The old saying goes that football is a game of life and that there are many life lessons that can be learned about the sport of football. Some are good and some are bad. Both St. Charles Catholic and Archbishop Shaw learned that in their own ways in what would be one of the most memorable endings in LHSAA Prep Classic history as the Comets defeat the Eagles 23-21 to cap off a great second day of championship action.
Just 30 seconds earlier in the fourth quarter, it sure looked as if St. Charles Catholic’s kicker Tyler Milioto’s high school career would end on a missed extra point that would have sent the game into overtime, but because of a series of unexpected events, he was able to get another opportunity and boy, did Milioto make the most of it by drilling a 44 yard game winning field goal with five seconds left to play.
“After I missed the kick, I went to go sit down and I thought the game was over sitting there with two timeouts left. They were screaming at me to get up and I was wondering why they are telling me to get up and I look up and I see that we have a timeout left and it is third down. I was confused.”
“I wasn’t really feeling anything because I said that it can’t get much worse than what just happened. I saw it go in and I don’t remember what happened afterword.”
St. Charles Catholic K Tyler Milioto
A lot transpired in the 30 seconds between the time Milioto missed the extra point to the time he made the field goal. After Shaw recovered the onside kick, everything that could have gone wrong for the Eagles went wrong. First, there was a unsportsmanlike conduct penalty that allowed the Comets to keep a timeout and then, there was a shanked punt that gave the Comets the ball at the 32 yard line to set up the field goal.
“I’ve been a head coach for 40 plus years and I’ve seen a lot of crazy endings to games and I’ve lost games, but this is absolutely the toughest loss I have ever taken as a coach. I’ve had my share of good times and bad times and I feel bad for these guys because they have worked so hard.”
Archbishop Shaw HC Hank Tierney
For St. Charles Catholic head coach Wayne Stein, he felt that there was a little divine intervention involved because this state championship victory came a year after the team lost ironically its special teams coordinator John Talley, who passed away.
“We said that we were going to dedicate this season to Coach Talley. We wanted to honor him in a way that we played every day and competed and played with toughness because he was a tough sucker. Things have happened lately. Last week, we beat U-High by blocking an extra point to force overtime. I don’t know if you believe in those things, but it was John Talley’s 62nd birthday last Friday, and somehow, his intervention was there again tonight.”
St. Charles Catholic HC Wayne Stein
This is a district rematch that was played earlier in the year and in the previous matchup, the Comets dominated the Eagles 24-0 and only gave up 11 yards of offense. This time, the rematch turned out to be an instant classic.
The Comets started the game off with a bang as ChrisDon McClain took the opening kickoff 67 yards that would later set up a Skyler Edwards’ rushing touchdown on fourth and goal to give the Comets a 7-0 lead.
Shaw would tie the game up as Allen Shaw found a wide open Elliot Love for a 25 yard touchdown. Late in the first half, Landree Leblanc found Gabriel Kugler two key times once on a 43 yard completion and the other one a four yard touchdown to give the Comets the lead back at 14-7.
In the second half, Coach Tierney went into his bag of tricks with a fake punt as Jonathan Williams found Love for a 38 yard touchdown setting up a tying scoring run from Allen Shaw.
When the Eagles got the ball back, they wasted no time to take their first lead of the night with an 81 yard rushing touchdown by Shaw to go up 21-14 late in the third quarter.
Both teams made mistakes with Shaw missing a 33 yard field goal to extend their lead and the Comets throwing an interception, but St. Charles Catholic responded late for a 11 play, 82 yard drive that set up Edwards’ second touchdown and the rest of what would be a memorable 35 seconds for all that were in attendance.
Shaw QB Allen Shaw was named the Eagles’ Most Outstanding Player completing 4 of 7 passes for 61 yards and a touchdown while rushing 14 times for 126 yards and two touchdowns on the ground.
Meanwhile, St. Charles Catholic QB Landree Leblanc came away with Most Outstanding Player honors for the Comets completing 18 of 24 passes for 174 yards and a touchdown. Gridiron Football All-American running back Skyler Edwards had 44 yards rushing, 21 yards receiving, and two touchdowns on the ground.
The Archbishop Shaw Eagles came up short in a brutal loss for their quest to repeat as Division II Select State Champions and despite a great performance for 47 minutes and 30 seconds, it is all about completing the full 48 minutes and paying attention to every little detail.
“We are really serious about football. We work really hard year-round. The kids realize what a great school they are at and the life lessons that they get from football against the best team in the state. It is going to be really bad. I am going to be devastated, but the good thing about young people is that these guys will move on. They should. They are 17 years old, 18 years old. They are going to take it hard because how much we put into it and how much we believe in our program. It is something that you are going to have to deal with in life. There’s going to be great times, but you are going to lose your job or you are not going to be able to make your house payment. You have to be able to bounce back from that and that’s the life lesson (a very tough life lesson) but a life lesson they learned tonight.”
Archbishop Shaw HC Hank Tierney
This improbably win is the fourth state championship for the Comets and the third in five years for head coach Wayne Stein. Coach Stein was proud of how his team continued to fight and believe even though the odds were stacked against them.
“This is a team that doesn’t have a bunch of stars. We didn’t have a guy that signed early signing day. They cared about each other. This team is special. They are the first senior class that is mine. What I mean by that was that they were not coached by Coach Monica. They were only coached by me and for us to go out there this way, I think of Coach Talley often. He brought so much to our place. He was tough. God puts people in your life for a reason.”
St. Charles Catholic HC Wayne Stein
Check out the photos taken by Billy Metcalf!
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