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WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - The 2018 Purdue-Ohio State football game was still a week away. But in Douglasville, Georgia, Tracy Benedict had a feeling. She called her daughter, Jordan, a Purdue cheerleader.
"I just bought tickets to the Ohio State game," Benedict said. "We're coming up. I think we're going to win."
By Tuesday of game week, Purdue quarterback David Blough was getting the same feeling.
"I was watching film, and I just knew we could beat them," Blough said. "I knew we had the guys to get the job done. And I didn't see anybody on their defense who could cover Rondale Moore."
Purdue fan Kameron Kyhnell had a feeling, too.
"We had won three in a row," Kyhnell said. Victories over No. 23 Boston College, Nebraska and Illinois had convinced Khynell that Purdue could - and would - knock off the nation's second-ranked team.
Kyhnell was confident, but ticketless.
So he watched the game with his brother, Karson, and his parents, Koreen and Karl, from their home in Lafayette.
By the time Purdue took the field to warm up on that chilly October night, team student manager Courtney Gulick had that same solid feeling.
Her job during pregame warmups is to retrieve balls from the punt returners. Each time a player catches a punt, he runs a few yards then flips the ball to Gulick, who relays each ball back to the punters, and the whole cycle begins again.
But this warmup was different. Moore's flip had zip.
"I could feel the power in Rondale's throws that he was ready," Gulick said. "It just felt different."
Just as this game felt different to Gulick. Her dad, Jeff, was a member of the Ohio State Marching Band in the mid 1980s. One of the greatest traditions in college football is the Buckeye band forming the script "Ohio." It's an honor of the highest degree to be the person selected to dot the "I" in Ohio. John Glenn, Bob Hope and Jack Nicklaus have dotted the "I." Jeff Gulick has done it twice.
"I wanted this win bad," Courtney Gulick said.
During warmups, Moore took a moment to search the crowd for his mother, Quincey Ricketts. He found her in the third row, right behind the Purdue bench. Ricketts stood and gave her son a two-handed wave. Prior to the game, she had given her son the same advice she had given him before every game.
"I always tell him to run like he's running for his life and never look back." Moore smiled at his mother, then went back to work.
For three quarters, Ohio State had no answer for Moore. The 5-foot-10 lightning bolt had caught 11 passes, converted three first downs and scored one touchdown, as Purdue raced to a 21-6 lead.
In Lafayette, the screams from the Kyhnell brothers were frightening their two dogs, Gwen and Jack, cowering in the corner of the basement. Kameron and Karson decided they needed to find a better place to watch the game.
"Let's go," Karson said to his older brother. They jumped in their dad's 1996 white Chevy pickup truck to drive the five miles to Ross-Ade Stadium.
"I drove while Karson watched the game on his phone," Kameron recalled. "We didn't want to miss any of the action." They parked half a mile away and sprinted to the stadium, worming their way into the student section just in time to see one of the greatest plays in Purdue football history.
In describing Moore's overall play that night, ESPN announcer Chris Fowler called him "electric," possessing "blazing speed and a lot of power," and being "very tough to get to the ground," with "the whole skill set on display."
But it was the last play the Purdue offense ran that night that Boilermaker fans will never forget, a 12-second virtuoso performance by Moore that Fowler needed just 25 words to describe.
Nursing a 35-20 lead, a first down would allow Purdue to drain any remaining life out of the clock - and Ohio State.
A quarterback draw by Blough set up third-and-7 from the Ohio State 43-yard line. "Time out," referee Mark Kluczynski said, pointing to the Ohio State team. There was 3:49 to play.
The offense huddled around head coach Jeff Brohm on the west sideline.
Through his headset, Brohm asked his brother, Brian, co-offensive coordinator, "OK, what do we like here?"
"There are maybe 10 to 12 plays coach Brohm likes in that situation," Blough explained. "Normally, this would be a play for D.J. Knox."
Knox had already gained 130 yards and scored three touchdowns against the Buckeyes. But he had lost three yards on his last run.
After a brief conversation, Jeff Brohm turned to Blough.
"What do you think about the laser to Rondale?"
He didn't take much time to think, perhaps channeling Jimmy Chitwood from the movie "Hoosiers."
"I like it," Blough said. "We'll make it work."
The laser, or screen pass, gives Blough the option to run the ball if Moore is covered coming out of the backfield. But Blough really didn't consider the run an option.
