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pass.
    “Hut!” Troy said. “Hut! Hut!”
    He took the snap and rolled to his right. Nathan and the rest of the Tigers’ line chopped at the defenders’ knees but slowed them only a little. The enormous Dragons surged toward Troy in a wave. He ran for his life toward the sideline. Rusty sprinted downfield,passing the defenders who raced toward Troy thinking the play was a run.
    Just as the red wave of defenders was about to crash down on Troy, he set his feet and fired the ball.

CHAPTER ELEVEN
    TROY WATCHED THE BALL’S flight and Rusty racing toward the end zone with his arms stretched. The thought that maybe he’d thrown it too far flickered in Troy’s mind, only to be snuffed out—along with everything else—when the Dragons’ linemen swamped him.
    “I cut my guy down like a blade of grass, but half the defense buried you and rang your bell,” Nathan said, helping Troy to his feet.
    “What happened?” Troy asked.
    “With me blocking for you? Touchdown. What else?” Nathan said nonchalantly. “Can you hold for the kick?”
    Troy wobbled a little on his feet but shook the cobwebs out of his head and started a slow jog down the field toward the end zone, where Tate was alreadysetting up her tee for the extra point.
    When Tate kicked it through to tie the score, the three of them ran off together, slapping high-fives and smacking shoulders with the rest of the team. Troy took off his helmet and pointed to Jamie Renfro up in the stands, grinning and giving him a big thumbs-up.
    “Looks like his head is about ready to explode,” Tate said, giggling when she saw what Troy was doing.
    “Serves him right,” Nathan said. “The traitor.”
    The game was indeed a shoot-out, with each team seeming to score on every possession, but the rest of the Tigers’ touchdowns didn’t come as easy as the first one. As the game wore on, the Dragons relied less and less on the plays they thought they knew and more and more on their superior size, strength, and speed. Still, Troy’s ability to read the defense, some good play by the Tigers’ receivers, Tate’s sure leg, and Seth’s strategy of having Troy throw on the run all worked. With less than a minute to go in the game, the Tigers were down by just seven points, 42–35.
    Troy worked the offense down the field on what would be the last Tigers’ possession. With only four seconds remaining, he hit Rusty in the end zone for a touchdown, making it 42–41.
    The Dragons crowd went silent, and the Duluth fans pumped out a roar of their own that rose and fell in Troy’s ears like ocean waves. But instead of celebrating with Rusty and his teammates in the end zone, Troymade a beeline for Seth, who wore a worried look.
    Kicking the extra point would tie the game and send them into sudden-death overtime. If the Dragons won the coin toss, they’d likely score and win. The Tigers’ other option was to go for a two-point conversion by either running or passing the ball into the end zone from the three-yard line. That would win the game by a point and send them to the Georgia state championship.
    “What do we do?” Troy asked Seth, gritting his teeth so hard that his cheeks ached.
    The NFL linebacker looked down at him and asked, “What do you think?”
    “I don’t want to win or lose on a coin flip,” Troy said.
    “We can’t run it,” Seth said. “They’re too big. It’d have to be a short pass, but only the long passes have been working for us. I don’t like our chances.”
    “Then let’s fake the kick,” Troy said. “Get them out of their regular defense.”
    Seth’s face brightened and he grinned at Troy. “I love it.”
    Seth cupped his hands and yelled to his players, “Kicking team!”
    “I’ll roll right,” Troy said, his heart hammering away now, “and send the ends up and to the right on different levels.”
    “Like two L s,” Seth said, nodding.
    “Only I don’t throw to them,” Troy said. “That’s something they might be ready