In this chap­ter titled “The Wicks and the Bombs,” Steve How­ell, the defen­sive coor­di­na­tor for the Lead­er­ship Mil­i­tary Acad­e­my Wolf­pack, reflects on the dis­ap­point­ment of his team’s play­off exit while pre­dict­ing that the Cubs, a team from River­side, will advance to the cham­pi­onship, only to be defeat­ed by Faith Bap­tist. How­ell, proud of the Cubs, express­es delight in their jour­ney through the South­ern Cal­i­for­nia play­offs.

As the Cubs pre­pare to face the elite Flintridge Prep Wolves, con­fi­dence is high despite Flintridge’s dis­tin­guished his­to­ry and accom­plished coach­ing staff, includ­ing Ram­ses Bar­den, a for­mer NFL play­er, and Rus­sell White, a stand­out col­lege run­ning back. This game presents a unique expe­ri­ence for Flintridge, as they have not pre­vi­ous­ly played the deaf Cubs, and White empha­sizes the impor­tance of treat­ing them like any oth­er foot­ball team, down­play­ing their deaf­ness.

The Cubs enter the game buoyed by their recent vic­to­ry and hours lat­er sup­port each oth­er over piz­za, their spir­its high as they dis­cuss their chances of win­ning. How­ev­er, ini­tial opti­mism quick­ly wanes as the game com­mences. The Cubs score first, but Flintridge swift­ly answers back, reveal­ing defen­sive vul­ner­a­bil­i­ties. This respon­sive­ness leads to a back-and-forth com­pet­i­tive dynam­ic, turn­ing the match into a tight con­test.

With both teams adjust­ing to one anoth­er, the match unveils insights about the Cubs’ uni­ty, empha­sized by their shared expe­ri­ence of deaf­ness, which fos­ters strong com­mu­ni­ca­tion and broth­er­hood. The head coach of Flintridge, Rus­sell White, acknowl­edges these intan­gi­bles, see­ing the Cubs’ spe­cial bond as an inte­gral part of their strength.

As the game pro­gress­es, the Cubs lead nar­row­ly at half­time. There is grow­ing con­cern among their coach­es regard­ing defen­sive strate­gies as Flintridge suc­cess­ful­ly exploits weak­ness­es. After half­time, the Cubs make strate­gic adjust­ments, with Trevin throw­ing a remark­able pass to Gio, fur­ther increas­ing their lead with a sig­nif­i­cant touch­down. Ulti­mate­ly, the Cubs tri­umph, win­ning the semi­fi­nals 58–28, but not with­out recall­ing the painful mem­o­ries of their pre­vi­ous cham­pi­onship defeat, as Coach Adams wish­es to moti­vate them fur­ther by dis­play­ing the haunt­ing score of their last loss.