"I know Rondale's two legs are better than my two legs any day."
The play also meant Moore, a freshman, would replace Knox, a senior, as the only back in the Purdue backfield. Knox walked over to Moore and looked him right in the eyes. "Hey, Rondale, you better pick this up. You better make this work."
As his teammates huddled at midfield, Blough got their attention.
"I don't cuss very often, but whenever I do, the rest of the players know this is as serious as I can be.
"C'mon, let's go. This is the biggest f------ play of the game."
He called out "Ace four, flood left, wide bump, south quarters, laser slipper."
Tight end Cole Herdman's assignment was to block Ohio State linebacker Shaun Wade so Moore could turn the corner once he caught the pass.
Blough lined up in the shotgun formation with Moore positioned just off his right shoulder at the 49-yard line.
"David clapped his hands by his waist," Herdman said. "That told me the play was coming my way. My heart started racing. I knew their linebacker was pretty athletic."
"Moore in motion," Fowler said as Moore ran directly at the Purdue sideline.
"It looks like a simple pass," Blough said. But it's those short ones you try to be perfect with. And that can make them difficult. I just wanted to get Rondale a ball he could catch."
"They get it to him."
Wade had Moore in his sights and was in full sprint even before he caught the pass at the 48-yard line.
But Herdman managed to catch just enough of Wade's shoulder to slow him down.
"I went Superman-mode," Herdman said. "I left my feet to get a block on Wade. I just barely got enough of his shoulder to get him off his run."
"Moore in space. A burst of speed."
From his position on the Purdue sideline, chain-gang member Joe Casasanta could have high-fived Moore as he sped by.
"Rondale is fast enough to play tennis by himself," Casasanta said. "I had little doubt he would get the first down."
Moore shed a tackle by linebacker Pete Werner as though his uniform was made of grease.
"A first down for Purdue."
Purdue radio broadcaster Tim Newton also thought the first down was a sure thing.
"Once Moore passed the first-down marker, he disappeared from my view on the sidelines, and I relaxed a little bit," Newton said. "Then he came shooting out of the pack like he had risen from the dead. That play defied description."
Ohio State cornerback Isaiah Pryor was in a gang of four Buckeyes who had Moore hemmed in at the 33-yard line. He met Moore head-on, grabbing him around the shoulder pads.
Purdue trustee Malcolm DeKryger saw the play from the trustees' suite, high above the 40-yard line.
"I thought that would be the end of the play," DeKryger said.
So did Ohio State safety Jordan Fuller.
"I was running to it, and there was a big pileup," Fuller recalled. "I got taken out by the pileup. It was a really weird play."
Pryor tried to wrap up Moore around the chest and shoulders, but he refused to go down. Five yards later, Pryor and company lay in Moore's wake. Moore planted a hand in the turf at the 25-yard line and turned toward the middle of the field.
"That's when Rondale showed his strength and spun around," DeKryger said. "This was like a wild dream. Who could do that?"
By now, Fowler was yelling.
"HE'S STILL GOING!"
"Moore squats 600 pounds," ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit said. "Pryor has him, there's five Ohio State white jerseys right around, just kind of looking at him, thinking he's down. But with this kid's leg drive and his heart, you better make sure he's on the ground."
After throwing his block, Herdman picked himself off the turf at the 40-yard line.
"I just stood there and watched in amazement as he made people miss," Herdman said. "It was insane. That play opened my eyes to just how good he really is. He made a good defense look not so good."
"Moore cuts back."
Purdue athletics director Mike Bobinski likes to watch the games from the field, usually standing around the 10-yard line near the south end zone. The cold weather had chased him into the warmth of the suite at halftime. Fortunate for him. From the field, his view of the play would likely have been blocked by the Purdue bench.
"As the play unfolded, I thought he was defying the laws of physics," Bobinski said. "He was just running over bigger players. The whole box went absolutely crazy."
Moore put a hand in the dirt at the 26 to steady himself, then knifed between two Ohio State defenders and headed to the end zone.
"That cutback at the 10-yard line was just incredible," Bobinski said. "'Did he just do that?'"
Across the field, Benedict and the rest of the Purdue cheer squad watched in awe.
"We don't cheer during the plays," Benedict said. "We're there to enhance the experience, not to detract from it. So we were watching."
