Red Zone

CHAPTER ONE
THE HEAT OF BATTLE

“PLAY PROUD, TIKI!”

More than 1,000 football fans were screaming their lungs out–but somehow, Tiki Barber was able to hear his twin brother’s voice.

“Play proud!!!!”

Everyone knew Tiki was about to get the ball. It was third and two, with his team in the red zone at the Rockets’ eighteen yard line. Who else would the Eagles give the ball to but their star running back?

Tiki settled into his three-point stance. “I hear you, Ronde,” he muttered, digging his spikes into the ground to get a good jump.

“Twenty-five … seventy-three…. hut-hut!” Quarterback Cody Hansen took the snap from Paco Rivera. Tiki lunged forward, and Cody rammed the ball smack into his mid-section. Clamping down on it with both arms, Tiki stutter- stepped left, looking for an opening in the North Side Rockets’ defense.

There it was! Right between Paco and John Berra, the fullback. He darted through the tiny gap, and was almost into the open backfield when-THWUMP!

The next thing he knew, Tiki was airborne. He landed hard, with five hundred pounds of North Side defenders piled on top of him.

He could barely breathe, let alone tell them to get off! It seemed like forever before the refs pulled the pile away and Tiki could exercise his lungs again.

Getting up, he saw that he’d been tackled a yard short of a first down. Tiki grabbed his face guard and groaned. Now the Eagles would have to kick the ball away again. Their third punt already, and it was still the first quarter!

Tiki jogged back to the bench and sat down next to John Berra, his partner in the backfield. They watched as Adam Costa nailed the punt high and long, pinning the Rockets inside their own ten yard line.

“Way to go, Adam!” Tiki screamed. “You’re the man!”

“Nice kick!” Berra called weakly.

“Yo, what happened on that last play?” Tiki asked, rubbing his sore left side.

“Huh? Sorry, what’d you say, Tiki?”

“The block, man. You’re supposed to pick up the middle linebacker before he gets to me.”

“Oh. Yeah, right. Sorry,” said Berra, sounding too tired to care.

John was usually a reliable blocker. But today was the first game of the play offs-and suddenly, he was two steps slower. That was a big reason why the Eagles’ ground game was going nowhere.

On first down, the Rockets threw a screen pass. Ronde got wiped out by a block, and the runner advanced the ball all the way to the thirty-seven yard line.

On the bench, Tiki groaned, then winced as he saw his twin get up slowly. “Shake it off, Ronde!” he yelled, and sure enough, Ronde did.

Tiki turned back to Berra. “What’s wrong with you today? Were you up all night or something?”

Berra shook his head. “I dunno. I feel kind of weird for some reason.”

“Since when?”

“I don’t know … yesterday?”

“Well, go tell Coach about it.”

“No way! Are you kidding me? I’ve waited all year to get here. I’m not sitting out now.”

As if to make his point, John stood up and stretched. “I’m gonna get some water. Maybe that’ll help.” Raising a warning finger at Tiki, he added, “And don’t you say anything either.”

Tiki understood how John felt. Last year, and the year before that, the Eagles had made the play-offs only to fall short. For Berra, and for all the other ninth graders on the team, this was their last shot at a State Championship.

The Rockets were running now, ripping holes in the Eagle line and racking up the yards. Already they were in Eagle territory, and Tiki was starting to get a bad feeling in his stomach.

The Eagles had barely squeaked into the play-offs this season. They’d beaten these same Rockets in their final game to get there–but that had been a real slushfest. A lot of balls had bounced the Eagles’ way in that final game. But were they really better than the Rockets? It sure didn’t look that way so far today.

This past week had been a nonstop carnival at Hidden Valley Junior High. Tiki smiled and shook his head as he remembered what it had been like-everyone at school bragging about their “Team of Destiny,” saying how the Eagles were definitely going all the way this year. Tiki had let himself revel in the dream, and he knew his team-mates had done the same.

But now the time for dreaming was over. To become state champions, they would have to win their own district first. This was their opening play-off game, and already they were in trouble, down 6-0 with the Rockets looking for more. If the Eagles’ play-off run ended today, it would be a gigantic, humongous comedown!

