Chapter Three: Ninety-Seven Yards

I won't choose for you. If you want to play, put a hand in.” Mountain reached first. Eli second. Ten hands stacked together. “No huddle,” Kai said. “We take all ninety-seven.” The defense opened soft. A checkdown gained seven. On the next snap, Kai heard the safety fearing a boundary shot. Eli ran a false vertical and the tight end caught sixteen yards in the vacated middle. Forty-eight seconds. A blitz came. Mountain's left knee nearly touched the ground, but he carried the rusher over Kai's head. Rolling right, Kai found Eli for twenty-one before being struck out of bounds. Thirty-one seconds. Ball at the Storm forty-seven.