Overtime narrowly eludes Neuqua Valley in shootout loss to East St. Louis
On a night when Neuqua Valley and visiting East St. Louis scored 14 touchdowns, six of which were 40 yards or longer, and ran up a combined 953 yards of offense, the game's potential outcome rested on what happened on a 3-yard patch of grass in front of the south end zone.
Neuqua's Mark Gronowski had just fired his fifth TD pass of the night, from 4 yards out to Sean Larkin, his third TD grab, to pull the Wildcats within 2 with 14 seconds to play. A successful 2-point conversion would have forced overtime, but Gronowski's fade pass to the left corner just eluded the fingertips of Patrick Hoffmann, leaving the Wildcats on the short end of an eye-opening 50-48 final score.
"We were trying to run play-action and I saw their guy inside," Gronowski said. "I saw that Hoffmann had run a good route, but I just couldn't finish the play."
In reality the misfire was about the only thing Gronowski did wrong all night. The 5 TD passes were a personal best, and he added 116 yards rushing and two scores on the ground to personally have a hand in all 7 Neuqua (2-1) scores.
Gronowski also just happened to be outdone by one player. That was East St. Louis receiver Dominic Lovett, which finished the game with 8 catches for 208 yards and 2 scores, added a trio of 2-point conversion runs and, for good measure, punted for a 40-yard average. But his most damaging play may have been the fake punt he toted 89 yards to give the Flyers (3-0) a 22-14 lead with four minutes left in the first half.
"At first I was going to kick the ball, but he hiked it high and I saw (Larkin) come in so fast from the edge I just went around him and took it from there," Lovett said.
The Flyers' team speed was on display all night. The most stunning example came when a punt pinned them at their own 2. All it took was six plays and 58 seconds to cover that distance, with Lovett doing the honors on a 46-yard scoring catch from Taylor Macon, who threw for 321 yards.
That gave the Flyers a 16-7 lead and was the first of seven straight possessions in which either team scored. Neuqua answered with Gronowski's 19-yard run, then after Lovett's fake punt heroics, Gronowski hooked up with Larkin from 43 yards out, Macon found a diving Lawaun Powell Jr. from 24 yards away, and Gronowski closed the half with a 40-yard strike to Garrett Stare to make it 30-28 East St. Louis at halftime.
A rare Neuqua punt enabled the Flyers to score on their first two second-half possessions (DeMonta Witherspoon on a 4-yard run and Lovett on a 43-yard catch) for a 44-28 lead before the Wildcats returned the favor, sandwiching Gronowski's 41-yard run and 15-yard pass to Larkin around Lovett's only punt to make it 44-42 with 10 minutes to play. Witherspoon's 5-yard run made it 50-42 to set up the game's final scintillating seconds.
"I'm proud of our boys," Gronowski said. "We'll use this as a steppingstone to next week. We've got some things to fix, but this offense is going to score a ton of points and we're just going to keep working to get better."