Tiki told himself to keep the faith. So many times this season, they’d faced elimination, yet somehow they’d survived. Could they do it one more time?

The Rockets threw a long pass, but Ronde batted it away. “Attaway, Ronde! Whoo hoo!”

Turning, Tiki saw Berra wobbling slightly on his way back from the water cooler. Something was definitely wrong with him-but what? He looked back just in time to see the Rockets run around end for a big gainer, all the way into the Eagles’ red zone!

Uh-oh.
Adam Costa sat down next to him. “What’s wrong, Tiki?” he asked. “You guys look totally lost out there or offense.”

“I don’t know,” Tiki admitted. “Coach keeps yelling for us to pick up our blocks. But it’s not happening

“Yeah, what’s with Berra? He’s, like, in a daze.”

Tiki looked down the bench to the far end, where Berra was sitting with his head between his knees. “Hmm. I’m gonna go talk to him.”

Just then, the Rockets completed a short pass play over Ronde’s outstretched arm for a touchdown

“NO000!” Tiki cried, throwing back his head.

“Dang!” Adam said. “If only Ronde was a couple inches taller …” Then he caught his breath. “Oh. Sorry, Tiki.”

Tiki and Ronde were identical twins, so their height was exactly the same. “It doesn’t matter as much for a running back as for a corner,” Adam added lamely.

Tiki sighed. What could he say? It was the truth. He and Ronde were two of the smallest guys on the team. If they didn’t start growing soon, they might never get big enough to achieve their dream and play in the NFL.

But that was a problem for another day. Right now, he had a pep talk to give.

“Hey, John,” he said, sitting down next to the fullback, “it’s not just you. Cody’s way off, I haven’t found my rhythm-it’s all of us, dude.”

“Mostly me,” Berra insisted. “I feel like a loser. I don’t know what it is.”

As he and Berra watched the extra point go through the uprights, the queasy feeling grabbed Tiki’s stomach again. Sure, there was still plenty of time to turn things around and save their play-off run. But at 13-0, this game had all the signs of a terrible, final defeat.

The kickoff went up. Ronde grabbed it in the end zone and knelt down for a touchback.

Tiki gritted his teeth, jammed his helmet back on, and forced down the lump in his throat. It can’t end like this, he told himself. I won’t let it.

“Come on, dude,” he said, grabbing Berra by the arm and lifting him to his feet. “Let’s get back out there.”

In the huddle, Tiki could see the hollow look in his teammates’ eyes. He knew they were all scared-and why shouldn’t they be? “Come on now!” he suddenly yelled, surprising himself as well as the rest of them. Tiki was not the type to yell at anybody. “Let’s get some points here!”

“Okay, Texas Tech, on two,” said Cody. That meant a screen pass for Tiki, with Berra as his lead blocker.

Tiki looked over at Johnnie B. Was he even listening? He looked dazed, and even more scared than the rest of them.

“Twenty-six . .. twenty-eight … .. hut! Hut!” Cody took the snap and dropped back. Paco and the rest of the line let the defense get past them, luring them in. Then, at the last moment, Cody threw the ball to Tiki, who was waiting by the sideline.

He took the pass and turned, just in time to see Berra go down to make a block. But the defender easily jumped over him and made straight for Tiki!

Tiki dodged him, but before he could get up a head of steam, he was brought down by two other Rockets. “Berra!”

As Tiki dragged himself to his feet, he heard Coach Wheeler calling John, motioning for him to come to the bench. Berra trudged off, while Luke Frazier, the seventh grader who backed up both Berra and Tiki, ran onto the field, hopping up and down with excitement. It wasn’t often he got a chance to play, especially in a big game.

I guess Coach finally noticed, Tiki thought. About time, too. Much as he liked Johnnie B., it was the game that mattered. Even Berra would agree with that.

Without their big fullback in the lineup to block- Luke was at least three inches shorter and thirty pounds lighter than Berra-Coach Wheeler directed Cody to go to the passing game.