Sometimes you have to love it when a
weather forecast doesn’t quite turn out as expected – with the margin of error
is to the up-side!
That would be why this Friday night update
is beginning with the news that we had a rain-free football game; and the
temperature actually rose from the mid-to-high forties instead of dropping
after-dark. We did get some rain today –
both before and after the game; but the window between those bouts of wet just
happened to include the entire game and more than half of the drive time each
way.
Field conditions at game time weren’t quite
as good at Hillcrest, and the home-town crowd was definitely against us; but
those factors actually seemed to help our guys tonight. The action on our side of the field certainly
looked more like our team last year instead of this version – without the huge,
speedy presence of Kyle Landry. I say
that, though, because half of our touchdowns, and both of our field goals came
on turnovers of various kinds. Those six
turnovers were the most important statistic of the game; and explained how we
pulled off a sixty-two to sixty win tonight despite giving up seven touchdowns
and four field goals and giving up a huge time-of-possession advantage to
Hillcrest too.
When four of your scoring drives take less
than fifteen seconds each; that last statistic is bound to look worse on paper
than it should. As for the final score,
for the non-football math geeks in the future Magi audience, the missing point
in the Hillcrest score was due to their failed attempt at a two-point
conversion on their last play of the game.
An on-side kick attempt after that didn’t work either, but even though
Tim would have had a very good chance of running it in for another touchdown;
he took a knee and we then ran out the clock on the next two plays instead.
On the football side of the night, my
favorite moments were easily getting to watch Michael and Tim both have an
awesome, three touchdown each game.
Michael had two of his touchdowns on defense with long, amazing-to-watch
pick-six interceptions. Both of them
were game-changers, with the first one getting us on the scoreboard after
giving up the first touchdown to Hillcrest in the first quarter; going nowhere
on our first offensive drive; and then giving up big yards on Hillcrest’s
second drive up to that point. That
catch and seventy-six yard run left the pro-Hillcrest crowd temporarily
stunned; and fired up our team.
You can probably also guess by the number
of scores that we gave up tonight that Hillcrest didn’t have much trouble with
our defense when they had eleven scoring drives. They did learn early to be very careful about
play-calling anything directed at the receivers that Michael and Tim covered,
but that still left a lot of options for their offense; and they have a good
mix that we didn’t match up against any better than in our first game against
them.
Don’t get me wrong – we had some really
great moments too, and we earned our four offensive touchdowns; but it is also
fair to say that Hillcrest beat themselves tonight. All four of our offensive touchdowns were on
long plays where, Tim, Michael, or Caleb took advantage of broken defensive
coverage – and by long, I mean over fifty yards each. The three defensive touchdowns that I haven’t
covered yet were also all long returns for scores. Tim ran his third-quarter pick for nearly
sixty yards, and Michael’s second, in the fourth quarter, was for seventy-five
yards. Lucas had two fumble recoveries
tonight, and earned his only touchdown of the game with a fifty-three yard run
after getting his hands on a second-quarter fumble. Before I move on, he was also responsible for
stopping that two-point conversion attempt, and his second fumble recovery was
deep in Hillcrest territory, so while we didn’t move the ball far; it was
already close enough for a chip-shot field goal.
Moving this along, Hillcrest had a narrow,
three-point lead at half-time, which is probably why our half-time, ‘Do You
Want to Build a Snowman’ routine was enthusiastically received by the ‘enemy’
crowd despite the fact that we poked a bit of fun at them by having the
Hillcrest snowman ‘accidentally’ get knocked over while the Ridge River Raiders’
snowman was left standing at the end of the routine. Cheering during the rest of the game was
tough with a full house of spectators that were mostly trying to drown us out
while messing with our offense; but then we still had our moments – like every
time the crowd went silent and we cheered our heads off for Michael, Tim,
Caleb, and Lucas.
The last comment I’ll add about the
football tonight, is that while quite a few of our guys had a really tough
night, particularly the guys on our defensive line, they kept trying their
best; and all of the guys are going to be paying for this win with a lot of
bruises and sore everything by morning.
Okay, all of them except for one; but you
can’t blame me for needing to help Michael out with his aches and pains while
we did our goodnight hugs and kisses tonight – especially after he was nice
enough to walk me home from the school. I
wish that I could do that for Tim too – the Healing, not the goodnight hugs and
kisses – but that isn’t an option; so he’ll just have to deal with it the same
as the rest of the guys will.
