With the season on the line, Heritage Academy sophomore quarterback Mack Howard rolled to his right. He knew the stakes. If the Patriots couldn’t convert this two-point conversion, their dreams of repeating as MAIS Class 5A state champions would be over.
Immediately feeling pressure from Adams County Christian School defenders, Howard looked to his receiver Trey Naugher, who was finishing his route in the end zone. Unable to plant his feet with a defender closing in, Howard fired a pass on the run. Naugher, who was the recepient of press coverage, looked to his right, only to see the pass sail behind him. ACCS defenders jumped with elation, running toward their sideline.
“That’s been our goal line pass play: put the ball in 12’s hands and try to get it to Trey or Harris (Gunter),” Heritage Academy coach Sean Harrison said. “Their corner did a great job of jamming, and that’s life. The corner made a play, we didn’t, and that’s life.”
Howard and several other members of the Heritage Academy offense fell to the ground in disbelief, filled with heartache. Tears soon followed. After trailing at halftime, the Patriots (8-3) couldn’t finish the comeback, losing 22-20 in overtime Friday at home in the MAIS semifinal round.
“There’s nothing to hang their heads on; they played their hearts out,” Harrison said. “That was a great high school football game. We just came up three yards short.”
Penalties and turnovers plagued Heritage Academy’s offense in the first half. Howard turned the ball over four times (three interceptions, one fumble), including one costly giveaway inside the red zone. But the Patriots’ defense picked up its signal caller in his first year as a starter, only surrendering six points on the four turnovers and keeping the deficit at a respectable 6-0 at halftime.
“It’s unbelievable,” Harrison said of the defensive performance. “Coach Whiteside came up with another great plan. I thought we put them in some really bad spots and held up … It was the best defensive performance of the season as far as tackling and gang tackling goes.”
But ACCS delivered defensively, too, holding the Patriots to 184 total yards of offense. Offensively, Cory Sewell (156 rushing yards and two touchdowns on 28 carries) and Blake LaPrairie (90 yards on 19 carries) did just enough to lift ACCS (10-2) to a state championship matchup against Leake Academy.
With the score tied at 14-all with 4 minutes remaining and the ball on Heritage’s 40-yard line, ACCS had a golden opportunity to end the contest in regulation. Nevertheless, clock management was not the Rebels’ forte, with coach David King using all three timeouts by the 7:23 mark of the fourth quarter. With little passing game to speak of and a hurry-up offense not utilized, ACCS ran out of time to engineer a scoring drive, leading to overtime.
Sewell plunged into the end zone for the Rebels on their second play of overtime, then perhaps made his biggest contribution of the night by converting the two-point attempt to give ACCS an eight-point lead.
On Heritage Academy’s ensuing possession, Howard, not normally known for his mobility, answered for his team on third-and-long, sprinting 11 yards for a rushing touchdown after seeing nobody open.
“We knew each game was going to be something new, but (Mack) grew up so much faster than we could hope for,” Harrison said.
Unfortunately for the Patriots, their season ended on the next play. With the loss, ACCS has been the only team to knock Heritage Academy out of the playoffs since 2016. The Rebels beat the Pats in the 2017 quarterfinals and 2018 semifinals, and Heritage Academy won last year’s title.
“I told the coaches I don’t really know how to act because every time the season ends I’ve been mad at something, but not today,” Harrison said. “I couldn’t ask for anything more.”
As Heritage Academy players emerged from the locker room after listening to their coaches speak one last time, they were greeted by applause from parents and fans in attendance. Though the season did not end in a state title, Harrison said he will remember fondly a group that dealt with unprecedented circumstances in 2020.
“I’ll remember the perseverance, number one,” Harrison said. “Missing all the team bonding in the summer, having to work out 15 kids at a time and rolling them in and out. Asking them to sacrifice their weekends by staying away from the get-togethers. I think they did a good job: We went all season without a single case. I think this team, coach Tony (Phinisey) said it after the game best: ‘A lot of people are going to look back on 2020 as the worst year of their life. But this group made it a pretty good year for us old men coaching them because of everything we watched them do for us and do for each other.'”
Hodge is the former sports editor for The Dispatch.
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