Trojans fall short at the goalline against Driscoll
BCR Sports Staff ADDISON – From A to Z, the Addison Driscoll Catholic Highlander football teams have defeated Illinois’ best over the last eight seasons. From Harvard in the north to Metropolis in the south, they have been perfect in November playoff football games.
For seven straight seasons and 36 consecutive playoff games, no high school football team has dented the Driscoll mystique.
Saturday was the Mendota Trojans’ turn to take on the seven-time state champions, and the downstate team Driscoll fans could not locate on an Illinois map nearly turned the Illinois state football playoffs for a loop.
In what many longtime MHS football fans called the most exciting finish in memory, a final Trojan drive was halted by the Driscoll defense – and a game clock that raced toward triple zeroes – in the Highlanders’ 14-7 second round win over the Trojans on Nov. 8 in Addison.
Two Mendota offensive plays near the Driscoll goal line during the game’s final 19 seconds of regulation – a flip pass from Jordan Fritz to Vince Bruno and a last second Fritz sneak – failed to penetrate the home team’s end zone as Driscoll won its 37th straight IHSA playoff game.
And the position turned perfectly favorable for the Trojans to pull even or go ahead during the final three and a half minutes of the contest. Travis Martinson halted a High-lander drive and started the change in momentum with a Trojan interception at the MHS 16-yard line with 3:35 remaining.
After the interception, the Trojans used a mixture of running and pass plays to navigate the length of the Highlander home field.
With 90 seconds remaining, MHS was 18 yards from a game-tying score or the chance to win with a touchdown and a successful two-point conversion.
After MHS called a timeout with 50 seconds remaining, a third down Highlander pass interference penalty in the end zone placed the pigskin at the Driscoll six-yard line.
On first and goal, the Highlander defense stood firm as MHS rushed for no gain, but on a second and goal play, Knapp pounded for a pair of yards to the Driscoll four.
The third and goal play call resulted in a short pass to the left to Bruno at the goal line. Though parts of Bruno’s body were in the end zone, the junior back was tackled while reaching back for Fritz’s pass and no part of the football broke the goal line plain.
With the game clock still running and Mendota just short of a possible game-evening touchdown – but out of timeouts – the fourth down and goal play was an improvised quarterback sneak by Fritz. The ball was placed by the officials, the ball was snapped, the clock ran out of time, but Fritz’s sneak attempt was ruled short of the end zone, and Driscoll survived one of its biggest scares in its seven-year state championship reign.
Milledgeville 54, Annawan-Wethersfield 20: The Missiles fired off 40 unanswered points, breaking a 14-14 tie, cruising to the quarterfinal round of playoff action.
