receivers to draw the secondary deep and out of
position. Ben powered ahead, carrying a Cobra tackler the last few yards, and picking up twelve.

Cap then called a deep sideline pass, throwing to Mick for another fifteen yards and putting the Panthers on the thirteen-yard
line.

He sent Mick into the.left corner of the end zone. Sam put on a burst of speed that forced his defender to accelerate to keep
up. But Sam hooked in toward the goalposts, getting free for Cap's pass. Cap's throw was high, but Sam leapt up to bring it
down.

Touchdown, Panthers! Cap wasn't pleased with his accuracy but celebrated with his teammates anyway.

With the Panthers on defense, Cap stayed in the
game for the first three plays, during which they held Bee Town to only twelve yards. It seemed like they would keep the Cobras
from scoring.

However, Tully sent in Jimmy, Steve, and Vince for Cap, Hoot, and Sam, and things suddenly changed. Steve blew an open-field
tackle on a Cobra runner that allowed the runner to gain fifteen yards. On the next play, Vernon Dewey took off downfield,
covered by Jimmy.

“Uh-oh,” Sam muttered, just loud enough for Cap to hear. “Jimmy can't keep up with that guy.”

Sure enough, Vernon sailed past Jimmy, who could only watch as Dewey caught the well-thrown pass in full stride and trotted
over the goal line for six points.

Cap turned to Hoot, who was watching with his mouth hanging open.

“Great scouting report you gave us on that guy Dewey”

Hoot shrugged. “What can I say? He
used
to be helpless.”

Candy leaned in over Cap's shoulder. “If Grandpa had left you and Sam in, they'd never have scored.”

Recalling how Vernon had beaten him a while before,
Cap replied, “Don't be so sure of that. Anyway, this is a scrimmage, and Grandpa needed to see what we could do—
all
of us.”

But in his own mind he agreed with Candy that all in all he was the better of the two quarterbacks.

The two teams came together to shake hands and congratulate each other. As Vernon Dewey shook Cap's hand, Hoot stepped between
the two and faced the gangly blond boy.

“Great game! Hey, you used to play with us when you were little, remember? You were pretty bad.”

Vernon smiled. “Yeah, I guess I was, wasn't I.”

“Not anymore,” said Cap. “You almost beat us single-handed.”

“We
would've
beat you, except that fellow Sam can really motor. Good game, guys.”

“Panthers, let's head home,” called Tully. “Good work, everybody. See you tomorrow afternoon—and be ready to work.”

T
ully,” said Sable Cash, cutting Tully off on the way to the station wagon. “We need to talk. How about tonight?”

Tully nodded, not smiling. “Call me or come over, whatever you want.”

In Tully's station wagon for the trip home were Cap, Candy, Bobby Jo, Ben, Hoot, and Gabe. Everyone was in a mood to celebrate
except Tully, who drove without contributing to the happy chatter.

“You guys looked real tough out there today,” Gabe said. “I think you outplayed the Cobras, and they have a deeper bench,
with a twelve-man roster.”

“Nine good players can beat twelve not-so-good players,” Candy pointed out, echoing her brother's pregame thoughts.

“Some of those Cobras are plenty good,” Ben observed. “I'd take Vernon Dewey for my team any day”