Down 11: The Day After, and the Look Ahead: The Puma's Ghost Move
Over the weekend, coach Finkle called everyone to meet for a video viewing. They were to look over every play from the game in order to learn and improve. Finkle called the team to the workout room where they would watch film.
"See this play," Finkle began, "we need to make it work. We might have won, and out next opponent might not be highly ranked, but we still need to get better for week 4. Greg, read what the newspaper says."
Greg picked up his copy of Florida Sports weekly, reading aloud to the team, "Last week was a great week for high school football. The powerhouse of East South Florida, the Springs Colts, demolished their opening opponent, Cooper City, 42-0, only allowing 20 yards of offense. In the Colts preseason game, they allowed only one touchdown to the Manatee Manatees, and a field goal, being only 70 yards in offense. Manatee on the other hand was unable to beat the Plant Pumas, who came back from behind in a 17-14 victory. Sena Kobayakawa ran for over 200 yards, having one touchdown, while the QB Greg Bower (Greg paused to signify this was him, gleaming) had a 40 yard pass to TE Fred Holyfield. This display placed Plant at the 4th in the state, behind district champion from last year, Lakeland Druids, the State runner up Aquinas Warriors, and the Springs Colts."
"Stop there," called Finkle. "We need to be number one. This is why we watch this tape. Such as this play." Coach Finkle switched on the tape, showing the play where Sena failed to get past Rush after being lunged at the feet. "Sena, jump like we practiced. Or this one, Fred, extend to make the catch. Carson, …" Finkle continued. "Continue reading Greg."
"Oh," Greg fumbled his words, "the scores for the top ten prove their worth. The Colts win 42-0, Aquinas Warriors 45-17, Druids 59-18, Plant Pumas 17-10, the only outcast being against Manatee. Continued, Dade Rovers 21-0, Orange Citrus 28-0, Manatee lost to Plant, Everglades Gators 17-0, and Hollywood Bolts 49-0. Next week's matchups look to keep with this trend, until the Pumas play off against the Colts in week 4"
"See, we are all in the spotlight now, let's make it worth it" Finkle said. "If you didn't notice, Lakeland is in our district, they have to be stopped," Finkle made note of, putting in a tape of their game from last week. "Don't worry so much about the Cowboys or the Hurricanes, those are easy wins. We need to look ahead to the Colts and Druids. Those are going to be a tough 3 weeks of training."
The tape showed the Druids in a purple and orange colored uniform, while their opponents were wearing white and green. "Lakeland is playing the Alanso Ravens, another District Team. They aren't the best, but Lakeland is where the talent is. Watch number 7, the small white kid." Sena watched as he took the ball and went up the middle. Lakeland didn't have such a large line, but their line had technique. It knew how to block, and how to open up the seams. However, the linebacker of Alonso was untouched. Instead of taking him head on like Sena had seen Joyner from Springs, he used cuts, similar to Sena, but different. These cuts were slim, fast, and seemed to force the tackler to dive, missing as he jumped over.
"That there is Kyle Eggnatz," told coach Finkle. "He is probably the fastest running back we will meet, other than Sena here. He runs a 4.35 40 yard dash, and can chance pace pretty quickly. He plays on defense as the speed linebacker. He is the guy to beat in 5 weeks. We will practice it all the time. Sena will be the scout runner." He told the team. In private, he told, "As for you Sena, play a mirror match and you should be able to beat his cuts. However, your cuts right now aren't defined enough as Kyle's, so we will work on them. Whatever this Devil Bat Ghost is, it won't work against these guys at Lakeland, trust me. You will improve it. And this new move also won't be called the Devil Bat Ghost."
"Yes sir" Sena said, having understood the majority of what was said. 'So, Devil Bat Ghost might not work? It hasn't worked all the time, it has always improved. Why rename it?'
The week came and went, practice was centered on stopping Gaither's pass, but coach Finkle said we were also practicing for the later big games, as Gaither wasn't even ranked, and Plant was expected to win by a large margin. "I don't really care for Gaither either, but we need to practice our best for two reasons," he told. "One, so we don't slack off and lose skill, and we can still get better. And two, for the Colts and Druids."
Sena was running on both offense and defense, switching in and out to practice for the scout team and for his side of the ball. "Sena, he will beat you unless you strengthen your Ghost," Shin told him in private. "Eggnatz will run right through your cuts, your hurricane spins, and your stun gun back-steps. You have gotten strong here in America, as have I. I have learned to use it better, not using the Spear Tackle as much, using a more defined Trident Tackle. The Devil Bat Ghost will be no good. You need to use a powered Ghost."
"Coach Finkle said I needed to. How do I do that?" Sena asked.
"Well, go one on one with me, using all the moves you have. You have always figured things out by trial and error. Why stop that now? In this case, you cannot lose at the Druids game, or the Colts game."
Sena ran right at Shin, using his Devil Bat Ghost, turning it into a spin, swirling the wing around him. Shin was unmoved, using his massive arms to grab him and throw him down. "You have more than that. You weren't even doing the best you could."
"But, that is all I have." Sena tried it again, spinning faster than the last time, combining in a Stun Gun like move he had learned from playing against Agon. Shin turned backwards, spinning with Sena, catching him, using the arm the Stun Gun failed to stun. Sena tried to get away, being unable to, getting tackled.
"I guess this is all you have. We will work on this every day after practice, so be ready for it. Combine power with the ghost, and you will have the Puma's ghostly move in your arsenal," Shin walked away explaining. He turned around for one last comment, "Tell Doug I think we are going to use the Eagle Defense all game this week, in order to make it ours. The Eagle defense isn't a Plant Puma original. We need to make it something of our own."