Quarterfinal Memorable Games

Hard to believe we are all the way to the Quarterfinals. I have no doubt that we would likely still be playing this week in a tough matchup, probably against Byron because we seem to play them every year.

2019 - Wilmington at Byron - by far the muddiest I ever have and probably ever will coach. In the south burbs we had about 1 inch of snow on Thursday and it was gone by Friday, up in Byron, they had 5 inches of snow and did not clear off the field until the morning of the game, so it had no chance to dry out. Our kids are slipping all over the place, but Byron is keeping their footing. Byron goes on a good drive but we stop them inside the 10, we get the ball, and are moving 3 or 4 yards a play but stall out about mid-field. The play after the punt they run a Toss, kid plants his foot and is gone. Our next series, exact same spot, our kid has a lane, plants his foot, slips head first into the mud. This was the story of the game. Our jerseys were filthy and the announcer stopped saying our players names because you could not see the numbers. Byron also had an O linemen who is not at Iowa that was the best HS linemen I have ever seen, I’m pretty sure he will end up in the NFL someday. At the end of the game I see a few of their players and they have the long screw in spikes which helped alleviate the issues with them slipping. Our kids had the new molded spikes that are pretty dull after practicing on concrete grass practice field. One of our older coaches went online and bought several pairs of the screw in spikes for us to put in our travel cases in case we are even in this type of situation again.

2016 and 2017 - Wilmington @ Immaculate Conception - I have these two ga,es together because both games played out pretty much the same. We were pretty confident in the defensive game plan and confident we could move the ball against them. First of all, probably the weirdest place to play a game, absolute nothing behind the visitor sideline, I mean nothing. It’s a park district baseball field so it was eerily quiet. Our guys in the box and camera guy are on a freaking fork lift behind the bleachers on the home sideline. Anyway, both games IC scores quick and we respond with a long drive but no points. In ‘16 we had them backed up to the 1 yard line, forced a bad punt, had a 4th and 1 and didn’t convert. Had we scored we would have went in to the half up 14-13. Both games were close at half but they rolled away with their better athletes and our season came to an end. Both ICs teams went on to running clock in the semis and the finals and we were the only playoff teams those two years that they did not win by 40+.

Games I did not coach in
1992 - Monticello @ Seneca - my brother was a bench warmer for the Sages but I remember this game because it was the first game that I ever went to that was not in Monticello. Seneca was one of the top programs in the state t the time and this was a signature win for the Sages and HUD Venerable.

2002 - Monticello vs St. Teresa - this was the year after I graduated but I followed my former teammates pretty closely. I cannot express how much I hate St. Teresa and that hatred ran through Monticello. In my senior year we were down 20-0 at half and came back to beat them in the final minutes of the game, it was one of the more memorable moments of my playing days. This was a close game from the start, game tied 7-7, 4 minutes to go, Coach Beccue calls an inside dive play and RB takes it to the house. Here is a video of the play.

https://youtu.be/Pk5YVzTV-Yw

2005: JCA @ Morris: See thread on the Derg-Oh! Game.

2001: Morris @ Triad: We made the four our trek south to play Triad. We got there super early & for whatever reason, Coach Darlington (HC at the time) didn't want us to leave the locker room. So, as we're sitting in the hall, a couple of their players walk by. We notice their wearing turf shoes & elbow pads for rollerblading. I remember us thinking that was really odd... until we went to the field. They had just had some massive rains and they rolled the field afterward to pack it a bit, I assume. Anyway, it was like playing on concrete, our spikes were slipping all over the place. Then the game started & Triad played incredibly dirty. Late hits, players headhunting off the ball, they even had one kid who took our starting tackle and just grabbed him by the collar and slammed him into the ground repeatedly. We made it out with the win, but it was a crazy afternoon.

1999 Morris @ JCA: The first game in the modern era of the rivalry between the two squads. JCA was loaded & Morris went up to Joliet Memorial Stadium and played a great game. JCA holds a slim 16-14 lead midway through the fourth quarter, and had just forced us to punt. I had scouted JCA throughout the playoffs and I leaned over to one of our statisticians & said, "They're going to fumble this punt. Hope we get it back." They fumbled it, we recovered it, and the stat guy looked at me like I had three heads.

We drive inside the ten with less than 30 seconds to play. Now, this season, we had two kickers on the team. One was very accurate, but didn't have a big leg. The other had a huge leg, but lacked accuracy. All we have to do is dive it once straight ahead, call a TO & kick the short field goal with the accurate kicker. For some reason, we call a reverse play, it gets blown up and we lose about 8 yards on the play. With the wind, Coach Darlington decides to go with the kid with the bigger leg. The kick is no good & we lose.

2007: Belvidere @ Morris. These two teams hadn't faced each other since the 1994 4A championship where Belvidere just manhandled us. This time, they came to Morris & we knew we'd have a battle. It was a back & forth affair that we eventually salted away on a QB bootleg to win 32-27.

