There is nothing better than playing under the Friday night lights. Tonight was no exeption for me, Alan Erickson (FB,LB), and the most of the other already wounded and downsized team. But for Kyle Burkhalter (QB,DB), Michael Shirley (OL,LB), and Jesus Martinez (RB,LB,DB) it was a painful experience. Kyle was injurered late in the second Qtr along with Shirley. Martinez was hurt in the 4th qtr. Shirley was the only to return. He could only play on offense.
The title of this blog is "winning through adversity" because as a team we we're given a tough blow and come out on top. Seeing Kyle walk off the field injured was like Muhammad Ali giving the KO punch. But we got back on our feet and continued to play the game with heart and Comet pride (after a recovery period). Kyle left us in good posistion. We led 16-0 and halftime was only 3 minutes away. Mike Shirley went down on the last play of the second half.
The locker room was of mixed emotions. I was in mental shock; I was like how could this happen. But, being a leader on team, I knew I couldn't show it. Also, I had big shoes to fill. We managed to show outward excitement about the upcoming half but I'm sure there was a whole lot of doubt inside. It was more noticable on the field.
Vancouver ran there way over what was in the first half a stone wall(the defense held Van. to minus yards in the first) to paydirt in their two opening drives. The score, 16-14, us.
I think the next drive is when we got our fire back, all thanks to a fill-in, Jesus Martinez. I prayed before this play, asking for strength and the ability to lead. God provided. Martinez ran 15, maybe 20 yds on a wide-out counter. From there on we never looked back, even though we failed to score on that drive. We held the "Light" scoreless in the fourth and we increased our lead to 22-14.
We got the ball with about 4 minutes to go. We held on for 3 minutes before punting. Van. used all there timeouts. The Light ran one play before fumbling. Logan Scrabeck (RB,CB) recovered. With less than one minute, we nelt out the clock. WE HAD WON!!
This game was big for us. Head Coach Jeff Eaton reminded us that two or three years ago we would have lost it when Kyle went out. But we perservered. Back-ups like Martinez and varsity greenhorns like Tyler Smith (RB,LB) and Marcus Sanchez (OL,DL) did what they had to. Austin Burkhalter (CB,QB,WR) commanded the offense when his brother got injurered and did a mighty fine job.
Next week we play Evergreen Lutheran here. We've never played them, but before they leave they will most definetly see heart and COMET PRIDE!
-Alan Erickson
NHS Fullback, Linebacker
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