In the chap­ter titled “No Hope Left,” the exhil­a­rat­ing foot­ball game between Faith Bap­tist and the Cubs is depict­ed, high­light­ing the Cubs’ strug­gles against a for­mi­da­ble oppo­nent. Dur­ing the game, Park­er Mills, a deter­mined play­er from Faith Bap­tist, is vocal in his desire to run the ball, lead­ing his team to suc­cess with a strong run­ning game that con­sis­tent­ly con­founds the strug­gling Cubs’ defense.

As the first half pro­gress­es, Faith Bap­tist cap­i­tal­izes on the Cubs’ weak­ness­es, scor­ing mul­ti­ple touch­downs and solid­ly lead­ing 50–22 at half­time. In the lock­er room, the mood is grim; play­ers like Cody Met­zn­er sense a per­va­sive loss of hope as injuries accu­mu­late and the phys­i­cal toll of the game becomes evi­dent. Play­ers are seen nurs­ing their wounds, men­tal­ly worn down, reflect­ing a col­lec­tive res­ig­na­tion to defeat.

The sec­ond half begins poor­ly for the Cubs, with Mills scor­ing an impres­sive twen­ty-five-yard touch­down, mark­ing a sig­nif­i­cant dis­play of strength against a once-deter­mined defense. Chris­t­ian Jimenez high­lights the men­tal and phys­i­cal exhaus­tion per­me­at­ing his team, express­ing dis­ap­point­ment in their inabil­i­ty to con­tin­ue com­pet­ing effec­tive­ly. David Figueroa fur­ther reflects on the inad­e­qua­cies faced through­out the sea­son, attribut­ing their per­for­mance against a stronger team to a lack of prepa­ra­tion.

As injuries pile up, includ­ing a con­cus­sion for Trevin Adams, the Cubs are left deplet­ed, with Kaden Adams step­ping in, only to unwit­ting­ly throw an inter­cep­tion that Mills con­verts into yet anoth­er touch­down. The Cubs fail to score again, suf­fer­ing a har­row­ing loss with a final score of 74–22, mark­ing a stark con­trast to their pre­vi­ous suc­cess­es.

Dis­heart­ened, the Cubs walk off the field as Felix Gon­za­les vis­i­bly strug­gles with the defeat, exem­pli­fy­ing the emo­tion­al toll of the game. Yet, despite the over­whelm­ing loss, their fans remain sup­port­ive, applaud­ing their efforts. Patrons like Patri­cia Davis express pride in the team’s deter­mi­na­tion and hard work, under­scor­ing a resilient sense of com­mu­ni­ty amid their dis­ap­point­ment. The chap­ter effec­tive­ly cap­tures the heartache and lessons learned in the face of a crush­ing defeat.