The football guys vandalize the rocket boys' blockhouse, attacking it and trying to tear it apart, "board by board, using tire irons." Even though the rocket boys know that they are no match for the football guys, they retaliate by letting loose "a barrage" of rocks. Enraged, the football guys charge, and just when they are about to fall on the rocket boys, Tag Farmer drives up. Tag is the constable, and he casually asks the opponents what is going on. Unwilling to snitch on the football guys, Sonny tells Tag they were just "cleaning up the range," and when Tag asks if the football guys are helping, Sonny answers, "Yessir." The truth is obvious, however, and Tag "stroll(s)" over to the football guys and instructs them on how to fix the boards that have "(come) loose" on the blockhouse. The football guys, having no choice, repair the damage they have caused to the blockhouse, while Tag, surreptitiously chuckling, "stay(s) around until everybody (leaves)."

The football guys, who have always been the recipients of unqualified adulation in Coalwood, are angry because their team has been disqualified from competing this year, shifting the community's attention to the accomplishments of the rocket boys. They try to take out their frustrations on the rocket boys by destroying their blockhouse, but their plans are foiled by the arrival of the constable, and, to their chagrin, they end up repairing the damage they have come to inflict (Chapter 11).