It’s not uncommon when teams try to ice opposing kickers by calling a timeout.
But Fenwick’s Noah Sur had a delay of a different kind before attempting the game-winning field goal against St. Francis on Friday.
With 24 seconds left in the game and Fenwick facing first-and-goal at the eight-yard line, all four banks of lights at Triton College went out promptly at 10 p.m. After about a 20-minute wait for the lights to come back on, Fenwick’s Marek Hill threw a couple of incomplete passes.
Out came Sur, who kicked a 25-yard field goal with 10 seconds left to give Fenwick a 17-16 comeback win.
What was he thinking during the delay?
“I was trying to be as calm as I can because I know I made the kick before,” Sur said.
Any nerves?
“Not in the moment,” he said. “Before a little bit. But once I got out there, I felt nothing.”
All Hill, who passed for 297 yards and ran for 41 more, could do was stand by and let his teammate do his job.
“With the lights [going out], that was just a shocker,” Hill said. “Felt like a high-school movie out there. It just didn’t feel real. We were able to get it done in the end and that’s the most important part.”
Fenwick (3-1, 1-0 CCL/ESCC Orange) led 7-0 at halftime on Hill’s 21-yard touchdown pass to Nate Marshall, one of the state’s top junior prospects as an edge rusher. But St. Francis (2-2, 0-1) regrouped and scored 16 straight points to go ahead 16-7 with 11:56 left.
Hill threw an interception — the game’s only turnover — on Fenwick’s next possession. But he hit TJ Smith with a 47-yard TD pass to make it 16-14 with 3:23 to play.
The Friars’ defense forced a St. Francis punt and got the ball back at their own 35 with no timeouts and 1:22 left. Hill’s arm and legs got Fenwick close enough for Sur to play the hero.
“I’ve had a lot of faith in Noah since June,” Hill said. “He was coming on, I was coming off, I said, ‘Go win it, man.’”
He did, and it could be a turning point for the Friars.
“The kids never stopped fighting,” Fenwick coach Matt Battaglia said. “I told the kids we’ve been in this situation a lot since I’ve been here and we haven’t finished. This is the first time we’ve pulled it out in a situation like that.”
St. Francis quarterback Alessio Milivojevic, a Ball State commit, was held to 29 passing yards in the first half. But was 3 for 3 for 124 yards in the third quarter, including a 51-yard TD pass to Zachary Washington. He finished 11 of 18 for 181 yards.
TyVonn Ramsom had 26 carries for 123 yards and a TD for the Spartans.
“We’ve got to learn to finish games,” St. Francis coach Bob McMillen said. “This is the second time now that we had a chance to win a football game in the last minutes ... and we let it slip through our fingers.”
