This is the story of two teams -- Concord De La Salle, a private Catholic school in an upscale Northern California suburb, and Long Beach Poly, a proud public institution from a blue-collar SoCal seaport -- striving to achieve the same goal: the all-American dream.

In this supercharged account of the first-ever national high-school championship game, acclaimed sports journalist -- and former Poly varsity football player -- Don Wallace goes out onto the field and straight into the heart of each team. One Great Game offers a rare look at the world of young-adult sportsmanship, featuring up-close and personal interviews with the team players and their families, coaches and cheerleaders, rabid fans and sworn enemies. The result is a powerful piece of sports literature in the tradition of the classic Friday Night Lights. More than a book about football, One Great Game is an engaging cultural history about twenty-first-century American life.

Don Wallace

Prologue

One: Rumors

Two: Out Where the West Begins

Three: "What a Place for Children!"

Four: The Ambush

Five: The Clash

Six: God's Team

Seven: Minor Miracles

Eight: Something in the Water

Nine: Calm Before the Storm

Ten: Sour Rhubarb

Eleven: Precious Blood

Twelve: Fall

Thirteen: Minority Rules

Fourteen: The Shortest Season

Fifteen: Prelude in G(ames) Minor

Sixteen: Seven Days

Seventeen: Twenty-four Hours

Eighteen: A Parade

Nineteen: Vets

Twenty: The Game Don't Wait

Twenty-one: Go Tell the Spartans

Twenty-two: Still Time for a Hero

Twenty-three: Send in the Clones

Twenty-four: After the Fall

Twenty-five: Points After

Epilogue

Acknowledgments