2002 Clifton Central at Wilmington - This was the year before I started Coaching I remember it well. Got over at Wilmington at noon for the 6pm kickoff. Had one heck of a tailgate party going on and then the local police rolled up on us. Thankfully the cop that day was the husband of our athletic trainer so the fun continued. This was the start of a multi sport 3 year but a very talented Sophomore Wilmington Class....Tony Vercelli, Tanner Roark current MLB pitcher etc. We had a small half time lead but in the 3rd quarter their stud RB Jason Banning ripped off a Couple big TD runs to give them a 20-13 lead. We hit a rut offensively until late in the 4th quarter with about 90 seconds to go. On 4th down our QB heaved one up in the corner of the end zone that our TE comes up with and we tie the game at 20. We have an awful kickoff that they get to about the 40 and on the first play they are sacked so its second and long from about the 30 and are feeling good again. The ole Double wing play action game got our Free Safety bit on the crosser in front of him and they went over the top and all way to the 10 yard line. They scored one play later. We had one last chance and our WR got past the Corner and we connected but Roark was just able to catch him and Wilmington won 27-20. It was one of the best enviroments for a game I have ever been to.

the detail of the memories of these games amazes me. great stories.
I though i read years ago that there is a maximum spike length in HS football. something like 1/2" or 5/8" maybe?

Bighitter11 wrote:2002 Clifton Central at Wilmington - This was the year before I started Coaching I remember it well.  Got over at Wilmington at noon for the 6pm kickoff. Had one heck of a tailgate party going on and then the local police rolled up on us.  Thankfully the cop that day was the husband of our athletic trainer so the fun continued.  This was the start of a multi sport 3 year but a very talented Sophomore Wilmington Class....Tony Vercelli, Tanner Roark current MLB pitcher etc. We had a small half time lead but in the 3rd quarter their stud RB Jason Banning ripped off a Couple big TD runs to give them a 20-13 lead.  We hit a rut offensively until late in the 4th quarter with about 90 seconds to go.  On 4th down our QB heaved one up in the corner of the end zone that our TE comes up with and we tie the game at 20.  We have an awful kickoff that they get to about the 40 and on the first play they are sacked so its second and long from about the 30 and are feeling good again.  The ole Double wing play action game got our Free Safety bit on the crosser in front of him and they went over the top and all way to the 10 yard line.  They scored one play later.  We had one last chance and our WR got past the Corner and we connected but Roark was just able to catch him and Wilmington won 27-20.  It was one of the best enviroments for a game I have ever been to.

I haven't gotten back to Wilmington for a game in a while obviously...but Wilmington was by far and away the best place to experience a game. We got our asses beat most of the time, but boy was it fun. From the players coming out of the woods to Hell's Bells, to the fireworks, they do it right.

2004 Belleville Althoff at Jacksonville--the week after our monumental win over SHG, another traditional Catholic school powerhouse came to J'ville. For whatever reason, this is the game I don't have many memories of during our 2004 run. Althoff was loaded athletically but not very physical this particular year and that is how we beat them. They had a running back named Jason Ford, who I think was only a freshmen this season, who eventually went to the University of Illinois. Very good player, even as an underclassmen, but our outside linebacker laid him out with a good, clean hit early in the game and he wasn't really a factor after that. I remember being worried they would run it well against our 3-4, but they kept trying to attack the perimeter the whole game and we shut it down and won 35-20. We actually used a similar game plan to upset Althoff in the regular season next year when I was at Mt. Vernon.

2005 Normal Community at Mt. Vernon They were 10-1 and we were 11-0 but I think most would have felt we were considerable underdogs...and they were proven right. I saw Normal play Bloomington the week before in person and honestly didn't think they looked very good but I know now that was probably due to my inexperience as a coach at the time. They pounded us 40-14 and I'm not sure it was even that close. They had a great downblocking tackle and a great pulling guard and would put them on opposite sides to run power. You knew it was coming and still couldn't stop it, at least we couldn't. Unfortunately, the ending of this game put a stain on our memorable season as we had some kids lose their cool and I think we picked up four personal fouls in the 4th quarter alone.

What I really remember from this game was afterwards in the coach's office, our whole staff was sitting around a table eating leftovers from the concession stand. No one said a word until our HC Dan Mings busted out laughing hysterically and then the rest of us joined in. We were reacting to the fact we made it so far. Most thought this was a 3-6 or 4-5 season, so to get to the quarterfinals undefeated was unexpected and we couldn't have asked for anything more.

Only got there twice. Once as a player and once as a coach.

I remember being there in 1996 as a sophomore at Springfield High. Our starting QB had broken his arm earlier in the playoffs and tried to play through the second round game but just couldn't get it done that week. We ran into a LOADED Normal Community squad that had a huge 250 pound fullback. He broke one of our OLBs ankles running him over and it was never close.

