And on the city's one and only score of the evening, grown men's hearts softened as they let a 16-year-old boy with Down Syndrome — Keeon Tyler — score the touchdown, the two-point conversion and just for fun a one-point conversion.

“Oh, he loved it,” said his father, Terrence Tyler, a Roanoke Rapids police officer, said. “He couldn't wait to get home to tell his mother.”

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This is why the score on the field — 26-9 in favor of KapStone — was hardly important tonight.

Because of the efforts tonight and an overwhelmingly successful fish plate sale Friday, some 20 children will be taken on a shopping spree where they will get badly needed clothes, shoes and a few toys, Captain Andy Jackson of the police department said this evening.

The fish plate sale alone netted $3,500 and city players at the end of the game pledged to give at least $10 each to the cause.

This is why the score was secondary and any bragging rights the game carried will be a fleeting memory in years to come because while, in the players' minds, the goal may have been gridiron dominance, they let a young teen carry the ball across the goal line and they were playing to help children have a better Christmas this year.

The city team strategizes in the waning minutes.

“We thank the community for their support,” Jackson said. “We sold 579 plates. That's what Christmas is about, giving not receiving.”

The game represented a cross-section of the community and city, Jackson said, as KapStone and other players fielded the company's team and city and county employees fielded the city team.

Working the behind the scenes at the fish plate sale were Herman and Ruth Moseley as well as the Citizens on Patrol.

Keeon and his father.

If you didn't make the game, there is still a chance to help as the city has not set the date for the Christmas for Kids shopping spree and the Roanoke Rapids Police Club is still accepting donations by simply stopping by the police station.

It's definitely a worthy cause and it does your soul good to see grown men play for something that matters more than a score on the board — Lance Martin