Undercover Tailback Read Online Free

position,” offered Huey. “I bet they run the ball.”
    “Nah, first and ten on their own forty?” said the Kudzu tackle Tru Ballinger. “They’ll figure our guys are gonna guess that.
     Watch for the pass — the long bomb.”
    He was right about the pass but wrong aboutthe distance. Watson threw a short screen pass. His tight end grabbed it with no trouble. But Jerry Lawrence, the Kudzus’
     cornerback, was on him in a flash and made the tackle.
    It was a gain of four yards. Second and six to go for a first down.
    This time Watson called a running play. He handed off the ball to his fullback, Rick Fanelli, who broke through the Kudzus’
     line. He crossed the midfield stripe and was heading for daylight. But a horde of orange uniforms drove him offside at the
     Kudzus’ twenty yard line.
    “C’mon, you guys,” called Coach Isaac from the sideline. “Dig in!”
    The Kudzus’ defense did the best they could. But the Leopards kept inching their way forward with a series of short running
     plays.
    “They’re too smart to put the ball in the air this close,” said Spike. “Too much to lose.”
    At a signal from Coach Isaac, the Kudzus’ defense called a time-out and came over to the sidelines.
    As the whole team crowded around, hepointed out some of the mistakes that they were making.
    Terry Gold, the Kudzus’ right guard, spoke up.
    “I noticed something, too,” he said. “If Watson looks to the right before he starts to call signals, it usually means he’s
     going to pass. That’ll give us a shot at him.”
    “You’ve been watching too much football on TV,” said Bucky Burke, the nose tackle.
    “Just keep your eyes open and play some heads-up ball,” said the coach. “Terry could be right.”
    He was. On the next play, Watson glanced briefly toward Larry Ling, his receiver on the right, before he called out, “Two!
     Four! Ten! Hike!”
    The Leopards formed a wall as their quarterback looked for his intended receiver. But deep in the Kudzus’ backfield, Ned Bushmiller
     had Ling covered like wallpaper.
    Meanwhile, Terry Gold broke through theLeopards’ line and headed for Watson, who kept fading back.
    The beleaguered quarterback searched for a white uniform in the clear. He shifted to the left, then to the right, farther
     and farther back from the line of scrimmage.
    Suddenly, a sea of orange-and-white uniforms was practically on top of him. Before he could position himself to throw the
     ball, he was brought down — back in his own territory.
    From the sidelines, the Kudzus’ offense called out to their teammates on the field.
    “Way to go!”
    “Right on!”
    Slaps and cheers rang out as the defense stomped down the field.
    “I think they’re a little shook up,” said Fabian.
    Parker agreed. “Wait till we get out there. We’ll show ’em a thing or two.”
    Fabian nodded.
    The next play produced a pileup that gained the Leopards nothing.
    “Third down and forty? He’s gotta throw now,” said Spike.
    But Watson surprised a Kudzu defense that was looking for the long pass. He flipped a short lateral to his halfback, Albie
     Fredericks, who looked as though he was in the clear. Fredericks grabbed it, but Billy Wilson, the Kudzus’ left tackle, was
     right there. Billy hit him the minute he took his first step forward.
    The ball squirted out of Fredericks’s hold and wobbled forward. Mike McCarthy, the Leopards’ right guard, and Marty Marino,
     his Kudzus defensive counterpart, collided as they rushed to pick it up.
    Their impact sent the ball bouncing back down toward the east end of the field.
    The Kudzu bench was on their feet.
    “Get that ball!” rang out from both sides of the field.
    After a wild scramble by a dozen players, Kudzu linebacker Jerry Lawrence landed on the ball four-square.
    It was on the Leopards’ twenty-five yard line!
    A chorus of groans broke out in the Leopards’ stands. The crowd of Kudzus fans cheered wildly.
    This is our big chance, thought