Moore split the final line of the Ohio State defense and headed to the end zone.
During each Purdue offensive play, Gulick positions herself 15 yards ahead of the line of scrimmage. If the ball goes out of bounds, she's at the ready with a spare to hand the sideline official. On scoring plays, she sprints to the end zone to retrieve extra-point kicks out of the net.
"As soon as I saw him break away from the two Ohio State players, I started running towards the end zone. The entire time I was watching him do his thing I was yelling 'Go! Go! Go!'"
The 50-yard sprint didn't faze Gulick.
"Pure adrenaline," she said. "I'm thinking to myself, Rondale is going to be an All-American, we're going to beat The Ohio State University and I love my school."
"TOUCHDOWN!" Fowler screamed.
"The student section just erupted," Benedict said. "And so did all of us cheerleaders. You could feel the energy."
And the emotion.
"When he crossed the goal line, I had tears in my eyes," Benedict said. "I hugged our assistant coach (Nicole Smith) and looked up in the crowd. There were tears in the eyes of some of the students, too."
Blough just stood near midfield, taking it all in. "It was easily the best night I've ever experienced on a football field.
"(Center) Kirk Barron had both his arms up in the air, (linemen) Matt McCann and Shane Evans were doing a chest bump," Blough said. "I got goosebumps."
Up in row 3, Quincey Ricketts was getting enough hugs and high fives in the players' family section to last a lifetime.
Her son had run through seven Buckeyes. But he couldn't escape teammate Jared Sparks, who put Moore in a headlock in the end zone as the pair ran toward the Purdue bench.
"I was watching the play, and it was like it was moving in slow motion," Sparks said. "He was doing things as a player that you can only dream of doing yourself."
Sparks knew every camera would be on Moore, so he took the opportunity to announce to the ESPN viewing audience, "He's our boy! You can't mess with him."
Moore calmly flipped the ball to field judge Bobby Sagers. This flip had no zip.
Twenty rows up from the field, Nick DeKryger (Malcolm's son) described the atmosphere as "mass hysteria. We were jumping and high-fiving people we had never met."
The DeKrygers went to the Ohio State game in 2000 to celebrate Nick's 13th birthday. That's when Drew Brees connected with Seth Morales on a 64-yard midnight missile to keep Purdue on the path to the Rose Bowl.
That play unfolded right in front of the DeKrygers. After the game, Nick turned to his father and said, "That was the best game I ever saw in person." Malcolm replied, "That was the best game I've ever seen, period."
But for the DeKrygers and most of the other 60,716 fans in attendance, this game had everything the 2000 game had and Moore.
There was still time on the clock, but even Ohio State knew the game was over.
"Gotta learn from what happened on that play and how we could have prevented it and be better the next time," defensive end Jonathan Cooper said.
Purdue spirit coordinator and head cheer coach Steve Solberg looked up into the student section and immediately knew what it must feel like to be on the wrong side of the running of the bulls.
"You could see it in their eyes that as soon as the clock hit zero the students were rushing the field," Solberg said. "It's intimidating when you're on the field and you look up and see thousands of people ready to rush towards you."
Solberg turned to a police officer on the sideline.
"Where's the safest place on the field?" As the clock wound down, Solberg herded the cheer squad out of harm's way to an area behind the Purdue bench already occupied by Courtney Gulick.
Purdue associate equipment manager Kyle Gergely had seen this before, too.
Gergely instructed Gulick and the other managers to sit on the equipment trunks located behind the Purdue bench to prevent fans from taking any souvenirs.
Somewhere in that sea of humanity, the Kyhnell brothers were "high-fiving everyone we could find in a Purdue uniform."
Jordan Benedict found her parents and her brother "singing, dancing and jumping around on the field, hoping this night would never end."
From her perch on top of a trunk, Gulick could see the joyful crowed stretched out before her. She could have walked across the field on the shoulders of Boilermaker fans and never touched the turf.
As she looked to her right, only one player was on the bench.
On one magical night, Rondale Moore had brought an entire university to its feet and an opponent to its knees.
There was Moore, scanning the bleachers for his mother. She was nowhere to be found. She, too, had rushed the field but couldn't get to her son to share the moment she would call his greatest play.
"I was trying my best," Ricketts said. "But there were just so many people on the field. It was crazy, but it was awesome."
