Wednesday, July 6, 2011

HS football power wins playoff game with hook-and-ladder on game's last play

HighBeam Research

Title: WW South books extended run of hit play.(Sports)

Date: November 9, 1996 Publication: Daily Herald (Arlington Heights, IL) Author: Bush, Joe
Byline: Joe Bush Daily Herald Sports Writer
And now, a play, titled "The Wheaton Warrenville South Hook-and-Ladder," as performed by the WW South troupe, and directed, as always, by John Thorne.
Shhh.
The scene: Windy Gately Stadium on the South side of Chicago Friday for a Class 6A second-round game. WW South and Public League champ Dunbar are tied at 22-22 with less than 20 seconds to play. The ball is at the WW South 38.
Cool and calm senior quarterback Tim Brylka drops a step, turns right and throws. Senior receiver Justin Penn, hobbling and fitted with a brace on his right knee after a first-quarter injury, catches 12 yards away.
From nowhere comes the dashing hero, senior running back Kelly Crosby. Penn pitches the ball to Crosby, who sprints 50 yards for the winning touchdown with seven seconds to play.
Half the audience erupts in applause. The curtain closes on Dunbar's season.
WW South's 30-22 victory propelled the Tigers to the quarterfinals against the winner of today's Evanston/New Trier game, and recalled a similar ending to a similarly meaningful game in 1993.
That last time Thorne called the play to win a game, the then-No. 1 Tigers trailed No. 2 Naperville North with time running out in a regular-season matchup.
The names were different - Tim Lester to Kasey Klaas to Bobby Nelson - but the result the same.
"I was hoping to repeat the same thing, and it happened," said Crosby, who scored 28 points, helped Terrance Moore stuff what would have been the go-ahead 2-point run with 19 seconds to play, ran for 95 yards and caught a pass for 37 yards on a first-half-ending scoring drive.
Dunbar (9-2) led 16-14 at the half, led by the speed of junior tailback Rausell Harvey, who ran for 166 yards and 2 TDs in the first half.
The Tigers bottled up Harvey (36 rushes, 233 yards) for most of the second half, but he gained 59 yards on 10 carries in the Mightymen's 16-play, 75-yard game-tying march.
Crosby played defense for the first time all season on the 2-point attempt, and he and Moore stopped quarterback Dorwin Jefferson - who had scored from 2 yards out - at the 1. Brylka was on the field at the time as well.
"The entire drive I kept talking to the defensive coaches, saying, 'You can use Kelly, you can use Brylka, take them, use them, take them, use them,' " Thorne said. "It's just natural for 'em to flow to the ball, and make plays."
The Tigers had gone ahead 22-16 on a 14-play, 91-yard drive which Crosby ended with a 1-yard run at 6:47 of the third quarter. After a Tigers delay-of-game penalty, Brylka hit Kyle Hubert for the 2-point play.
"We had a good surge off the line," Crosby said. "I just tried to run my hardest. After the first series, after halftime, I could tell (the Mightymen) were getting tired. I knew we could run anything against them."
The extended run continues next week.




COPYRIGHT 2009 Paddock Publications
This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan.  All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group.


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