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Class 5A football playoffs: St. Viator falls to Sycamore

An ill wind did not blow St. Viator's way in the second round of the Class 5A playoffs at Sycamore Saturday.

The Lions were hoping to defeat the Spartans in a playoff game for the second time in 13 years.

However, trailing 15-14 with 58 seconds left, Joe McCollum's 37-yard field goal attempt was about 5 yards to the right of the goal post.

The No. 12-seeded Spartans were able to escape with the 15-14 victory over the No. 13 Lions, who had defeated Sycamore 25-13 in 2001.

"It was fourth down and eight yards to go," said St. Viator coach Brandon New on the decision to go for the field goal. "Like any play you have a 50-50 chance of making the play work. In that situation we had to go for the field goal."

The Lions looked like they were going to take the lead on the previous play.

Quarterback Tyler Johnston (9-of-18, 237 yards, 1 INT) connected with tight end Cole Kmet, who made a diving leap for the ball in the right corner of the end zone.

Kmet appeared to make the catch but when he hit the ground the ball was jarred loose for an incompletion.

Sycamore (7-4), which plays Geneseo in the quarterfinals next week, took the lead at 15-14 with 9:42 left in the game when Brett Weaver squeezed in from the 1-yard line. The 2-point conversion pass failed.

St. Viator (6-5) had taken the lead at 14-9 when Johnson hit Ben Dickey with an 80-yard touchdown pass on third-and-10 from the Lions' 20.

Dickey caught 5 passes for 189 yards.

Dickey scored the first St. Viator touchdown on a 91-yard kickoff return in the second quarter to close to within 9-7 with 15 seconds left.

The play began with Michael Ragauskis catching the kickoff at the 9-yard line and flipping the ball to Dickey, who outran the defenders.

"That play did not work well in practice during the week," Dickey said. "Today, with everyone staying with their blocks it worked. This was a tough game to swallow for us. I was playing for my friends and the coaches. I wanted it to go on."

Sycamore scored on its first possession in the first quarter on Tyler Maveus' 32 yard field goal.

An interception by Zach Versluys was returned to the Lions' 4-yard line.

Quarterback Brett Bemis (21 carries, 98 yards) scored from the 3-yard line with 32 seconds left in the first half for the 9-0 lead.

Bemis was a nemesis converting numerous third-down plays into first downs to keep the ball away from the Lions. He converted 17-of-24 passes for 125 yards.

"When we watched films we thought we could hurt them with quick short throws," Bemis said. "We saw some gaps in their coverage that we could take advantage of."

On defense, Collin Rustay (9 tackles) and Ben Tietz (7 tackles) stood out for the Lions.

"This was tough loss for us," Rustay said. "We just didn't get some of the breaks we needed to win the game."

"Our kids played hard," New said. "We just made too many mistakes. I thought we had it won when Kmet caught the ball. Overall, I thought we played well enough to win It's hard to swallow this kind of loss."

Johnston finished a brilliant career throwing for 20 touchdowns and 2,829 yards.

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