"Well, the Ravens are down 17-21 and are knocking on the door to the endzone but they are out of timeouts and only have enough time for one more play," the radio announcer told his listeners, "and it seems Coach Whitey Durham and star quarterback Nathan Scott are discussing what play to run on the sidelines."
"Whitey, I'm telling you the read option out of the shotgun is going to score, the end isn't smart enough to stop it, especially this late in the game," Nathan told his coach about what he thought the final play should be.
"Damn it Nathan, listen to me we are running a power out of the i-formation," Whitey told Nathan for the third time, "you are going to hand the ball to Tim and he is going run off Jagelski's ass into the endzone, now do you understand me Nathan!"
"Yea whatever coach, but it's not going to work" Nathan answered as he ran back to the huddle. 'We run that play every time we are in the redzone, they would stop it before Tim even made it to the 2 yard line,' Nathan thought.
As he made his way into the huddle every one of his teammates looked at him wondering what they were going to run. "Alright guys Whitey wants us to run a power off Jagelski's ass, but instead we are going to run the read option since they haven't been able to stop it all game," Nathan explained to his teammates.
"You sure thats a good idea Nat, I mean the power has worked in the last 2 games" Jake asked knowing that they only had one chance left to score.
"Yea its going to work Jake, don't be such a dumbass, Nat knows what he's doing" Tim Smith answered instead of Nathan, "So Nate what are running again?"
As most of the huddle rolled their eyes at Tim's stupidity and sucking up Nathan answered him. "Well, Tim I thought we would run the read option off the left side because their end hasn't been able to stop it all game." After listening to the play Nathan decided they would run, instead of the power, most of the huddle agreed it was a good selection.
"Alright so we are going to run the read option out of our basic shotgun formation and we do it on one" Nathan told his teammates looking into each one of their eyes, he then smiled and said, "besides once we score here and win this game I got a party set up at my beach house, so lets put this in and get laid right boys."
They broke the huddle, ready to score in more ways than one, and lined up in the shotgun. "Damn it Nathan what the hell are you doing thats not the play I called," Whitey yelled across the field. But it was to late and Nathan was already calling the cadence for the play.
"Nathan Scott is lined up in the shotgun formation and Tim Smith is next to him in the backfield with one wide receivers on each side of the ball. Jagelski is lined up tight on the right side of the line, and the Ravens are inside the ten with 5 seconds left. The ball is snapped and Nathan gives the ball to his halfback, no wait he keeps it and the end tackles Smith and Scott runs into the endzone without being touched. Ravens pull ahead with no time left, what a play call by coach Durham" the radio announcer told the local Tree Hill residents.
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On the other side of town away from all the screaming fans, parents, and cheerleaders were a group of friends playing their own football game away from all the noise. Lucas Scott, the half brother of Tree Hill High star Nathan Scott, and his friends Antwon 'Skills' Taylor, Fergie Thompson, Junk Moretti, Chase Adams, and Marvin 'Mouth' McFadden. They were playing their own pickup football game at the local park, with Lucas, Chase, and Mouth on one team and Skills, Fergie, and Junk on the other. They were playing to seven with the score tied six to six with Lucas, Chase, and Mouth having the ball.
"Ok Chase I'm going to run a slant and go, put it over my outside shoulder, Skills won't be expecting it. Mouth you run whatever you want underneath" Lucas told his friends, he then began to laugh lightly, looking at how beat up they all looked, and continued "we are finishing this game here because we all look like shit and need to end this"
As they broke their makeshift huddle and everyone lined up across from each Skills looked at Lucas and said, "Yo dawg you and I both know the ball is going to you and we both know you that only one of us is going to come down with this ball"
"Yea well Skills we will see won't we, and besides you and I both know I have the best hands and I'm slightly faster than you so you better be on your game" Lucas answered him with a smile. Chase then hiked the ball and the play began, Lucas began to cut in and Skills, expecting the slant, began to run up to stop it when Lucas cut upward and ran right by him as Chase threw the ball and all Skills could do was watch as the ball floated over his head and into Lucas's arms in the endzone.
"Skills you are an idiot man, how do you let him beat you on a slant and go?" Junk yelled from across the field walking towards the bleachers following the rest of his friends.
