Read Online Undercover Tailback by Matt Christopher - Free Book Online

Seventy-six.”
    This was Coach Isaac’s version of an old Statue of Liberty play. Spike would raise his arm high, as if he were getting ready
     to pass. Fabe would sweep by him, grab the ball, and then run for it.
    For the play to work, though, Fabian had to make his block and then move fast.
    They’d gone over it again and again in practice. And even after the Kudzus’ own defense had figured out the play, somehow
     it usually worked.
    This time it didn’t.
    The minute Spike called the signals, the Piranhasbroke through the line. They were all over Fabian in seconds.
    Spike had kept his wits about him. He decided to try to run with the ball, but half the Piranhas’ defense was ready for him.
     They brought him down for a loss of five.
    Third and fifteen.
    After another failure to put a runner through the Piranhas’ line, the Kudzus were forced to give up the ball.
    As the defense took over, Parker trotted off the field.
    “What’s with those pictures, Parker?” Moose asked. “You going to let us see them?”
    “Why should I?” said Parker. “You guys think you know everything.”
    A few of the other guys asked him about the yellow envelope. Huey said he ought to “put up or shut up” about his claim that
     they were pictures of the Kudzus’ plays.
    “Let’s just watch the game, okay?” Parker said, turning his attention to the field.
    The Piranhas’ quarterback threw a screen pass to his tight end. But a Kudzu linebacker cut him down the minute he started
     to run. The impact shook the ball loose, and a Kudzu fell on it.
    The turnover sent the Kudzus’ offense right back onto the field.
    The ball was on the Piranhas’ thirty-five yard line.
    “What a lucky break!” yelled Rook Stubbs. “Okay, you guys, go for it!”
    “Parker? Fabian?” barked Spike in the huddle. “Are you guys ready to play some ball? We’re going to keep it on the ground.
     You’ll have your work cut out for you.”
    “Just try me,” said Parker.
    “Me, too!” said the burly fullback.
    “Okay, first let’s try an end-around. Number Seventy-two.”
    This was Fabian’s play, and he made the most of it. Even though the Piranhas moved in on him, he managed to break through
     for a gain of five yards.
    It was all the yardage the Kudzus got. At everyoneof the following plays, they were stopped cold.
     

    “Rats! That defense is reading us like
See Spot Run,
” snarled Cris as they came off the field.
    “Yeah, only this Spot isn’t doing much running,” grumbled Moose.
    Parker just shook his head.
    The Piranhas got their own lucky break on the very first down. The quarterback passed to his wide receiver deep in Kudzu territory,
     but the ball squirted out of his hands. It bounced behind him toward the goal line. The Piranhas’ tight end was in the right
     place at the right time. He picked it up just inside the five-yard marker. A little screen pass put the Piranhas on the scoreboard.
    The kick for the extra point was good. With the clock signaling the end of the first period, the score was Piranhas 7, Kudzus
     0.
    When the offense took over, Parker spoke up.
    “Listen, you guys,” he said. “We can’t keep running these plays. They know them. I’m telling you, they know our signals.”
    “So what do you expect us to do?” asked Cris. “Make up new plays?”
    “No, just change signals,” said Parker.
    “Like the pros?” asked Moose. “We’ve never practiced that kind of thing.”
    “We can do it,” Parker insisted. “We can.”
    He quickly outlined a simple plan. They would make the changes one play at a time.
    “Don’t I have something to say?” snapped Spike. “We can’t do it. It’s going to be too hard to remember.”
    “I think we ought to give it a try,” said Fabian. “I’m tired of banging my head against a wall.”
    “I think it’s a good idea,” said Morris Comer, the usually silent left guard. “We have to do something.”
    Spike hemmed and hawed.
    Tripp, too, seemed