~~Marvin Pov~~
After Carlos's mini pep talk, we all headed down to the center of the field to see what the drawing would be, to make it fair the other guys had decided to put some paper in a shoe and then pick out the names from there. It could still easily be rigged in my opinion but who cares in the end.
Elliot was the one who would be drawing the teams from the shoe, it seemed most people thought of him to be a neutral entity, after he had gathered everyone up he began, "Alright, the first team isssss SS91". Elliot pointed at a group of boys.
Just like most people here in B-pod, they were far older than me and they had some tattoos and scars that gave them a menacing aura.
They were also massive in size, they were the same height as Tyler but far more built than him, 'they're gonna be rough on defense'
Elliot continued with the draw picking the team that would have to go against SS91, "Aight so the team they're facing issss" Elliot drew out the suspense "The Soyard Boys" Elliot pointed at a group of smaller boys, at least small when compared to the SS91 boys, they were still bigger than me.
I knew of the Soyard Boys from the rumors that circulated in the middle school when I was there, they were a notorious gang made up of boys from Soyard High School.
They were said to be extreme fighters, using every dirty trick in the book to win against others. They also had a very strict no-weapons policy but that doesn't seem to have stopped them from brutally fucking people up.
"Yeah they're not finishing that game" Tyler joked as he put his hand on my shoulder, he was a very touchy person.
"Alright, the other two teams playing are, Bellaire Terror and Sugarland's Sugar" Elliot read out the other teams playing with a bit of cringe in his voice.
The other two teams seemed to be roughly assembled just like ours but they didn't seem to be that confident in themselves or maybe they were just faking it, Marvin believed the Sugarland Sugar members were faking their anxiousness, their eyes showed it to him.
"We're going to see the Soyard Boys play," Tyler told Carlos and dragged me off with him, not even waiting for a response from either me or Carlos.
Tyler dragged me to the left side of the field where a game of rock paper scissors was taking place to decide who gets the ball first, the Soyard Boys won and decided to start on offense first, in my opinion, it's the best option, we're only playing to fourteen points, so scoring first would be a huge advantage.
The Soyard Boys quickly lined up with two boys on the left side of the quarterback, and two others on the right side of the quarterback, the sixth guy stood a couple of feet behind the quarterback.
SS91 didn't have much of a defensive formation, they just lined up in front of the receivers with one guy hunched over in the middle. Tyler was unimpressed with the receiver stances that The Soyard Boys had, he described them as "Old hunchback witches" and then he laughed at his joke.
Before any play had started both teams were already talking shit, mostly SS91, they called them every negative word in the book and then threatened any ties The Soyard Boys had outside Juvie.
In turn, the Soyard Boys ignored them and simply got ready for the quarterback to hike the ball. "You see that guy on the left, he's getting the ball" Tyler pointed at the left-most receiver, I knew that guy would likely be getting the ball, I could tell from his eyes which glowed brightly to me, most likely due to the excitement of getting the ball.
"You know how I can tell. He's properly planting his foot and getting set, everyone else is just in a stance ready to run, but he's ready to dash" Tyler pointed out, I guess him being a varsity receiver as a freshman wasn't a lie after all.
The quarterback hiked the ball and instantly the boys on the sideline began counting Down "4!!!... 3!!!". The receivers began quickly running, the right receivers ran upfield like they were running a streak, while the sixth guy near the quarterback ran out towards the right sideline.
'Only the left is competent' I thought to myself as the left receivers seemed to be the only ones running actual routes, the left receiver closest to the ball ran a short slant and the leftmost receiver was running a comeback.
(A/N: A comeback route is when a receiver runs up the field and then quickly turns either left or right and comes back to the quarterback. A slant route is when a receiver runs either left or right in a vertical direction for a short amount, usually two to three yards, and then runs slanted. The slant route can also be run slanted from the snap of the ball, so sometimes the vertical part isn't included. These routes are done with speed in mind, so the quarterback can get the ball out as fast as possible)
The left-most receiver ran the comeback route okayish according to Tyler, he said the release was okay and the jab step to the right was great since it caused the defender to step right leaving space for the receiver to catch the ball on the left as he comes back.
"He ran it too deep, the defender was already backpedaling" Tyler complained as the receiver ran too far upfield getting in very close contact with the defender.
