Hammond’s Aaron Walters gives head coach Erik Kimrey a Gatorade shower at the end of the game with Heathwood. Photo by Jeff Blake/ColumbiaWeddingPhotos.com As Hammond quarterback David Nidiffer set up in the shotgun for the first play of the SCISA 3A state final, receiver Aaron Walters lined up wide right at the 32 yard line, surveyed Heathwood Hall’s defense and smiled.

“We were expecting them to put me in double coverage and drop back on me,” Walters said.

Instead, the corner was playing up – a not unreasonable decision given the two teams’ regular–season meeting.

In that game, a 10–7 victory by Heathwood Hall, the Skyhawks ran the ball on seven of its first 10 plays (and 10 of its first 15) and had only three pass plays longer than 15 yards in 28 attempts. However, one of the three plays was a 38–yard fly pattern by Walters, who beat a cornerback and scored Hammond’s only touchdown when the safety was late arriving with the over–the–top coverage.

Hammond quarterback Dave Nidiffer looks to pass against Heathwood Hall. Photo by Jim Marczesky Hammond had scripted the opening 10–15 plays – the Skyhawks’ usual drill – for that first meeting. In the final, the Skyhawks scripted their first 20.

“But we never get that far,” coach Erik Kimrey concedes. “I’m not a big lock into a script guy. What you do is have a good idea of plays you like and then adjust.”

Which is precisely what they were about to do.

With two wideouts and the tight end lined up left, the script called for the three wideouts to run vertical routes, paving the way for a safe throw to either the tight end running a drag route underneath or the lone back swinging out of the backfield to the right. Even if the weakside linebacker blitzed, which Heathwood Hall likes to do, one of the two routes would be open.

“We practiced the play all week, planning for the safety to come over and knowing the only way he’d be able to get to me was to stack on me from the start,” Walters said. “They didn’t.”

Instead, the Highlanders rolled the safety down, putting him in position to jump the drag route or shadow the back. Suddenly, Hammond’s safe call was anything but.

“I was reading the free safety,” Nidiffer said. “If he runs with the drag, I check Aaron on the deep ball.”

He saw Walters a step or two past the corner.

“Once I got a step, it was all over,” Walters said.

Except, it wasn’t.

With the ball in flight, Walters had two thoughts on his mind: “Don’t drop it” and “Don’t trip.” For good reason.

“The first game of the playoffs – the first kickoff – I broke through, and I was wide open for a touchdown,” Walters said. “I could have walked in. Instead, I tripped myself. Man, it was all I heard about for days.”

Nidiffer’s throw was on target. Walters caught it in stride and stayed on his feet into the end zone.

Sixteen seconds into the game, Hammond had taken an 8–0 lead, had delivered a message that this encounter would not be a defensive struggle, and put the Highlanders on the defensive.

“When we score first on an opening drive, we feel like we have (the game),” Jordan Kay said. “All the momentum changes, and swings our way.”

Though the Highlanders converted a turnover into a touchdown, briefly reducing the lead to one, Hammond built a 22–7 by the end of the first quarter and 29–7 midway through the second.

“Scoring a touchdown on the first play was huge; when they start off like that, it’s hard to come back,” Heathwood Hall linebacker Walker Sojourner said.

The script would have a happy ending.