In the cham­pi­onship game on Novem­ber 27, 2021, Cody Met­zn­er, the Cubs’ hard-hit­ting play­er, ini­tial­ly doubt­ed the crowd’s turnout due to the Thanks­giv­ing hol­i­day. How­ev­er, upon enter­ing John W. North High School sta­di­um, he was tak­en aback by the thou­sands of fans clad in red shirts, with tick­et sales soar­ing to 2,362 and more at the door. Media pres­ence was over­whelm­ing, with reporters from top net­works includ­ing ABC, NBC, and ESPN, and even rep­re­sen­ta­tives from Tom Brady’s pro­duc­tion com­pa­ny show­ing inter­est in mak­ing a film about the team.

Among the spec­ta­tors was Nan­cy Hli­bok Amann, the super­in­ten­dent of CSDR, renowned in the deaf com­mu­ni­ty, giv­en her fam­i­ly’s impact­ful his­to­ry. As she was inter­viewed, she empha­sized the sig­nif­i­cance of the night, hop­ing the game would send a strong world­wide mes­sage about the prowess of a deaf foot­ball team com­pet­ing for a tro­phy typ­i­cal­ly claimed by hear­ing teams.

As the game com­menced, the Cubs strug­gled right from their first pos­ses­sion. Despite an impres­sive twen­ty-yard catch by Jory Valen­cia, they ulti­mate­ly failed to cap­i­tal­ize, and Faith Baptist’s quar­ter­back Luke Ras­mussen swift­ly scored first, putting the Cubs at a deficit. By the end of the first quar­ter, the Cubs found them­selves trail­ing 28–0, after fail­ing repeat­ed­ly to defend against Faith’s aggres­sive offense.

In a moment of des­per­a­tion, Coach Kei­th Adams decid­ed on a risky fourth down play deep in their ter­ri­to­ry. Felix Gon­za­les made a stun­ning six­ty-yard run for a touch­down, ignit­ing hope for the Cubs. They con­tin­ued to build momen­tum, with Jory catch­ing pass after pass, bring­ing the score to 28–16. As the game inten­si­fied, aggres­sive play led to unsports­man­like con­duct, high­light­ing the phys­i­cal nature of the clash.

Despite fac­ing injuries and set­backs, includ­ing Jory’s foot injury and Kaden Adams’ bro­ken ankle, the Cubs man­aged to score once more, bring­ing the score to 28–22, just one touch­down away from tying the game. The prece­dent set by the deaf team in their fight against the odds became a cen­tral nar­ra­tive of the cham­pi­onship night, demon­strat­ing resilience and deter­mi­na­tion in the face of chal­lenge.