Friday Night Lights, the Sequel!

The boy across the street, who of course, is a member of First Lutheran here in Dundee, was promoted to the varsity football squad. He wears number 50. He was pretty excited about the promotion so he invited Anna and me to come see him play. He plays for Fulda, as most of the kids here in town attend Fulda area schools. Last night the Fulda Raiders were facing off against the Murray County Central Rebels in Slayton, so we made the trek up highway 59 to sit on the away side and root for the good guys in white. It's not that the other team doesn't have good guys on it as well, I'm sure the mixture is about the same as Fulda between good guys and scoundrels, but I don't really know anyone in Slayton (yet) so we were rooting unashamedly for Fulda. Besides, their away uniforms are white, so as far as I'm concerned, they were the good guys in white.

It turns out that the boy across the street plays on the special teams unit, and covers kick returns as a tackle. Things were going pretty well for the Raiders, although the halftime score was 12 to 6 in favor of the Rebles, but on the kickoff to open the second half the Fulda boys managed to contain the MCC boys pretty well, and when they got the ball back had excellent field position. They began their drive on the Rebel 45 yard line. It took about six plays to find the end-zone, but Fulda pulled even with the eventual touchdown, and took the lead when they converted the extra point. The boys got very excited to finally be in the lead this late in a game. So then came the kick-off, and I noticed that our neighbor from across the street was in his usual position, on the line ready to persue whoever managed to catch the football. He ran with extra intensity, as did most of the boys now that they had the lead, and made the tackle around the 35 yard line. It was a good, solid hit, and a nice tackle, but then, he didn't get up! The whole crowd was concerned because he just laid there. He tried to get up a couple of times and then collapsed back to the turf. It looked pretty serious, especially when the training staff from the team went out and spent several minutes working on him right there on the field. I really thought they were going to have to call in the ambulance, but after a few minutes of working on him he finally was able to get back on his feet and hobble off the field. Poor kid, he was so excited for this chance, and he made the most of it, but that finished him for the night. The good news, though is that Fulda held on to beat those pesky Rebels with a final score of 33 to 18. I know our neighbor is sore this morning, so I probably won't see him for the youth baking event at church, but even when you're sore, it hurts a lot less when you win. Ah, what fun here on the rural Minnesota prairie! Blogged by Don