Buy Tickets
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - The 2018 Purdue-Ohio State football game was still a week away. But in Douglasville, Georgia, Tracy Benedict had a feeling. She called her daughter, Jordan, a Purdue cheerleader.
"I just bought tickets to the Ohio State game," Benedict said. "We're coming up. I think we're going to win."
By Tuesday of game week, Purdue quarterback David Blough was getting the same feeling.
"I was watching film, and I just knew we could beat them," Blough said. "I knew we had the guys to get the job done. And I didn't see anybody on their defense who could cover Rondale Moore."
Purdue fan Kameron Kyhnell had a feeling, too.
"We had won three in a row," Kyhnell said. Victories over No. 23 Boston College, Nebraska and Illinois had convinced Khynell that Purdue could - and would - knock off the nation's second-ranked team.
Kyhnell was confident, but ticketless.
So he watched the game with his brother, Karson, and his parents, Koreen and Karl, from their home in Lafayette.
By the time Purdue took the field to warm up on that chilly October night, team student manager Courtney Gulick had that same solid feeling.
Her job during pregame warmups is to retrieve balls from the punt returners. Each time a player catches a punt, he runs a few yards then flips the ball to Gulick, who relays each ball back to the punters, and the whole cycle begins again.
But this warmup was different. Moore's flip had zip.
"I could feel the power in Rondale's throws that he was ready," Gulick said. "It just felt different."
Just as this game felt different to Gulick. Her dad, Jeff, was a member of the Ohio State Marching Band in the mid 1980s. One of the greatest traditions in college football is the Buckeye band forming the script "Ohio." It's an honor of the highest degree to be the person selected to dot the "I" in Ohio. John Glenn, Bob Hope and Jack Nicklaus have dotted the "I." Jeff Gulick has done it twice.
"I wanted this win bad," Courtney Gulick said.
During warmups, Moore took a moment to search the crowd for his mother, Quincey Ricketts. He found her in the third row, right behind the Purdue bench. Ricketts stood and gave her son a two-handed wave. Prior to the game, she had given her son the same advice she had given him before every game.
"I always tell him to run like he's running for his life and never look back." Moore smiled at his mother, then went back to work.
For three quarters, Ohio State had no answer for Moore. The 5-foot-10 lightning bolt had caught 11 passes, converted three first downs and scored one touchdown, as Purdue raced to a 21-6 lead.
In Lafayette, the screams from the Kyhnell brothers were frightening their two dogs, Gwen and Jack, cowering in the corner of the basement. Kameron and Karson decided they needed to find a better place to watch the game.
"Let's go," Karson said to his older brother. They jumped in their dad's 1996 white Chevy pickup truck to drive the five miles to Ross-Ade Stadium.
"I drove while Karson watched the game on his phone," Kameron recalled. "We didn't want to miss any of the action." They parked half a mile away and sprinted to the stadium, worming their way into the student section just in time to see one of the greatest plays in Purdue football history.
In describing Moore's overall play that night, ESPN announcer Chris Fowler called him "electric," possessing "blazing speed and a lot of power," and being "very tough to get to the ground," with "the whole skill set on display."
But it was the last play the Purdue offense ran that night that Boilermaker fans will never forget, a 12-second virtuoso performance by Moore that Fowler needed just 25 words to describe.
Nursing a 35-20 lead, a first down would allow Purdue to drain any remaining life out of the clock - and Ohio State.
A quarterback draw by Blough set up third-and-7 from the Ohio State 43-yard line. "Time out," referee Mark Kluczynski said, pointing to the Ohio State team. There was 3:49 to play.
The offense huddled around head coach Jeff Brohm on the west sideline.
Through his headset, Brohm asked his brother, Brian, co-offensive coordinator, "OK, what do we like here?"
"There are maybe 10 to 12 plays coach Brohm likes in that situation," Blough explained. "Normally, this would be a play for D.J. Knox."
Knox had already gained 130 yards and scored three touchdowns against the Buckeyes. But he had lost three yards on his last run.
After a brief conversation, Jeff Brohm turned to Blough.
"What do you think about the laser to Rondale?"
He didn't take much time to think, perhaps channeling Jimmy Chitwood from the movie "Hoosiers."
"I like it," Blough said. "We'll make it work."
The laser, or screen pass, gives Blough the option to run the ball if Moore is covered coming out of the backfield. But Blough really didn't consider the run an option.