"Listen Junk I may have the quickest legs out of all ya'll, but damn its Luke man, the guy could be all state at receiver if he decided to leave us and play for the Ravens" Skills said back to Junk as he arrived at the bleachers, and gave Luke a look.
Lucas, recognizing the look from Skills just shook his head and took a drink from his Gatorade. "Listen guys you all know that I am never going to play for the Ravens with Nathan at quarterback, he would never throw me the ball and they have a good enough team without my help," he answered his friends, took a drink and continued to talk "besides they have those two good wideouts anyway, and I couldn't leave you guys, you are my friends I belong with you guys."
He then began to collect his gear and was getting ready to leave when he heard Skills say, "No Luke, we belong at this park playing under these crap lights, you belong on that field with that team."
Luke heard him as he was walking away and thought, 'Yea maybe Skills, but my opportunity came and went with Nathan becoming quarterback.'
He then began to jog back home away from his friends and began to think about how it could have been different if he did tryout for the team his freshman year instead of letting Dan and Nathan get the glory that they didn't need. During this time of inflection he didn't hear the car that was moving up the road until he saw the headlights shine bright on his whole body.
He looked over and saw the girl of his dreams behind the wheel. Peyton Sawyer in all her glory, the blonde hair blown back from the car having the top down and her green eyes gazed up at him, almost surprised to see him in the road this late at night. After what felt like forever, but was nothing more than a few seconds, her surprised gaze turned to a look of annoyance and he realized he should probably get out of her way and he continued to move across the street and towards his house. During his jog back to his house he couldn't stop thinking about how beautiful those green eyes were, and how besides the surprise in those eyes he also saw a hint of sadness that was quickly smothered.
'I guess I will never know,' he thought while walking up the steps to his door not knowing that his life would begin to change after the night ended.
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Coach Durham sat back relaxing in his office, happy with the results of the game but still upset at Nathan for not listening to him. "What's the old saying, like father like son," he said to himself with a sad chuckle.
He was then knocked out of thoughts by a knocking on his office door, "Doors open" he yelled at whoever wanted him this late in the evening. As the door opened it revealed a man that he had never seen in all his years at Tree Hill before. He was dressed in tan khakis and a white button up shirt, the look on his face looked like that of a man who was about to give some type of grave news that Whitey didn't think he could take at this stage in his life.
"Coach Durham, hi my name is John Jacobson and I work with the states high school athlete drug program," the man said as he entered the office. "First off I would like to congratulate you on the ending to that game, personally I wouldn't of had the gut to run the read option that late in the game," the man said pulling a couple papers out of his folder that he had in his hand. He then continued "And as you probably know the state doesn't send people like me out unless we had received a positive test for a banned substance from a player on your team,"
"Where did you get these positive results from?" Whitey asked, slightly suspicious of the man, thinking that he was a bad joke thought up by his players.
"Well, as you know before the season starts we ask for every member of the team to submit a urine sample at random times" John answered as he pulled more papers from the folder, "and it seems that several of your starting players were found to have taken an illegal HGH derivative." He paused for a moment to hand the results to Whitey and then continued "Now we will have to immediately suspend all players who tested positive and then retest them on Monday to make sure that the test are correct, and if they are then those players will be suspended for the rest of the season" he finished and waited for Whitey to say something while looking at the awards surrounding the office.
Whitey heard everything the man had said and looked through the list of players which included both his starting wide receivers, a couple of his offensive and defensive lineman, a corner and linebacker. They were all major parts in his offensive and defensive scheme that him and his assistants had put together at the start of the season, if he lost these guys his season was in jeopardy. "So I could loose all these men for the season if they all test positive again" he said in a tired and hurt voice to Mr. Jacobson, who merely nodded his head. Whitey then got up from his chair putting the paperwork on his desk and then turned to look out his office window.
"Now since you have a large amount of boys on the team taking this substance the state is willing to allow between one to three new members onto the team without any punishment," Mr. Jacobson told Whitey as he grabbed the paperwork off the desk and began to walk the door then paused before exiting. "I'm sorry to bring you this bad news coach, but you still have three quarters of a season left, you could still make the playoffs" he said trying to make the situation better as he walked out of the office. All Whitey could see was his championship season slowly slip out of his grasp as he sat down at his desk and grabbed the emergency bottle he kept in his desk drawer and poured himself a well needed drink.