In “Sta­mi­na,” the sev­enth chap­ter of “The Boys of River­side,” the nar­ra­tive cen­ters around the con­trast­ing dynam­ics of high school foot­ball in Cal­i­for­nia, par­tic­u­lar­ly focus­ing on the Cubs, a team from a small­er Protes­tant school. The chap­ter sets the stage by high­light­ing the dom­i­nance of large Catholic schools like Mater Dei and St. John Bosco, which have impres­sive facil­i­ties and con­sis­tent­ly rank among the country’s top teams. In con­trast, the Cubs face small­er, less com­pet­i­tive schools in the ear­ly part of their sea­son, achiev­ing sig­nif­i­cant vic­to­ries that also hint at the weak­ness­es of their oppo­nents.

The action inten­si­fies dur­ing a close game against Cal­vary Chapel, where the Cubs strug­gle to main­tain their rhythm. Ear­ly on, they encounter a series of set­backs: their quar­ter­back, Trevin Adams, is swift­ly sacked, lead­ing to a chaot­ic series of plays that result in a rare three-and-out. Yet, the Cubs regroup and man­age to lead at half­time with a score of 38–19. How­ev­er, fatigue sets in dur­ing the sec­ond half, affect­ing their per­for­mance. Play­ers exhib­it signs of exhaus­tion, and mis­takes begin to pile up, includ­ing dropped pass­es and missed tack­les.

As the game unfolds, ten­sions rise when Cal­vary clos­es the gap in score, lead­ing to a nail-bit­ing fin­ish. With only min­utes left, the Cubs are ahead 66–57, but Cal­vary is threat­en­ing with a fourth down and inch­es to go. In a cru­cial moment, a wide receiv­er is tack­led just short of a first down, shift­ing the pres­sure back to the Cubs. They attempt to run down the clock to secure their vic­to­ry, but after a tight play, Trevin throws a pass that is almost fum­bled. Jory Valen­cia saves the game by catch­ing the ball just beyond the first down mark­er, seal­ing the Cubs’ win.

After what was arguably their most chal­leng­ing game yet, Coach Kei­th Adams express­es opti­mism about their poten­tial play­off run. The chap­ter effec­tive­ly con­veys themes of resilience, the impact of con­di­tion­ing, and the com­mit­ment to over­com­ing chal­lenges, all while devel­op­ing the char­ac­ters and their rela­tion­ships with­in the team frame­work.