Coming out of halftime, Deshawn was locked in completely. The Flight Boys got the ball first, and he was ready to put the game away.
Time to show these scouts what a real two-way player look like. This my moment.
"Gun trips right," Tristain called. "Deshawn, arrow route from the slot. Find the soft spot."
Deshawn lined up in the slot against a linebacker, Chris Johnson, who was clearly uncomfortable in coverage.
This linebacker slow as hell. About to cook this boy.
At the snap, Deshawn released toward the flat, selling the checkdown route for three steps. Johnson bit on the fake, his hips opening toward the outside.
Then Deshawn planted his right foot and broke diagonally across the formation at 8 yards, his change of direction leaving Johnson completely off balance.
Too easy. This nigga just fell down trying to cover me.
Tristain's pass was perfect, hitting Deshawn in stride as he crossed into open space. Deshawn caught it cleanly and immediately turned upfield, using his speed to gain additional yardage.
COMPLETION. 18 yards to the 25-yard line.
That's what happens when you put a linebacker on me. Mismatch city.
"Linebacker coverage?" Deshawn asked Johnson as they lined up. "Y'all really trying to lose this game."
"Shut up, rookie," Johnson replied, but his frustration was obvious.
Two plays later, Deshawn scored his second touchdown of the game on a beautiful fade route, making a one-handed catch over the safety's head.
TOUCHDOWN. FLIGHT BOYS 28-7.
-----
With the game essentially over, Deshawn focused on his defensive responsibilities. Phoenix Elite was throwing desperately, trying to make something happen.
Rivera came to the line looking directly at Martinez, telegraphing his intention.
He's forcing it to Martinez. Desperate quarterback, desperate decisions. Time to make him pay.
"Gun spread!" Rivera called. "Brown 24! Brown 24!"
Brown 24 - that's their comeback route at 18 yards. Martinez gonna try to come back and make a contested catch. I'm ready.
At the snap, Martinez used his best release technique, trying to create separation for the crucial route. But Deshawn had been studying him all game.
He's gonna plant his left foot and break back right... there.
As Martinez made his break, Deshawn was already driving on the route. His anticipation was perfect, arriving at the catch point at the same time as the ball.
Martinez tried to make the catch, but Deshawn's hand was right there, deflecting the pass at the last second.
INCOMPLETE PASS.
"That's game!" Deshawn celebrated. "Y'all can't throw on me!"
Martinez just shook his head in respect. "You played hell today, bro."
"Appreciate you," Deshawn replied. "Good battle."
Final Score: Flight Boys 35-14
The Flight Boys had closed out the series 2-0, advancing to the semifinals without needing a Game 3.
----
As the teams shook hands, the difference in energy was obvious. Phoenix Elite looked defeated, while the Flight Boys were celebrating but staying focused on the bigger picture.
"Hell of a game, Deshawn," Rivera said, dapping him up. "You gonna be special in college."
"Thanks, man. Y'all played hard. Respect."
College scouts were already approaching Deshawn as he gathered his gear. The two-way performance had caught everyone's attention.
"Deshawn? Coach Williams from Toledo. Watched you play both ways today - that was impressive."
"Thank you, sir."
"We'd love to get you on campus for a visit. You interested in playing both ways in college?"
"Yes sir, definitely interested."
Before he could finish the conversation, another coach approached.
"Deshawn Washington?" The voice was unmistakable - confident, charismatic, larger than life.
Deshawn turned around and his jaw nearly dropped. Coach Deion "Prime" Sanders was standing right there, Colorado gear head to toe, with that signature smile.
"Coach Prime?!" Deshawn could barely contain his excitement.
"That's right, young man. Watched you play both ways today. That's exactly what we do at Colorado. You got that dog in you."
"Thank you, sir. This is... wow."
"Listen, we need playmakers who can impact the game on both sides. Travis Hunter did it, and I see that same ability in you. You interested in coming to Boulder?"
"Yes sir! Absolutely!"
Coach Prime handed him a business card. "Have your family call me. We gonna take care of you, young man. Keep being great."
As Coach Prime walked away, Deshawn's phone started buzzing with notifications. He looked down to see a DM on Instagram from Travis Hunter himself.
@TravisHunterJr: "Yo bro just watched your highlights! Coach Prime right - you got that two-way ability. Colorado different! Hit me up if you got questions about playing both ways 💯🦬"
As more coaches approached, Deshawn's teammates were hyped for his success.
"D getting recruited now!" Marcus said excitedly. "Told y'all he was nice!"
"Bro, Coach Prime just offered you!" Elijah added, still in disbelief. "COACH PRIME!"
"And Travis Hunter DMed him!" Jaylen said, looking over Deshawn's shoulder at his phone. "This nigga really about to be the next two-way legend!"
