As Chatham Glenwood fans stormed the field, several Titans football players swarmed placekicker Mia Gerger and hoisted her on their shoulders for a short, makeshift parade. What a final scene to a classic high school football game Friday night at Ken Leonard Field.
Gerger's 21-yard field goal in overtime gave Glenwood a 34-31 thriller over valiant Sacred Heart-Griffin in front of an overflow crowd that might have witnessed the best game ever played in the 32nd Central State Eight Conference meeting of the longtime rivals.
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Gerger's winning kick came not long after Cyclones senior kicker Tom Davis tied the game at 31 as the regulation clock expired with a 50-yard field goal that hit the crossbar and bounced just inside the left goalpost. Those were just two of the many heroic plays made by players on both sides of a game that left everyone shaking their heads in astonishment when it was finally over.
"In a game like that, you've got to make the last play, and that's what we did," said Titans coach David Hay, whose team clinched a playoff spot and upped their record to 6-2 (5-2 in CS8).
Gerger's field goal came on third down, on Glenwood's possession of OT after Titans senior linebacker Colten Haacke made a great play, stuffing SHG running back Mike Groesch in the backfield to stop the Cyclones on fourth down from the 1-yard line.
By holding SHG scoreless to start overtime, the Titans needed a score of any type to win.
Glenwood got the ball at the Cyclones' 10 as part of OT rules, and looked to have won the game when running back Grady Mueller was about to cross the goal line on the first play of the drive. But the football popped out of Mueller's grasp and was recovered by SHG. Referees, however, ruled Mueller's knee touched the ground first. After Mueller was tackled for a loss on second down by SHG's Chuck Lanier, Hay elected to send Gerger onto the field, and she ended the drama with a perfect kick through the middle of the uprights.
"This is why I got into the sport. I love the pressure," Gerger said. "That was from (21) yards. It's just another extra point. I have a cross on my tee, and I look straight at the cross. I keep my head down, and after that, I look at my holder and tell him 'Good job.'"
Said Hay: "It wasn't a difficult decision at all to put her on the field on third down. You don't want to take a chance on a fumble, and she's the all-time leading points kicker in the history of the program."
Cyclones coach John Allison was upset that Mueller's fumble was nullified, saying "I just talked to my video guy, and he confirmed it was a fumble."
But, Allison said, "We can't hang our hat just on that one play. Our guys showed heart, I'll give them that. But we feel like we kind of let one get away there."
The Cyclones (5-3, 4-3 with a game at Rochester next week) were down 24-14 at the half but took a 28-24 lead with 3 minutes, 1 second left in regulation after Groesch's 1-yard plunge on first down. That left a lot of time on the clock in a game like this, however, and the Titans marched right down the field to take a 31-28 lead with 38 seconds left on a jump-ball pass from the 6 by quarterback Colten Knoedler to 6-foot-7 tight end Mason Neumann.
But back the Cyclones came, getting the second of two near-miraculous kickoff returns from senior Jamarion Bardwell that gave them possession near midfield. Cyclones QB Cam Brinkman, who was Houdini-esque in evading many near-sacks, ran the ball to the Glenwood 33 with 2.3 seconds left, setting up Davis' sensational kick that got a little help from the crossbar. But, as Hay noted, the Titans just had one more big play in them than did SHG.
Mueller was unquestionably the offensive star of the game for Glenwood. He scored three touchdowns, including a 98-yard kickoff return that tied it 7-7 in the first quarter. He also had a 45-yard kickoff return on the drive that put them up 31-28. Overall, he ran for 165 yards on 24 carries.
"We wanted this one. We just kept battling to the end," Mueller said. "It feels great to be in the playoffs. But we know there's a lot more left to get done."
More: One foot, two sports: Sacred Heard-Griffin's Tom Davis maximizes sports in the fall
Glenwood improved to 6-26 against SHG in conference play since the CS8 was formed in 1993. It was the Titans' third league win over the Cyclones since 2018. Including playoffs, SHG is 33-6 in that span over Glenwood, including seven playoff wins over the Titans.
Adrian Dater is a freelance writer for The State Journal-Register. He can be reached through the sports department at [email protected].