Well after having a “high” old time in the city of Amsterdam we return to the hotel and get some rest before we play the Dutch team the following afternoon.
The day of the game to is a beautiful sunny day – just perfect for a football game. It’s funny we just played a game two days before (can’t imagine playing back to back games within a few days in the US).
During the evening before we were handed our new starting QB. Rob Harvey had been taking a test and couldn’t be at the first game against the Germans. Well, I wanted to know how this would effect our linebacker playing quarterback – Richie.
He was perfectly fine with it. Rob would play QB and we’d find a spot for Richie – he was going to play.
Rob and his brother Will were both on the team and played for my future club the Thun Tigers. Both good solid players with great parents. Dual citizens … they were born to American parents in Switzerland.
Now, you could tell that Rob was a hell of an athlete right away. He was big and strong and could throw the ball!
It was apparent that the game was going to be tight all the way. We were a good match for the Dutch. Both teams had their moments early in the game … but neither could really pull away.
But, Rob was moving the team effectively and we finally decided to give Marco Licini the ball. This guy was short … but not little. A powerfully built explosive player – Marco would prove to be the undoing of the Dutch.
One of the first times he carried the ball he had a ten yard gain. The offensive coaches were going to do some different plays and I had to stick my nose in.
I said to the play caller and also Troy our offensive line coach… hey run the same damn play you did last time. Troy explained that they were concerned because the guard forgot to pull on the play and it might not work again.
Come on … run the same play and tell the guard to pull. It doesn’t have to be so hard. Well, they ran the same play and this time the offensive line blocked it properly. Bang … Marco down the field for twenty. A few plays later he scores.
Marco ran all over the field that afternoon but we could never get away on the scoreboard. So it was a close game til the end.
During the game a couple of funny things happened … both were critical to the final score.
The Dutch had the ball around their own 25 yard line or so. There was a time out and I was talking to one of our linebackers. Fabio was from Winterthur and a really good player. I told him if he would just take his pass drop a little wider – he just might make a play on the ball.
The next play is a pass play and Fabio drops a little wider and damn if the Dutch Qb throws it right to him and he intercepts the ball.
He comes to the sideline and asks me …”Don, how did you know that? How did you know I would be in the right spot?” I just told him that was where he was supposed to drop in his zone – he just needed to get a little wider.
It’s not magic… that’s where he was supposed to be in the defensive structure. Still, Fabio thought I was a genius. Hah, not so much.
With just seconds to go in the game we had the lead by three points and a fourth down. The ball was deep in our territory and we really didn’t want to punt … but we didn’t want to give e the Dutch a short Field Goal for the tie either.
We called time out.
Debating what to do … Rob says “look I’ll take the snap and run the twelve yards to the end zone and then when the defensive players get close I’ll step over the end zone and give them a safety. Odds were the clock would run out before he had to take the safety he could just take a knee on the one yard line.
Sounds like a better plan than any coach had anyway.
Well we line up and sure enough Rob runs to the one yard line … but a funny thing happened. When Rob took off the Dutch team came off the ball and stopped. They were confused by Rob running towards our own goal line.
No one chased him .. literally no one!
Rob stops on the one yard line …sees no one was coming – watches the clock run out and takes a knee as the game ends.
Good guys win.
Let the celebration begin!
We won a nice third place trophy which everyone drank beer from. We all got medals and the Swiss were ecstatic!
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