One 2 remember
|
|
| Newman junior Carlos Salazar leaps to block the punt of Stillman Valley junior Dane Green on Saturday afternoon at Roscoe Eades Stadium. Salazar blocked the punt, which Joe Blessman returned 5 yards for a touchdown to put the Comets ahead 6-0 in the first quarter. Salazar also had a forced fumble and a sack, and Green passed for 218 yards and a touchdown. (Chris Padgett/cpadgett@svnmail.com) |
| Buy Sauk Valley Media Photos » |
STERLING – One yard stood between Newman Central Catholic and one of the biggest upsets of this year’s IHSA football playoffs.
Those same 3 feet were all that cushioned Stillman Valley’s undefeated season and state championship hopes.
One two-point conversion attempt with 4 seconds left in Saturday’s Class 3A quarterfinal took the collective breath out of Roscoe Eades Stadium.
Newman center Shea Banda snapped the ball to Jack Hanlon, who handed it to Tim Wilson, barreling toward the left side of the Comets line.
Stillman Valley linebackers Nate Bond and Adam Cox met Wilson at the hole. The 360 combined pounds of Cardinal didn’t let the 190-pound Comet through.
Down went Wilson. Down went his teammates, one by one to the turf, facemasks pressed against the mud. Four seconds still remained, but the Comets knew their chance at shocking the state had passed.
Stillman’s celebrating players also knew what the play meant – a 21-20 victory and a showdown with top-ranked and fellow unbeaten Illini West in next week’s semifinals.
“We wanted to rock the world,” said Newman coach Mike Papoccia, whose team held leads of 6-0 in the first quarter and 14-8 in the third. “Not many people gave us a snowball’s chance today, but we were an extra point away from rocking the world.”
Papoccia wanted to kick that extra point after Hanlon led the Comets 63 yards in 1 minute, 30 seconds on two scrambles and five pass completions to Wilson brothers Stephen and Tim.
A 14-yard grab by Tim Wilson put the ball at Stillman’s 22, where Hanlon killed the clock with 14 seconds left. An incomplete pass drained 4 more seconds, and on third down, the junior quarterback lobbed a pass to the left side of the end zone, where Stephen Wilson used his 6-foot-3 frame to haul in the pass.
“Steve’s our best receiver,” Hanlon said, “and I knew he could go up and get it.”
“I knew Jack could get it where it needed to go,” added Wilson, who caught a similar 24-yard touchdown in the third quarter to help put Newman ahead 14-8. “And I wasn’t about to let him down.”
Newman called timeout to discuss its plan. Papoccia proposed sending Joe Blessman to kick the PAT, but left the final decision to his offensive players. The Comets, who had converted one two-point conversion and failed on another, emphatically chose to go for the win.
“We all wanted to go for two,” Hanlon said. “We thought we could get it, and we don’t feel any regrets.”
“I 100 percent backed them,” Papoccia said. “They’re the ones out there doing it. I wanted that extra point, and I feel bad now, but this game’s for the kids.”
A hard count drew Stillman offside, putting the ball at the 1 for Tim Wilson’s attempt. After the Cardinals stopped him, they streaked toward their fans, who more than filled the visiting bleachers.
“We kind of guessed they’d try 41 [Wilson], since he’s their main guy,” said Stillman Valley coach Mike Lalor, like Papoccia a three-time state champion. “We guessed right, made the initial hit and kept him out.”
Stillman (12-0) rallied twice to take leads after falling behind. Bond’s two-yard run and Cox’s conversion run put the Cardinals ahead 8-6 near the end of the first quarter. After Stephen Wilson’s first TD catch, junior quarterback Dane Green found Matt Arnold on the left sideline for a 65-yard touchdown late in the third quarter.
A bad PAT snap kept the score 14-14, but Stillman took a 21-14 lead with 6:23 to play, when Shawn Cox’s 1-yard run finished a 15-play, 80-yard drive that was either team’s best of the afternoon.
The Comets (8-4) forced three-and-outs on Stillman’s first two possessions. The second one ended with the game’s first points, when Carlos Salazar’s blocked punt deep in Cardinal territory bounced into the hands of Blessman, who jogged in 5 yards for the score that put Newman ahead 6-0 5 minutes into the game.
Blessman also had nine tackles for the Comets. Salazar had a sack and forced a fumble to go with his punt block, and Zac Gassman intercepted Green.
“We gave them everything we could,” Stephen Wilson said. “No matter what that scoreboard says, we know we did something we can be proud of today.”
