There’s nothing better than spending a fall night covering football

        I wore two pairs of socks, two shirts, a pullover jacket and a stocking hat to stay warm. The only thing missing was a warm pair of gloves as I held on to my camera, switching hands and pushing them into my pockets one at a time in an effort to stay warm.
          It helped, but I still had to thaw out my hands when I got home.
         It was all worth it as I paced the sidelines at Badger-Gabriel Football Field in Montezuma on Friday, Nov. 1. It was a great game between Montezuma and the favored Bedford Bulldogs in second round 8-man playoff action.
         I could have easily been home relaxing in my comfy chair with a blanket, but then I would have missed all the fun of the playoff game.
         And what a game it was.
       With just under two minutes left, the Montezuma Braves took the ball and drove it nearly the length of the field, scoring with 10-seconds left on a short pass from quarterback Brady Boulton to Carter Michalek to win the game, 32-28.
       Montezuma led most of the game until shortly after halftime when Bedford took the lead. The Bulldogs pretty much had the game in the bag until the final Montezuma drive.
        I call it Montezuma Magic.
       The Braves move on to the quarterfinal round and will travel to Lenox to take on the Tigers on their home field on Thursday, Nov. 7.
         The winner advances to the semifinals at the UNI-Dome.
        It was exciting to watch the Braves came together, play as team, overcome all sorts of obstacles and pull off the win.
      I’ve covered a lot of Friday night football in my newspaper career and Friday’s game was one for the record books.
        There have been a lot of good ones through the years and I’ve enjoy them all.
       One that comes to mind is a first-round playoff game in 2006 against Appleton-Parkersburg. It was a cold, cold night. In fact, Montezuma set up a tent with a heater for fans to stay warm. I spent halftime in my truck with the heater blowing full blast to keep warm.
      I remember then Braves head football coach, Joe Donavan, telling the team, they were not playing AP’s history, they were playing this team.
    I don’t remember the final score, but it was Montezuma 20 or 21-0 at the end of the first quarter. Montezuma kicked off to open the game. The ball hit the knee of an AP player and bounced off and a Braves defender recovered it to score a touchdown.
      AP, as it was called, was coached by the now late legendary Ed Thomas, who was killed on June 24, 2009 by a former player in the school’s weight room. Just a year earlier, Thomas led the charge to clean up Parkersburg after a tornado had earlier tore the town apart.
     Thomas coached at the school for 37 years, winning two state championships and nearly 300 games. Four of his players went on to play in the NFL.
     Montezuma lost the first three games of the 2006 regular season before going on a run that ended with playoff wins against AP, Dike-New Hartford and St. Ansgar, finishing the season as state runners-up. That included a 20-0 win at Iowa City Regina during the regular season.
     About every Montezuma fan was at the UNI-Dome games and I was walking the sidelines, capturing all the excitement from the field and in the stands.
     And in recent years there have been lots of great games with last second 40 plus yard field goals to win and former quarterback Eddie Burgess dragging a half dozen players into the end zone to score for the Braves.
     I didn’t play football in high school. I went out my sophomore year during spring drills to play my junior year. In the 1970s, Oklahoma had spring drills in high school.
    I struggled to run the drills. The coaches sent me home to try something more my speed. I now get to capture the action and fun of the game with my camera.
     Congrats to the Braves on all their success and a hearty thanks to all the young people who put in the hard work and effort all season long to make Friday Night Lights special for all.
     Have a great week and always remember that “Good Things are Happening,” every day.