Luckily, the receiver was faster than the defender when he turned back around and was able to get to the ball quickly. Unfortunately, the quarterback threw the ball too high up, forcing the receiver to jump for it.
As soon as the receiver caught the ball, every SS91 defender, rushed towards like a pack of hungry hyenas. The defender that was guarding the receiver was quick to push the receiver down into the ground as he was falling from the air. "Very rough" Tyler scoffs at SS91's actions.
The Soyard Boys seemed to think so too as they started yelling at the defense for playing way too rough, but the SS91 member that made the tackle simply told them to "Shut the fuck up and play". The smile on his face as he talked was quite sinister.
It was now the second down, on the thirty-five-yard line and The Soyard Boys needed to get ten more yards to reach the twenty-five-yard line and get a new set of downs.
Despite being pushed down to the ground, the receiver from earlier didn't seem as disturbed as his other teammates.
The Soyard Boys lined up again in the same formation as earlier, "How much you bet it's the same play? I'm saying twenty pushups?" Tyler asked me, but there was no way these guys would be foolish enough to run the same play again.
"Dumbasses," I said aloud, the quarterback hiked the ball and the receivers were running the exact same route. The only between this play and the last was that SS91 now had two defenders on the receiver that caught the ball.
That's why SS91 were dumbasses, putting two defenders on one man left the receiver that ran the slant route, wide-open.
The quarterback wasted no time in throwing the ball to the open receiver, a little too hard it seemed as the ball bounced off the receiver, thankfully he was able to quickly secure it.
After the catch the receiver put on a show, those were all Tyler's words, I think the receiver just did his job. After the catch, the receiver showed off his insane acceleration and was able to dash up to the twenty-five-yard line before any SS91 defender was able to get close to him.
"He's played before," Tyler said in excitement. When an SS91 defender got close to the receiver, he executed a perfect back juke, planting one of his feet behind him and moving his backward causing the approaching SS91 defender to reach forward to make the tackle.
(A/N: A juke is when a player makes it seem that they would be going somewhere but instead moved in a different direction. It can be performed in just about all directions, and its effectiveness primarily relies on the quickness/explosiveness of the receiver.)
But things didn't go according to plan as before the defender could make the tackle, the receiver showed off his insane acceleration and quickly sprinted upfield again.
The back juke caused the other boys to start cheering in excitement as the receiver sprinted into the endzone, his teammates quickly followed and they all began celebrating in the endzone.
The SS91 members looked on at the celebrating Soyard Boys with anger in their eyes, they still had a chance to stop the lead from growing. They had to make a defensive stop at the five-yard line and make sure The Soyard Boys did not get the extra point.
The Soyard Boys stopped their celebrations and quickly lined up on the five-yard line, the excitement from scoring could be seen clearly on their faces. I looked at each of their faces and I could tell instantly again, who was expecting the ball, the receiver from the first play.
His face showed his excitement and his words show his readiness, "You can't guard shit" the receiver said to the defender on him, the SS91 defender was not taking the insult easily as he got closer to the receiver.
"He knows the defender has inside leverage, he's probably gonna run a flat, that's" Tyler made his presence known again, it had been a couple of seconds since his last words.
(A/N: A flat is when the receiver runs a short out-route, it's called a flat because of how short it is. An out-route is when the receiver runs outwards from the ball, so they run away from the ball. The opposite of an out would be an in.)
True to Tyler's words, when the ball was hiked, the receiver did the same jab step to his right as he had done earlier, and again the defender fell for it and moved towards the receiver's right.
The receiver then planted their feet before quickly turning left, leaving the defender a good distance behind them, the quarterback saw this and quickly threw the ball to the open receiver. Unfortunately, the quarterback was inaccurate again, he threw the ball too far forward from the receiver and the receiver could not get a hand on it.
Tyler looked down in shame at the quarterback's lack of accuracy, it was bad. How could you miss an open receiver five yards from you, truly terrible.
The SS91 boys were quick to celebrate the defensive stop, although it was just a mishap by the quarterback. The SS91 defender that was guarding the open receiver was quick to get into the receiver's face and start barking words at him.
Thankfully, a fight wasn't started and the SS91 members went down to the forty-yard line to begin their offensive drive.
(A/N: Let me know what you think of this chapter, and leave a comment on what you like or don't like, Hope you have a great day or night.)