harles Dickens' words, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times," echoed across the Arkansas River valley as the Lavaca Golden Arrows hosted the Decatur Bulldogs in the final game of the regular season. Lavaca entered the game ranked 7th in the state, a team that would open the playoffs with a home game in one week. Decatur entered the game 0-8, missing four starting seniors who had quit during the last three weeks, three in the middle of the previous week's game

 Lavaca was looking to polish themselves before a run at the state championship; Decatur was looking for some respect — and maybe just to finish a game with the same number of players who started it. The [my] Rookies were looking forward to their first varsity contest as a crew and validation for this experiment in officiating.

Continued...