It was a game that never seemed to want to get started, but it finished with a bang.
DeMarco Hill caught a 30-yard touchdown reception from Nick Richardson with 1:24 left to play to give the William Chrisman football team a 26-21 victory over Winnetonka Friday night at North Kansas City High School.
“I got over to the 20,” Hill said, “and I thought ‘I gotta score for my team, it’s the game-winning touchdown.’ I felt great that I did that for my team.”
Winnetonka gave one final push, driving to Chrisman’s 10-yard line with 18 seconds left, but an incomplete pass on fourth down sealed the Griffins’ fate.
While the game finished like a lion, it came in like a lamb.
Neither team could get their offenses going, running a combined one play from inside the red zone until the 5-minute mark in the second quarter.
That’s when Winnetonka (0-2) got it going. Quarterback Shaun Reyes plunged across the goal-line on a 1-yard sneak to put the Griffins up 6-0.
Then special teams let the Griffins down. Andrew Martin’s extra-point attempt was blocked, then Scotty Cates ran back the ensuing kickoff 80 yards for a touchdown. Chrisman ran an unbalanced wheel play on the two-point conversion to go up 8-6.
That score would hold until halftime.
The teams may have been finding themselves in the first half, but they were in full form in the second.
Cranston Claggett set up Winnetonka with good field position to start the second half with a 70-yard return to the Chrisman 20-yard line. A holding penalty, though, brought the ball back to the 36.
The Griffins took advantage of the short field when fullback Jesse Robinson scored on a 7-yard touchdown run. Alex Howell’s two-point conversion made it 14-8 with 10:48 to play in the third.
Winnetonka switched from their spread attack to an I-formation in the third quarter. The change helped them move the ball more effectively with the ground game.
Things seemed to go from bad to worse for the Bears (1-1) on their next few possessions. Chrisman couldn’t get any offense going, and the field position favored Winnetonka for most of the third and fourth quarters.
But William Chrisman hung in there with their big plays.
“It was a game of big plays,” Winnetonka head coach Sterling Edwards said, “and they made one more big plays than we did.”
Richardson hit Jordan Warner for an 80-yard touchdown on a slant route on third-and-six to tie it at 14 apiece. The Bears set up for the wheel play for the two-point conversion but a false start penalty moved them back. Jeremie Sagastume’s kick try on the replay was blocked by a host of Griffins.