If you’re suddenly getting a mental picture
of all of the guys on the football team coming over to my house after every
game and lining up a la Doc McStuffins for a cuddle, kiss, and Magi Healing;
don’t go there – I just did; and it was too weird for words. ;^)
Don’t bust me on the Doc McStuffins
reference either – Ethan, Ehlana, and I love that show!
Okay, it’s time to move this along. The school day was just stuff to do between
waking up this morning and going to the football game. The drive to Hillcrest was too long, but
Rowen and I got our homework done for the weekend; so that was good. While Tim’s parents aren’t on the cheerleader
volunteer drivers list, they were going to the game tonight anyway; so they
took a minivan from work tonight; and brought Rowen, Jenny, Tammy, and me with
them. Rebecca caught a ride to the game
too so that she could watch Lucas and Michael play, and while she was also
reporting for the school’s online newsletter; Rebecca took some video
highlights to share with her parents too.
That’s definitely a down-side of running
the Inn for them, but at least they did get to see one of Michael’s games this
season.
I do need to go back to the game for a
moment, but only to mention that it took longer than usual. That’s entirely because of having so many
quick scoring drives from both teams. Twenty-one of them plus the couple of
drives that didn’t go anywhere for us made for a lot of down-time between
scoring plays, set-ups for kick-offs, and the rest of the delays that go along
with normal football game action. All of
that was only to explain why we were so late getting home tonight because the
hour and a half drive time was only part of that. It was twelve-thirty by the time we got back
to the school; and after one before all of the gear was put away. Michael and I walked as far as Rowen’s house
with her and Tim, and then Michael came in with me when we got to my
house. He only stayed long enough for a
short cuddle time in the living room to go along with the Magi Healing, but we
both have work to do in the morning; so he was on his way home before
one-thirty.
I stopped in to give Ethan and Ehlana
goodnight kisses while they slept, and found out that they have Aiden and Naomi
staying overnight with them. Ehlana woke
up and we talked for a minute; but Naomi, Ethan, and Aiden all slept through
their kisses and having me pull the covers up around them.
By the way, I don’t mention it often enough
in my journal; but I really love Naomi and Aiden. They’d both be extraordinary in any other
group of kids, so one of the things that are so special about them is how
perfectly they handle being best friends with my off-the-charts brilliant
brother and sister. Sure, I get to
experience that every day for myself with Michael and Rowen, but it’s also
different for Ethan, Ehlana, and their friends.
There wouldn’t be any non-Magi in town who would believe it, but the four
of them already have a bond that’s going to keep them best friends forever.
It was past-two o’clock by the time I got
changed and into bed, and while I didn’t do a full study and work night, there
was some family business to take care of; and I’ve needed some time to wind
down from the busy day anyway. Not
having a post-game celebration tonight makes it seem as though we missed out on
some of the fun that’s supposed to go along with big playoff victories like this
one – especially when it means that our team will be going back to the State
Championship game next Friday.
On the Thanksgiving weekend, with Rowen’s
birthday on Saturday; and while our families are home for four days. That didn’t seem like as big a deal last year
when we went to the game and most of our family was away; but it does this
year. Remind me again why I’m not
sleeping while I can right now? There
certainly won’t be much down time next weekend!
That has reminded me to check on how the
other third-round game went for our small-school football group, and the winner
is – Grand Summit! They’ve knocked off
Clairmont, and I’ll guess that will really bug the Clairmont players once they
find out just how close they came to getting a re-match with us in the
championship game. Our guys are probably
going to feel better about facing Grand Summit instead; but it is a strange
coincidence that our final two playoff games this season are also against the only
two teams that beat us during the regular season. That was a close game, and Grand Summit only
won by a point; but we’d better not be counting on a second game in a row where
our opponent makes enough mistakes to more than off-set their offensive
scoring.
It seems that no matter where my thoughts
wander right now, this update is stuck in football mode. I don’t want to head off to sleep on that
note, so I’m going to wrap this up and do anything else to change tracks before
I drift off into dreamland. I haven’t
seen Dad yet since he got home after I was at the game and he and Mom were
sleeping when I got home, so that reunion will be fun in the morning; but then
we’re going to have a long, busy work day to get ready for the holiday
weekend. I haven’t covered the rest of
the evening news from around here either; but haven’t been given the report yet
anyway. Mom was hosting a dinner and
pre-cooking night; but I don’t even know who ended up being here for that –
other than Naomi and Aiden. I’ll add
that news to my next update if anything happened worth mentioning.
For now, that is all I have, though; so,
until next time...
...May the Magi Force be with you!