"I know Rondale's two legs are better than my two legs any day."
The play also meant Moore, a freshman, would replace Knox, a senior, as the only back in the Purdue backfield. Knox walked over to Moore and looked him right in the eyes. "Hey, Rondale, you better pick this up. You better make this work."
As his teammates huddled at midfield, Blough got their attention.
"I don't cuss very often, but whenever I do, the rest of the players know this is as serious as I can be.
"C'mon, let's go. This is the biggest f------ play of the game."
He called out "Ace four, flood left, wide bump, south quarters, laser slipper."
Tight end Cole Herdman's assignment was to block Ohio State linebacker Shaun Wade so Moore could turn the corner once he caught the pass.
Blough lined up in the shotgun formation with Moore positioned just off his right shoulder at the 49-yard line.
"David clapped his hands by his waist," Herdman said. "That told me the play was coming my way. My heart started racing. I knew their linebacker was pretty athletic."
"Moore in motion," Fowler said as Moore ran directly at the Purdue sideline.
"It looks like a simple pass," Blough said. But it's those short ones you try to be perfect with. And that can make them difficult. I just wanted to get Rondale a ball he could catch."
"They get it to him."
Wade had Moore in his sights and was in full sprint even before he caught the pass at the 48-yard line.
But Herdman managed to catch just enough of Wade's shoulder to slow him down.
"I went Superman-mode," Herdman said. "I left my feet to get a block on Wade. I just barely got enough of his shoulder to get him off his run."
"Moore in space. A burst of speed."
From his position on the Purdue sideline, chain-gang member Joe Casasanta could have high-fived Moore as he sped by.
"Rondale is fast enough to play tennis by himself," Casasanta said. "I had little doubt he would get the first down."
Moore shed a tackle by linebacker Pete Werner as though his uniform was made of grease.
"A first down for Purdue."
Purdue radio broadcaster Tim Newton also thought the first down was a sure thing.
"Once Moore passed the first-down marker, he disappeared from my view on the sidelines, and I relaxed a little bit," Newton said. "Then he came shooting out of the pack like he had risen from the dead. That play defied description."
Ohio State cornerback Isaiah Pryor was in a gang of four Buckeyes who had Moore hemmed in at the 33-yard line. He met Moore head-on, grabbing him around the shoulder pads.
Purdue trustee Malcolm DeKryger saw the play from the trustees' suite, high above the 40-yard line.
"I thought that would be the end of the play," DeKryger said.
So did Ohio State safety Jordan Fuller.
"I was running to it, and there was a big pileup," Fuller recalled. "I got taken out by the pileup. It was a really weird play."
Pryor tried to wrap up Moore around the chest and shoulders, but he refused to go down. Five yards later, Pryor and company lay in Moore's wake. Moore planted a hand in the turf at the 25-yard line and turned toward the middle of the field.
"That's when Rondale showed his strength and spun around," DeKryger said. "This was like a wild dream. Who could do that?"
By now, Fowler was yelling.
"HE'S STILL GOING!"
"Moore squats 600 pounds," ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit said. "Pryor has him, there's five Ohio State white jerseys right around, just kind of looking at him, thinking he's down. But with this kid's leg drive and his heart, you better make sure he's on the ground."
After throwing his block, Herdman picked himself off the turf at the 40-yard line.
"I just stood there and watched in amazement as he made people miss," Herdman said. "It was insane. That play opened my eyes to just how good he really is. He made a good defense look not so good."
"Moore cuts back."
Purdue athletics director Mike Bobinski likes to watch the games from the field, usually standing around the 10-yard line near the south end zone. The cold weather had chased him into the warmth of the suite at halftime. Fortunate for him. From the field, his view of the play would likely have been blocked by the Purdue bench.
"As the play unfolded, I thought he was defying the laws of physics," Bobinski said. "He was just running over bigger players. The whole box went absolutely crazy."
Moore put a hand in the dirt at the 26 to steady himself, then knifed between two Ohio State defenders and headed to the end zone.
"That cutback at the 10-yard line was just incredible," Bobinski said. "'Did he just do that?'"
Across the field, Benedict and the rest of the Purdue cheer squad watched in awe.
"We don't cheer during the plays," Benedict said. "We're there to enhance the experience, not to detract from it. So we were watching."
