Next up, on Austin's drive to go for the two-point conversion, their quarterback casually strolled into the end zone again, picking up the extra two points without breaking a sweat.
After two ridiculously easy touchdowns, Austin's QB shot Mike a weird look—this new quarterback from Melford. Scoring felt way too effortless, almost unreal to him.
But Mike? He didn't seem fazed at all by giving up those points. By now, he was already leading his teammates out toward midfield.
After the change of possession, both teams lined up again at midfield.
Seeing Melford's odd formation, Tucker couldn't resist trash-talking: "What's this? Finally realizing the gap in talent and ready to throw in the towel? Smart move for you guys…"
This time, the Melford players on offense were bunched up super close together—a tight, condensed formation.
If you looked closely, you'd notice every Melford player was positioned around Mike as the center.
Whistle!
The snap signaled Melford's offense was live, and Mike grabbed the ball and charged straight into the heart of Austin's defense.
His Melford teammates followed right behind, blocking threats from both sides to clear a path.
Realizing Melford wasn't quitting, Tucker shook off his blocker and stepped right into Mike's lane. "You're not getting past me!"
Normally, the smartest play for Tucker here would've been to wrap Mike up low and bring him down safely.
But after getting embarrassed by Mike twice already, revenge was all Tucker could think about. So he lowered his shoulder and came charging in hard, looking to lay a big hit.
Tucker had done this plenty of times before—that's exactly how he earned the nickname "Tank."
He just picked the wrong guy this time. Mike had never backed down from a head-on collision.
BOOM!
Tucker, who hadn't even hit full speed yet, got absolutely trucked by Mike coming at him full throttle.
"Ahhh!" Tucker let out a yell as he went flying backward, then rolled on the ground in agony.
Mike barely slowed down, adjusted his stride, stiff-armed two more defenders trying to grab him, and took off downfield.
Less than fifty yards away, Mike covered it in six or seven seconds and cruised into the end zone.
Then he calmly turned around and started giving low-fives and celebrating with his teammates who'd caught up.
Right then, the stadium PA crackled to life: "Melford quarterback—intentional unnecessary roughness with the ball. Touchdown is disallowed. Due to the malicious nature of the personal foul, the player is ejected from the game…"
In official football games, there are six sideline officials plus one head referee.
Only the head ref carries a mic, and when needed, he can flip it on to announce calls to the whole stadium.
That's exactly what he did here.
He repeated the penalty announcement three full times.
When Mike jogged back to midfield, he saw the head ref toss a yellow penalty flag down next to Tucker, who was still sprawled out on the turf.
To keep the game moving, refs will drop a flag on the spot if they see a foul that doesn't immediately affect the play. Then they announce the actual penalty after the down is over.
"What'd I do wrong?" Mike protested to the ref.
His run had been clean—yeah, he hit hard, but nothing that should've drawn a flag.
Meanwhile, Austin's head coach ran onto the field with the medical staff. After checking him out, they confirmed Tucker was dripping sweat and clutching his side—two broken ribs.
The ref's message was clear: Mike's hit caused a serious injury, so it warranted a flag.
"That's bullshit!" Mike fired back. "He broke our captain's wrist earlier—how come he didn't get tossed?"
Obviously, basing the call on the other guy's injury didn't sit right with Mike.
And honestly? Mike hadn't meant to hurt him that bad. Who'd have thought the dude nicknamed "Tank" would fold so easily?
Seeing the ref about to stick with the original call, Coach George panicked, yanked a red challenge flag from his pocket, and hurled it onto the field.
"I'm challenging the call—hawk eye!" George yelled, standing up.
In football, each head coach gets one challenge per game to dispute a ruling.
Of course, using that one challenge also costs the team one of their timeouts.
But George didn't care right now. Aaron was already out—if Mike got ejected too, Melford's season might as well be over.
When the crowd saw that red flag fly, they knew what was up. Fans love it when a coach challenges the refs—it's one of the most exciting parts of the game.
Amid the roaring noise, Coach George walked onto the field.
He gave Mike a quick pat on the shoulder to calm him down, then told the head ref, "I'm throwing the challenge flag. I'm one hundred percent sure my player did nothing wrong on that play."
Official fields are surrounded by high-speed cameras to ensure fairness.
Every coach has the right to request a slow-motion replay review once per game.
Hearing the challenge, the head ref—looking pretty annoyed—walked with both head coaches over to the sideline monitor to watch the replay.
Three minutes later, the ref came back looking even grumpier and got on the mic to announce the updated ruling.
Mike's hit was clean—no intent to injure. Original penalty overturned entirely.
Hearing that, the whole Melford sideline let out a huge sigh of relief.
While the new call was being announced, Coach George pulled Mike aside real quick. "What the heck was going on earlier? Why didn't we even try to stop their offense?"
To ease his coach's mind, Mike gave him a quick rundown of his plan.
But after hearing it, George didn't look any more relaxed. Before he could say anything else, the ref came over and shooed him off the field.
On the other side, Tucker—still groaning in pain—was stretchered off. With injuries like that, he was done for the season.
Once the injured player was gone, things settled back down.
Since it had been a blown call by the ref, Mike's touchdown obviously counted now.
Score on the board: 23–22. Melford still down by one.
But next up, they had a chance at their own two-point conversion.
Both teams lined up just outside Austin's five-yard line.
That's when little George snuck over to Mike, flashed a thumbs-up, and whispered, "Nice work, Mike. You got payback for Captain Aaron."
Aaron was the quiet, good-guy type—everybody on the team loved him. When he went down earlier, the guys were pissed.
Now that Mike had taken out the guy who hurt Aaron, the whole team felt a lot better.
Catching the looks from his teammates, Mike hurried to set the record straight: "I didn't—quit saying that!"
"I get it, I get it…" Little George smirked like he totally understood, then jogged to his spot.
Pretty much every other Melford player reacted the same way.
Mike just thought to himself, You guys don't get it at all.
Sure, he'd wanted some revenge for Aaron, but he hadn't planned on ending Tucker's day that fast. Wouldn't it have been better to leave him out there and make him suffer a little longer?
Whistle!
Before Mike could overthink it, the snap came for Melford's two-point try.
This time, he barely had to do anything—his teammates basically carried him into the end zone surrounded by blockers. You could tell taking Tucker out had earned him serious respect.
In one play, Mike had pulled the whole team together.
23–24
Not long into the second quarter, Melford took the lead again.