Whoa Nelly!!! What a game
Wow, what a game..
A regulation high school football game lasts for 48 minutes. For 47 minutes and 20 seconds, the game was still in doubt. The only turnover of the game came at the St. Joe 11 yard line sealed the deal and allowed the Bears to run out the last 40 seconds of the game.
Lakeshore played well for the first quarter and a half and jumped out to a 10-0 lead. But the Bears finally put things together and got on the board with under a minute to go until halftime, much the same way the Bears did during the game last year at Dickinson Stadium. St. Joe's Matt Jewell used his height advantage over Lakeshore defender Bo Paxson and caught a 13 yard pass for a touchdown.
If you listened to Friday Night Kickoff, Lakeshore play by play voice Al Pscholka said that he expected the Bears to block a punt. Wow he was right. Josh Weaver came through the Lancers line untouched and blocked the punt by Lee Myers to set up the Bears go-ahead touchdown by Drake Smith a few plays later.
St. Joe would add to the lead on the first play of the fourth quarter as Drake Smith ran for his second touchdown of the game to make it 21-10. It was set up by another great play by receiver Matt Jewell, the elusive Jewell was wide open as QB Sean Guinane floated the ball to the open Jewell and made it inside the 10 yard line.
Lakeshore then resorted to the trick plays to try to get back in the game, the Lancers cut the Bears lead to 21-18 after Coco Johnson ran for a 19 yard touchdown. Followed by Zak Wasserman's two point conversion.
Now comes the critical point of the game... the fumble. There has been a lot of talk saying that if Zane Metz would not have fumbled the ball, then Lakeshore would have scored a touchdown to take the lead or at least been able to have Kai Peng kick the field goal to tie the game. Now remember one thing, nothing is certain. Watching an NFL football game as recently as last week's Chicago Bears/Philadelphia Eagles game on Sunday night, you saw the Chicago Bears defense stop the Eagles on 4 tries, the last two inside the one yard line.
Plus, Kai Peng has also had a kick blocked and one missed against the Bears, the first was less than a 30 yard field goal in the game last year at Dickinson, he also missed one inside the 25 in the playoff game at St. Joe. He's good, but he's not automatic. I have yet to see a college or pro kicker ever finish perfect. When you consider the things that have to happen for a field goal or extra point. The snap, the spot, the hold, and the kick. They all have to be right. Nothing is automatic.
Was St. Joe "lucky" if you ask me no. Fumbles are part of the game. The team with the fewest mistakes usually wins. St. Joe made less mistakes than Lakeshore. The two glaring mistakes by the Lancers are the poor blocking on the punt block which allowed Weaver to come in untouched, and the fumble by Metz. In all the game was pretty even, yards, first downs were just about even. The two stats that weren't -- turnovers, 1 for Lakeshore, 0 for St. Joe. The other -- Touchdowns, St. Joe had 3, Lakeshore with 2. Field goals are nice, but aren't touchdowns better?
I guess for most coaches who don't have a Kai Peng like Lakeshore does, the decision to go for the end zone rather than the uprights is easy.
