Spartans Fight Back For Championship

The term instant classic came to mind as the 3A state championship game progressed last night, and by the time it was over there was no doubt about. Thanks to a thrilling 21 point second half comeback, the Skyline Spartans were able to win their third championship of the decade.

Down 28-7 early in the second half, the Spartan faithful beginning to look worried, and Johri Fogerson ripping longer runs than the Seattle Marathon, it would have been easy for Skyline to accept their fate of losing the state finals.

But after recovering a Fogerson fumble, a special teams touchdown, and a storybook ending, the Skyline Spartans (4-0) stood alone in 3A with a 42-35 win over previously undefeated O’Dea.

It seemed the rout was on after Fogerson scored the fourth time on a forty-yard touchdown to extend the lead to 28-7. Instead, the Spartans marched down the field, and running back Tyler Washburn scored his first of three touchdowns to close the lead to 14.

After stopping O’Dea on offense, the trio of quarterback Jake Heaps, and wide receivers Kasen Williams and Gino Simone strung together a couple of great plays on another scoring drive.

Williams got the drive started with an acrobatic 43-yard catch, and Simone finished it by taking a quick pass from Heaps at the line of scrimmage and working some magic to weave through the Irish secondary for a thirty yard touchdown to make it 28-21.

The Irish had an answer, with O’Dea quarteback Donny Lisowski scoring on a 9 yard scamper to give O’Dea another two touchdown cushion in the fourth quarter. It looked like the touchdown would be the nail in the coffin for Skyline. But Heaps insists that the thought of giving up never crossed his mind.

“We always knew that we could come back,” said Heaps. “There is no doubt that this team has been resilient when they needed to be.”

The resiliency of the Spartans shined through on their next drive, as Washburn added another touchdown to make it 35-28.

The next drive was as peculiar as it was vital to the Spartan’s win. Early in the drive Fogerson burst through the line, and raced down the right sideline deep into Skyline territory before running out of gas. With Fogerson winded on the sidelines, the Irish could not punch it in and put the game away and instead has to settle for a field goal attempt.

In what can only be described as a busted fake, the Spartans forced a fumble on the field goal attempt. As the ball bounced wildly in the Irish backfield, Spartan linebacker Erik Beige scooped it up, and rumbled 80 yards amidst a roar of cheers from the Skyline sideline for the tying touchdown.

“It wasn’t the fastest 80 yards ever, but he got there,” said Coach Steve Gervais.

The heroics weren’t over for Skyline, as after an O’Dea punt, Skyline took over with a chance to take the lead late in the fourth. Cue wide receiver Kasen Williams. Playing for the number one team in the state as a freshman in one thing, but getting your number called on the grandest of stages says a whole lot about the talent of Williams. And when Heaps found Williams on a crossing route inside the O’Dea twenty, Williams came up huge for his team. After hauling in the catch, Williams was absolutely blasted by Fogerson. The catch was just another amazing play by the Spartans.

“For a freshman, that was a senior catch,” said Coach Gervais.

Just a few plays later, Washburn sealed the deal for Skyline, scoring from nine yards out to take the first lead of the night for the Spartans.

O’Dea was unable to answer, and Skyline took over on downs, and ran down the clock from there. The extraordinary nature of the win was not lost on Coach Gervais.

“They just kept fighting back,” Gervais said. “It’s about as gutsy of a performance I’ve ever seen from any team I’ve ever coached.”

On the night, Johri Fogerson rushed for 297 yards and four touchdowns. Gino Simone made huge plays all night and finished with 9 catches for 122 yards and two touchdowns, and Kasen Williams added five catches for 106 yards. While it was a great performance by the whole team, it was the play of Heaps that seemed to bring the Spartans back each team. Heaps finished 19-30 for 287 yards with two touchdowns and an early interception.

“He put ball after ball in there,” said Gervais. “That was about the best performance I have ever seen by a quarterback that has played for me.”

The scary thing for the rest of the state is that the bulk of the Spartans high-powered offense will be back next year. But for the next few weeks, Skyline gets to enjoy another state championship.