Deshawn's Final Stats:
Offense: 7 catches, 132 yards, 2 TDs Defense: 6 tackles, 3 pass breakups, 1 near-interception Hotel Wind Down
Back at the hotel, the team was celebrating another dominant performance. They'd advanced to the semifinals and multiple players were getting serious recruiting attention.
"Semifinal game tomorrow against Raw Miami," Coach Taylor announced. "They beat Jacksonville Fire 2-0 today. Another Florida team with serious talent."
"We ready," Marcus said confidently. "Been ready."
"Get some rest, eat good, stay hydrated," Coach Taylor continued. "We're two wins away from a championship."
As the team settled in for the night, phones were buzzing with social media notifications and recruiting messages. The Flight Boys were officially on the national radar.
"Y'all seen this?" Jaylen asked, holding up his phone. "ESPN posted highlights from our game. Deshawn's one-handed TD got 500K views already, and Coach Prime retweeted it!"
"Coach Prime retweeted my highlights?!" Deshawn said, checking his own phone. "This is insane."
"Bro, Travis Hunter follows you now too," Terrell said, checking Deshawn's Instagram. "You really in the big leagues now."
"Y'all really about to be famous," Terrell said. "Don't forget about us when y'all in the league."
"Never that," Tristain said. "Flight Boys for life."
But as the celebration continued in Tampa, 1,200 miles away in Southfield, Texas, someone else was watching every highlight, every interview, every social media post with immense pride.
---
Southfield, Texas - Nadège's Perspective
Nadège St Fleur sat in her room at 11:47 PM, laptop open with multiple browser tabs showing highlights from her little cousin's game. At 19, she was supposed to be focused on her sophomore year at University of Houston, but lately her life had revolved around Tristain's football career.
Mon dieu, look at my little cousin out there looking like a professional, she thought, watching the highlights for the third time.
Her phone had been buzzing nonstop for the past two hours - friends from high school, classmates from UH, even people she barely knew reaching out because they'd seen Tristain on ESPN.
Text from her roommate Kaya: "Girl your brother is FAMOUS famous now! ESPN just showed his highlights on SportsCenter!"
Text from her high school friend Maya: "Nadège!! Is that really your brother throwing those passes?? He look like he belong in college already!"
Instagram notification: "You've been tagged in 47 posts"
Forty-seven posts? Nadège clicked through them - old classmates posting screenshots of Tristain with captions like "I went to school with his cousin!" and "Nadège's little cousin about to be in the NFL!"
The attention was overwhelming but also surreal. Growing up, Tristain was like her annoying little brother since their families lived so close. Her mom and Tante Maria were sisters, and they'd raised their kids almost like siblings. Tristain was always at their house, hogging the TV and leaving his cleats by the front door. Now he was trending on social media and getting recruited by major colleges.
Her phone rang - Tante Maria calling from work.
"Nadège, chérie, you watching the highlights?" Maria's voice was excited. She was at the hospital for her evening shift - not a double, just her regular schedule as a nurse practitioner.
"Oui, Tante Maria. I been watching everything. ESPN, 247Sports, all of it."
"Your cousin looked so professional out there. Like he been playing at this level his whole life."
"I know. It's crazy seeing him like this. Remember when he was scared to play freshman football?"
Maria laughed. "Now look at him. Colleges calling every day. That LSU coach wants him at camp."
"LSU?" Nadège sat up. "Since when?"
"Today. Called right after the game. Your cousin barely could talk, he was so excited."
Nadège felt a mix of pride and anxiety. LSU was serious business. That meant Tristain was really, really good - not just good for a high school kid, but legitimately elite.
"Tante Maria, you think he ready for all this attention?"
"Your cousin got a good head on his shoulders. And he got Tom and Lisa looking after him up there. But..." Maria paused. "I worry sometimes. This all happening so fast. And he been spending money like crazy - you see what he sent Emma yesterday?"
"The new iPhone and those Lululemon sets?" Nadège laughed. "Yeah, she was FaceTiming me showing off everything. Had the phone case, the AirPods, the whole setup laid out on her bed."
"That phone cost more than what we usually spend on her birthday and Christmas combined. I told him to slow down, but he says he wants to take care of his family."
Nadège smiled despite her concern. "That's sweet though. You know Emma been telling all her friends her big brother gonna be famous."
Nadège understood. Their families had always been close-knit, rooted in their Haitian heritage and strong work ethic. Maria's job as a nurse practitioner and Tristain's father's work as an engineer had provided a comfortable middle-class life, but this level of attention and opportunity was completely new territory.
Even Emma was starting to notice the changes - especially when Tristain started sending her surprise packages with new makeup, clothes from stores she actually liked, and that iPhone 15 she'd been wanting.
