The Rivalry by John Feinstein

calling another play-action pass, but this time Army had everyone covered and Goodes threw the ball away. Second and goal. On second down, Tech went with a run up the middle and plowed to the 4-yard line. Instinctively, Stevie looked up at the clock and then realized it was at 0:00. There was no clock in overtime.
    “What’s he do here?” Tim Kelly asked.
    “He might call the same play, try to fool us,” Hall said.
    “Roll out,” Taylor said. “Let the quarterback make a play with his feet or his arm depending on what he sees.”
    Taylor had it right. Goodes rolled out, his arm cocked as if to pass. At the last possible moment, he pulled the ball down and charged toward the corner of the end zone. Two Army defenders came up to stop him, and they wrestled him down very close to the goal line.
    For a split second, it looked as if Goodes might have scored. There was no signal from the officials. Finally the referee stood up with his right arm raised above his head in a clenched fist—the signal for fourth down. Nearly everyone in the stadium breathed a sigh of relief.
    Stevie could see Paul Johnson at least five yards out onto the field pointing in the direction of the press box.
    “He wants them to review it,” Kelleher said. “He thinks they scored.”
    “You can’t blame him for asking, right?” Stevie said. From where he was standing, it was impossible to know if Goodes had gotten over the goal line or not.
    “Yes, they really should review in this situation,” Kelleher said. “This is one time where you want to be a hundred percent sure.”
    “The play is under review,” the referee said, turning on his microphone. “The ruling on the field is fourth down.”
    And so they waited. Two minutes went by, then three. The crowd grew restless.
    “The rule should really be that if they can’t be sure after two minutes of review, then the call on the field stands,” Kelleher said. “This is ridiculous.”
    Another minute passed. Finally, the referee took off the headset that connected him to the press box and trotted back onto the field.
    “After further review, the ruling on the field stands.…”
    He continued to talk, but Stevie couldn’t hear him over the wild cheering coming from the corps, which was directly behind where they were standing.
    “Now what does Johnson do?” Stevie asked.
    “Any other coach, I’d say he kicks the field goal and plays on in a second overtime,” Kelleher said. “But that’s not usually Paul’s way. He always thinks he can come upwith a play to get what he needs, and it looks like he only needs about a foot.”
    Johnson had called time out to think about it, and both teams were huddling around their coaches. The Army players were so close to Stevie, he could hear Rich Ellerson’s voice even over the din coming from the corps.
    “He’s going to go for it,” Ellerson said. “He thinks they can make a play and win the game. So this is where
we
make a play and win the game. They will
not
run up the middle—that’s not what he does in these situations. We’re going to sell out on the quarterback sprint, okay? If he goes the other way, then I lost the game, so don’t even worry about it. Ignore the middle—we want maximum coverage on the sides.”
    The teams trotted back out. Tech huddled up, even though the play had clearly been called on the sideline. Goodes brought his team to the line, barked signals, and took the snap. At first, Stevie thought Ellerson had blown it, because Goodes appeared to put the ball into his fullback’s stomach and the fullback flew through the air into the end zone.
    But the fullback didn’t have the ball. Goodes had pulled it away at the last minute and was sprinting to his left, to the near corner, only a few yards from where Stevie, Kelleher, Hall, Kelly, and Taylor were standing. As Goodes tried to turn his shoulder toward the goal line, Stevie realized that at least a half dozen black-shirted defenders were pursuing him.
    He