Deerfield's big finish stings Wheeling
Just when you thought Wheeling couldn't dig any deeper, scrape any more out of itself, out of its soul, the Cats did.
And then Deerfield dug just a little deeper.
The host Warriors finished off the Central Suburban versus Mid-Suburban crossover run for the season with a 22-14 win over a Wheeling team still wondering how this one got away.
Trailing 7-0 in the third after having squandered several first-half scoring chances, Wheeling turned away Deerfield's half-the-quarter-possession drive with no points on a missed field goal thanks to Andrew Lara, T.J. Best, John Ufir and Johnny Kappel.
And then Wheeling responded with a scoring drive of its own for the rest of the period. Quarterback Jalen Dennis (22 carried, 119 yards) carried the ball 11 times in the 13-play, 80-yard drive and scored from the 2 to knot the score as the third quarter was ending.
Then he leveraged his own punt that flipped the field in the fourth to set up Wheeling for a 40-yard drive in 6 plays and a 14-7 lead with 2:32 left, a lead that seemed insurmountable the way Lara and the defense were harassing the Warriors' offense.
"It comes to all 11 guys playing for all 11 guys," Lara explained of the defensive effort that thwarted the Warriors (3-1) over and over again.
Until Warriors quarterback Jonah Silverglade (21 carries, 119 yards), who had been somewhat out of sorts trying to direct the team through the air in the final moments, scooted 40 yards, zig-zagging cross field on a scramble for the game-tying TD. Running back Sam Fradin, who had a first-half TD, converted a risky 2-point conversion try for a 15-14 lead.
It followed a possession on which Silverglade threw a pick to Jason Shannon as Deerfield was trying to rally back from Dennis' heroics.
"Everyone believed in me. The coaches believed in me. My teammates believed in me," Silverglade said, grateful for the support.
Wheeling's hopes died when Dennis' pass on a circle route to a receiver out of the backfield was read perfectly by Ari Nadler, who intercepted it and returned it 65 yards for the clinching TD with :23.9 left.
Wheeling, 1-3 with two especially tough-luck losses, is not quitting though, with the MSL East season beginning next week.
"We have to give 100 percent," said Lara, who had nothing but praise for a drained and exhausted Dennis. "He's a great leader."
"Jalen played really, really hard," said Wheeling coach Brent Pearlman.
"He's a great quarterback," said opposite-number Silverglade. "But our coaches had a great game plan," that enabled them to keep him in check as much as they did, including the pick-six and a first-half forced fumble with Wheeling in scoring territory.
"We needed a first down," to maintain possession before Silverglade's 40-yard game-winning scamper said Pearlman. "We couldn't get it.
"We needed a stop," on the ensuing Deerfield possession, when Silverglade scrambled for the go-ahead score. "We didn't get it."
Nor, with 2:32 left, what seemed a win.