Chap­ter 33: The Throw high­lights a cru­cial turn­ing point dur­ing a tense foot­ball game that pushed the Cubs to their lim­its, demand­ing resilience and quick think­ing. It was a chilly evening, with the tem­per­a­ture hov­er­ing around fifty degrees, as Coach David­son removed his blue Faith Bap­tist var­si­ty jack­et, prepar­ing for what would become an intense bat­tle on the field. The Cubs were mid­way through the first quar­ter and, despite fac­ing a tough start, were deter­mined to make a come­back. Their third dri­ve of the game saw them attempt a screen pass, a play that had been suc­cess­ful in pre­vi­ous games but had fal­tered ear­li­er against Faith Bap­tist. This time, how­ev­er, the pass worked beau­ti­ful­ly. Trevin, the quar­ter­back, allowed the defend­ers to rush by before rolling to his right and deliv­er­ing a per­fect­ly timed throw to Cody. Cody sprint­ed down the side­lines, gain­ing thir­ty yards before being shoved out of bounds. But just as the Cubs’ spir­its began to rise, a yel­low flag was thrown, sig­nal­ing a hold­ing penal­ty on Jory, nul­li­fy­ing the gain. The set­back forced the Cubs back to their own twen­ty-yard line, damp­en­ing the team’s momen­tum.

Unde­terred by the penal­ty, the Cubs pushed for­ward, aim­ing to regain momen­tum with a bold attempt. They turned to Gio Vis­co, who was open and in posi­tion for a touch­down. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, Trevin over­threw the ball, and Gio’s frus­tra­tion was pal­pa­ble as the missed oppor­tu­ni­ty added more ten­sion to the sit­u­a­tion. With the sequence of neg­a­tive events pil­ing up—an inter­cep­tion, a penal­ty, and now a missed opportunity—Trevin focused on stay­ing calm and refo­cus­ing his mind for the next play. As he worked to sta­bi­lize his game, he con­tin­ued to rely on his team­mates for sup­port. The Cubs, deter­mined to advance, turned to Cody once again, giv­ing him the ball for anoth­er attempt to break through Faith’s defense. As Cody car­ried the ball for­ward, his efforts were met with fierce resis­tance, but he kept push­ing, despite show­ing signs of exhaus­tion. Reach­ing the twen­ty-eight-yard line, Cody, vis­i­bly strug­gling, con­tin­ued to give his all. Fac­ing a crit­i­cal fourth down, Coach Adams called for Trevin to take con­trol and run the ball him­self. How­ev­er, Faith’s defend­ers antic­i­pat­ed the play, forc­ing Trevin to retreat.

In a split sec­ond of deci­sion-mak­ing, Trevin noticed a defend­er leave his post, and instinc­tive­ly, he launched a Hail Mary pass with incred­i­ble accu­ra­cy despite the mount­ing pres­sure. The pass seemed almost impos­si­ble, but mirac­u­lous­ly, Gio, ever the reli­able receiv­er, was per­fect­ly posi­tioned to catch the ball at the ten-yard line. With the ball in his hands, Gio quick­ly sprint­ed toward the end zone, but his run was halt­ed just two yards short as he was tack­led by the defense. The Cubs now found them­selves with a first-and-goal sit­u­a­tion, a chance to regain the lead. Trevin’s quick think­ing and on-the-fly deci­sion-mak­ing had breathed new life into the game, rekin­dling the Cubs’ hope for a suc­cess­ful dri­ve. As the team hud­dled and pre­pared for the next play, they were filled with deter­mi­na­tion. On the very next play, Cody, despite his fatigue, dove into the end zone for a touch­down, bring­ing the Cubs one step clos­er to vic­to­ry. The crowd erupt­ed in excite­ment as the Cubs surged ahead with a score of 14–12. Although the two-point con­ver­sion attempt was unsuc­cess­ful, the Cubs had achieved a much-need­ed lead, and the ener­gy on the field shift­ed dra­mat­i­cal­ly. With only moments left in the first quar­ter, the Cubs had found their rhythm again, show­ing their abil­i­ty to rise above adver­si­ty and stay focused under pres­sure. Trevin’s crit­i­cal throw and Cody’s deter­mi­na­tion had sparked a piv­otal change in the game’s momen­tum. The Cubs’ jour­ney to vic­to­ry had only just begun, but this moment would be remem­bered as a tes­ta­ment to their resilience and unwa­ver­ing com­mit­ment to the game.