Moore split the final line of the Ohio State defense and headed to the end zone.
During each Purdue offensive play, Gulick positions herself 15 yards ahead of the line of scrimmage. If the ball goes out of bounds, she's at the ready with a spare to hand the sideline official. On scoring plays, she sprints to the end zone to retrieve extra-point kicks out of the net.
"As soon as I saw him break away from the two Ohio State players, I started running towards the end zone. The entire time I was watching him do his thing I was yelling 'Go! Go! Go!'"
The 50-yard sprint didn't faze Gulick.
"Pure adrenaline," she said. "I'm thinking to myself, Rondale is going to be an All-American, we're going to beat The Ohio State University and I love my school."
"TOUCHDOWN!" Fowler screamed.
"The student section just erupted," Benedict said. "And so did all of us cheerleaders. You could feel the energy."
And the emotion.
"When he crossed the goal line, I had tears in my eyes," Benedict said. "I hugged our assistant coach (Nicole Smith) and looked up in the crowd. There were tears in the eyes of some of the students, too."
Blough just stood near midfield, taking it all in. "It was easily the best night I've ever experienced on a football field.
"(Center) Kirk Barron had both his arms up in the air, (linemen) Matt McCann and Shane Evans were doing a chest bump," Blough said. "I got goosebumps."
Up in row 3, Quincey Ricketts was getting enough hugs and high fives in the players' family section to last a lifetime.
Her son had run through seven Buckeyes. But he couldn't escape teammate Jared Sparks, who put Moore in a headlock in the end zone as the pair ran toward the Purdue bench.
"I was watching the play, and it was like it was moving in slow motion," Sparks said. "He was doing things as a player that you can only dream of doing yourself."
Sparks knew every camera would be on Moore, so he took the opportunity to announce to the ESPN viewing audience, "He's our boy! You can't mess with him."
Moore calmly flipped the ball to field judge Bobby Sagers. This flip had no zip.
Twenty rows up from the field, Nick DeKryger (Malcolm's son) described the atmosphere as "mass hysteria. We were jumping and high-fiving people we had never met."
The DeKrygers went to the Ohio State game in 2000 to celebrate Nick's 13th birthday. That's when Drew Brees connected with Seth Morales on a 64-yard midnight missile to keep Purdue on the path to the Rose Bowl.
That play unfolded right in front of the DeKrygers. After the game, Nick turned to his father and said, "That was the best game I ever saw in person." Malcolm replied, "That was the best game I've ever seen, period."
But for the DeKrygers and most of the other 60,716 fans in attendance, this game had everything the 2000 game had and Moore.
There was still time on the clock, but even Ohio State knew the game was over.
"Gotta learn from what happened on that play and how we could have prevented it and be better the next time," defensive end Jonathan Cooper said.
Purdue spirit coordinator and head cheer coach Steve Solberg looked up into the student section and immediately knew what it must feel like to be on the wrong side of the running of the bulls.
"You could see it in their eyes that as soon as the clock hit zero the students were rushing the field," Solberg said. "It's intimidating when you're on the field and you look up and see thousands of people ready to rush towards you."
Solberg turned to a police officer on the sideline.
"Where's the safest place on the field?" As the clock wound down, Solberg herded the cheer squad out of harm's way to an area behind the Purdue bench already occupied by Courtney Gulick.
Purdue associate equipment manager Kyle Gergely had seen this before, too.
Gergely instructed Gulick and the other managers to sit on the equipment trunks located behind the Purdue bench to prevent fans from taking any souvenirs.
Somewhere in that sea of humanity, the Kyhnell brothers were "high-fiving everyone we could find in a Purdue uniform."
Jordan Benedict found her parents and her brother "singing, dancing and jumping around on the field, hoping this night would never end."
From her perch on top of a trunk, Gulick could see the joyful crowed stretched out before her. She could have walked across the field on the shoulders of Boilermaker fans and never touched the turf.
As she looked to her right, only one player was on the bench.
On one magical night, Rondale Moore had brought an entire university to its feet and an opponent to its knees.
There was Moore, scanning the bleachers for his mother. She was nowhere to be found. She, too, had rushed the field but couldn't get to her son to share the moment she would call his greatest play.
"I was trying my best," Ricketts said. "But there were just so many people on the field. It was crazy, but it was awesome."