"He still the same person though," Nadège said, though she wasn't entirely sure.
"I hope so, chérie. This kind of attention, this kind of opportunity... it can change people."
After hanging up, Nadège scrolled through her social media again. Her Instagram followers had jumped from 800 to 2,100 in the past week. People were following her just because she was Tristain's cousin - though they'd grown up so close, most people thought they were siblings.
Her DMs were flooded:
"Can you get me your cousin's autograph?""Is your cousin single? Can you introduce us?""What's Tristain really like? Is he nice?""Your family must be so proud!"
Some messages were sweet, but others felt invasive. Girls her age asking about Tristain's relationship status, random people wanting her to pass along messages, even a few college students asking if she could "put in a good word" with college coaches.
This is what Tristain been dealing with? No wonder he seem stressed sometimes when we FaceTime.
Nadège thought about their last conversation three days ago. Tristain had seemed different - still the little cousin she'd grown up with like a brother, but more guarded, more careful with his words. Like he was aware that everything he said might be repeated or posted somewhere.
She opened TikTok and immediately saw a video that made her heart sink. It was a compilation of "Tristain Dyce girlfriend predictions" with random girls making thirst comments over his highlights.
These girls is crazy. He's seventeen!
But then she saw something that made her smile - a video from one of his teammates (Marcus, she thought) showing the team playing video games in their hotel room. Tristain was in the background arguing about some game, sounding exactly like the annoying little brother she remembered.
Okay, he still regular. Good.
Her phone buzzed with a FaceTime call from Tristain.
"Hey, sè," he said, using the Haitian Creole term for sister. He looked tired but happy.
"Tristain! I been watching everything. ESPN, baby! You on ESPN!"
"I know, it's crazy. You see the LSU thing?"
"Manmi told me. LSU, Tristain. That's serious serious."
"I know. It's like... everything happening so fast. couple months ago I was third string."
Nadège could hear the overwhelm in his voice. "How you feeling about it all?"
"Grateful. Scared. Excited. I don't know, all of it at once."
"That's normal. This is big, ti frè." She used the term for little brother, making him smile.
"You been getting attention too?" he asked. "I seen some people posting about you."
"Boy, my phone been going crazy. People I ain't talked to since middle school hitting me up asking about you."
"That's weird. Sorry."
"Don't apologize. This is good weird. But..." she hesitated. "You still you, right? Like, you not getting a big head or nothing?"
Tristain laughed. "Sè, I'm sleeping in a hotel room with three other niggas arguing about whose turn it is to play 2K. Trust me, I'm still regular."
"Good. 'Cause if you start acting bougie, I'm flying to Chicago to smack some sense into you."
"I know you would too."
They talked for another twenty minutes about family, school, how surreal everything felt, and how Emma kept asking when she could visit him in Chicago.
"She been carrying that new phone everywhere," Nadège told him. "And wearing them Lululemon sets you sent her every chance she gets. Even got new makeup from Sephora that she been practicing with."
Tristain laughed. "She deserves nice things. I remember her always asking for stuff we couldn't afford before. Now I can actually get her what she wants."
"Just don't spoil her too much, ti frè. She still gotta stay humble."
"I know, I know. But it feels good being able to do this for y'all." When they hung up, Nadège felt better. Tristain was still her little brother under all the attention and pressure.
But as she got ready for bed, she couldn't shake the feeling that their family was about to change in ways they couldn't predict. Tristain's success was opening doors, but it was also putting them all in a spotlight they'd never experienced.
Her phone buzzed one more time - a text from their cousin in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
"Nadège! We watching Tristain highlights here in Haiti! The whole family so proud! He representing for all of us!"
Representing for all of us. That's what this really was. Tristain wasn't just chasing his own dreams anymore. He was carrying the hopes and pride of their entire family, their community, even their heritage.
Bondye, please watch over my little brother, she prayed in Haitian Creole before closing her laptop. He got a lot of people counting on him now.
As she drifted off to sleep, Nadège could hear her roommate in the next room on the phone: "Girl, you should see these highlights! My roommate's brother about to be FAMOUS!"
Famous. The word felt strange applied to her family. Three months ago, they were just the Dyce family from Southfield - Maria working her nursing shifts, Nadège studying at UH, Emma in ninth grade asking for a new phone and makeup like all her friends, and Tristain riding the bench in high school.
Now Tristain was on ESPN, Emma had the iPhone 15 and Sephora hauls, and everything was different. And this was probably just the beginning.
Tomorrow's Semifinals: Flight Boys vs Raw Miami - 2 PM
Championship Game (if they advance): Sunday at 4 PM
Two more games. Two more chances for Tristain to change their family's life forever.
Please God, let him stay humble. Let him stay my little brother through all of this.