Championship Game: Leah finds her way to the ticket booth

Leah was making her way to the ticket booth where she had agreed to meet Coach Reed when she saw him rapidly approaching.

"Hey Leah. There you are and right on time. No need to work the ticket booth tonight hey. You are our VIP Cheerleader on the sideline after your help in getting us into this Championship game. Without you we wouldn't be here so right this way."

"Well, you know, I felt it was only right to come and cheer the team on after your message." She replied with a mischievous smile.

With that, Coach Reed escorted Leah to the sideline and provided her with a seat right next to the coaches. Coach Reed was hoping she would be their lucky charm as they were playing the Knuttsack Predators who had reached the championship game by demolishing all their opponents. They were a fearsome team and he knew his players would have to be at their absolute best to come away with the win. Any potential boost couldn't hurt.

Things didn’t, however, go to plan. Right from the kick off his kick returner fumbled the ball and the opposition gathered the ball and returned it for a touchdown. "For fucks sakes! You have got to be kidding me. How fucking hard is it to catch a ball?" Coach Reed ranted from the sideline.

The Cougars continued to struggle in the first half. It was like they had all decided getting to the Championship had been enough and they were saving their worst performances for the final game. Either that or they were distracted by something else.

The quarterback was throwing passes that weren’t regularly connecting, either because his passes were off target or because his receivers weren't in the correct locations.

The offensive line had more holes in it than Swiss cheese and on more than one occasion the running back was being hit just as he was being handed the ball.

It wasn't any better on the defensive side with tackles being missed all over the place and assignments being left wide open. Thankfully the Predators offense hadn’t taken full advantage.

It was nearing half-time and the Cougars were trailing by ten points. The Cougars had the ball and were 30 yards out from the Predators line. The quarterback received the snap and had his number one wide receiver wide open but seemed to be looking elsewhere for a split second. As a result he didn’t see the Predators edge rusher coming at him and just as he went to pass the ball his arm got hit causing the ball to deflect off his left tackles helmet and into the arms of a Predators player for a pick six meaning they would trail by seventeen at half-time.

Coah Reed couldn't believe what was happening but if he didn’t know better he could have sworn his quarterback had been looking in Leahs direction just before that fateful play. He was going to need an absolute miracle at half time to get this team motivated and their heads in the game but seeing this had given him an idea.