Half-Mile Stadium

Tonight we went to a Broncos game at Half-Mile Stadium.  Of course, we're talking about the East Forsyth high school football team.

It was Maddie and I, soon to be Maddie and her friends.  I sat nearby, trying not to be a dad that stands over people or anything like that.  In retrospect, I could have sat a bit farther away - next time, Maddie!  The plan, according to Maddie, was to "find my friends and ditch Dad - no offense!"  Which I get completely. 

 

I brought my camera along to snap some shots, which you can see above.  But Maddie was taking pictures too - there was a great sunset tonight, going down slowly while the game was playing.

As for the game itself, you might be able to read the scoreboard above.  It didn't go our way.  Part of that reason of course is the youth of our team - we have no senior class, and this is literally the third game this high school has ever played.

Rabun Gap came all the way down to dominate this game.  By the end of the first half, I think the score was thirtysomething to zero.  The only thing to celebrate of significance is this one time I believe we may have gotten one first down in the first half.  We stopped them the first series, and they had to punt, but things took a major downturn from there.

And that's okay.  We're not there to rain down judgment on a super new team.  They've got a ways to go, and we're okay with that, just there to support them.  Which we did, of course.  And we supported the band too, as they came out and played a few songs.  It was nice to hear a high school band again, and here's a fun fact:  the high school is so close to our house that Mom could actually hear it back at home!

Anyway, the second half started out much like the first one, and it got to be 45-0 with about four minutes to go in the game.  We were hoping time would go by just a bit quicker to get this one over with, when suddenly, we made this one play that actually got by the opponent's defense.  And then we did another play, and remarkably, we got two first downs in a row.  And we were in striking distance of the end zone, just like that.  We were thinking, maybe - just maybe - we could get a field goal.  And then for two plays in a row, the opponent had a false start or there was another flag on the play that I couldn't remember.  Anyway, two times in a row, there were penalties against the other team, and there we were, just a few yards from the end zone.  Could we do it?  Could we get a touchdown?  First and goal... we had a few tries, and maybe we could pull it off.  Here's what happened on that first attempt.

Touchdown!  With three minutes and twenty seconds to go, we scored our touchdown, and the East Forsyth parents had something to really scream about.  It was such a great moment, and then we scored that extra kick, and there were were on the board.  I think it was the player's first touchdown, too.

The opponent got the ball with three minutes to go, and they drove it down the field like this was a close game or something.  They were determined to get another touchdown, just to show us a thing or two.  How dare we score on them, right?  So with a minute to go in the game, they were there at the thirty yard line or something like that.  They were going for it, wanting to get that demoralizing score, I guess.  I mean, most people would slow down at 45-7, but I guess this is a bloodthirsty sort of game.  Anyway, it was such a great moment when that opposing quarterback threw the pass to show us a thing or two - and what great timing for us to get our first interception of the game.  Take that!

We didn't have time for another play after that, but we ended the game well with a score, and a drive-killer.  We were crushed at the scoreboard...

...but we were super proud of our team.  They had some great momentum at the end, and gave us something to cheer about.  It was hard to watch early on, like trying to listen to our President make a speech.  But in the end, it was all about hanging out and watching a game together, supporting our team.

It was a super fun night!