Brandeis Wins a Wild One
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Senior Analyst, TheOldCoach.com
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SAN ANTONIO - In one of the craziest endings to a high school football game you'll ever see, the San Antonio Brandeis Broncos (3-1, 2-0) pulled off an improbable 12-10 win over the San Antonio O'Connor Panthers (2-2, 1-1) in front of a crowd of over 10,000 at Farris Stadium.
In a game that was for the most part a defensive struggle the final minute proved to be full of enough twists and turns to full an entire 48 minutes. Clinging to a 9-7 lead with 1:30 remaining, Brandies appeared to be en route to a win. However, on a third and long from just past midfield, the Broncos fumbled and O'Connor linebacker Payton Dees recovered the loose ball giving O'Connor new life. The Panthers with no timeouts moved into Brandeis territory and with eight seconds left Chandler Coleman nailed a 29 yard field goal to put O'Connor up 10-9.
After the ensuing kickoff, Brandies had one final play to make a miracle happen and they certainly got one, with some help from the O'Connor sideline. BHS QB Brian Chapman completed a short pass to Larry Stephens who began a series of laterals along the Brandeis sideline. After two attempts it appeared RB Dayden Wooster was going to be tackled, but before he went down he lateraled the ball to another player from Brandeis who caught the ball mid air at their own 45. At this time, chaos ensued as the O'Connor sideline apparently believing the game was over erupted into celebration and ran on the field. Little did they know the play was still alive and ala Stanford-Cal it was a free for all. A Brandeis player reversed field and began dodging the 20 or so players from the sideline who were on the field. Flags began flying and after the play ended the BHS carrier was tackled on the 26. After the referees sorted out the confusion they called a sideline interference penalty on O'Connor which resulted in a half the distance penalty moving the ball to the O'Connor 13 and allowing one untimed down. In clutch fashion, Brandeis kicker Patricio Botello then came out and nailed a 30 yard field goal to give Brandeis the stunning 12-10 victory.
O'Connor opened the scoring in the first quarter as the Panthers perfectly executed a fake punt as Billy Craft hooked up with Darryl Godfrey for a 27 yard pass on 4th and 17. The Panthers would cash in as Jeilyn Williams scored on a two yard run to make it 7-0. Brandeis would answer quickly on their next drive scoring on a 25 yard run by Wooster, the PAT was blocked and O'Connor held a slim 7-6 edge. O'Connor would control the ball for the majority of the remaining time in the half, running 45 plays to Brandeis' 13, but the Panthers were unable to cash in with any additional points. They did get a field goal try late in the second, but the kick was blocked.
Both teams would exchange missed field goals in the third quarter as missed opportunities would haunt both offenses for most of the second half. Brandeis would take their first lead of the game early in the fourth on Botello's first field goal from 24 yards out to make it 9-7 and set up the fireworks in the final minutes.