We made it again with the 2010 SHS team and faced off against Chatham for the second time. We had clocked them in week 2 41-7 and truthfully thought we could do it again. They held onto the ball and we had a couple of uncharacteristic turnovers and that was it. All I remember is a Glenwood fan laughing at our team after the game and mocking us and my father telling that guy to "Shut the hell up"

Bighitter11 wrote:2002 Clifton Central at Wilmington - This was the year before I started Coaching I remember it well. Got over at Wilmington at noon for the 6pm kickoff. Had one heck of a tailgate party going on and then the local police rolled up on us. Thankfully the cop that day was the husband of our athletic trainer so the fun continued. This was the start of a multi sport 3 year but a very talented Sophomore Wilmington Class....Tony Vercelli, Tanner Roark current MLB pitcher etc. We had a small half time lead but in the 3rd quarter their stud RB Jason Banning ripped off a Couple big TD runs to give them a 20-13 lead. We hit a rut offensively until late in the 4th quarter with about 90 seconds to go. On 4th down our QB heaved one up in the corner of the end zone that our TE comes up with and we tie the game at 20. We have an awful kickoff that they get to about the 40 and on the first play they are sacked so its second and long from about the 30 and are feeling good again. The ole Double wing play action game got our Free Safety bit on the crosser in front of him and they went over the top and all way to the 10 yard line. They scored one play later. We had one last chance and our WR got past the Corner and we connected but Roark was just able to catch him and Wilmington won 27-20. It was one of the best enviroments for a game I have ever been to.

Wasn't there a game at your place in '03 or '04? I hear about it from our math teacher who was a guard and I guess you guys had a NG was was just kicking his ass the entire 1st half. Our OC gets after him at half and he dominants the NG in the 2nd half and Wilmo ends up winning.

Yeah we played them again the following year at our place in 2003. The Vercelli, Roark crew were all Juniors now and returned a ton. We graduated 26 Seniors the year before and started 0-2. Won both 1st and 2nd Round games by scores of 14-13. I am scared to death of what might happen that day. We were up 14-0 at halftime. We gave up Zero first downs and I think Wilmington had somehing like -28 yards of total offense. We had a kid at DT Carlos Nevils who played the game of his life in the first half. He had 6 to 8 TFL's in the 1st half alone they could not block him one on one. He gave everything he could that day he was dog ass tired and they doubled and even triple teamed him at times in the 2nd half. We could not run the ball at all that year so trying to run out the 2nd half as a passing time was gonna be a tough task. Barry went from running their double wing set and going east and west to Lining up in the I Formation with a Wing set up and just let Verceli get north and south. They ended up winning 25-14 but for one half our kids played amazing.

dusty7 wrote:Hard to believe we are all the way to the Quarterfinals. I have no doubt that we would likely still be playing this week in a tough matchup, probably against Byron because we seem to play them every year.

2019 - Wilmington at Byron - by far the muddiest I ever have and probably ever will coach. In the south burbs we had about 1 inch of snow on Thursday and it was gone by Friday, up in Byron, they had 5 inches of snow and did not clear off the field until the morning of the game, so it had no chance to dry out. Our kids are slipping all over the place, but Byron is keeping their footing. Byron goes on a good drive but we stop them inside the 10, we get the ball, and are moving 3 or 4 yards a play but stall out about mid-field. The play after the punt they run a Toss, kid plants his foot and is gone. Our next series, exact same spot, our kid has a lane, plants his foot, slips head first into the mud. This was the story of the game. Our jerseys were filthy and the announcer stopped saying our players names because you could not see the numbers. Byron also had an O linemen who is not at Iowa that was the best HS linemen I have ever seen, I’m pretty sure he will end up in the NFL someday. At the end of the game I see a few of their players and they have the long screw in spikes which helped alleviate the issues with them slipping. Our kids had the new molded spikes that are pretty dull after practicing on concrete grass practice field. One of our older coaches went online and bought several pairs of the screw in spikes for us to put in our travel cases in case we are even in this type of situation again.

2016 and 2017 - Wilmington @ Immaculate Conception - I have these two ga,es together because both games played out pretty much the same. We were pretty confident in the defensive game plan and confident we could move the ball against them. First of all, probably the weirdest place to play a game, absolute nothing behind the visitor sideline, I mean nothing. It’s a park district baseball field so it was eerily quiet. Our guys in the box and camera guy are on a freaking fork lift behind the bleachers on the home sideline. Anyway, both games IC scores quick and we respond with a long drive but no points. In ‘16 we had them backed up to the 1 yard line, forced a bad punt, had a 4th and 1 and didn’t convert. Had we scored we would have went in to the half up 14-13. Both games were close at half but they rolled away with their better athletes and our season came to an end. Both ICs teams went on to running clock in the semis and the finals and we were the only playoff teams those two years that they did not win by 40+.

Games I did not coach in
1992 - Monticello @ Seneca - my brother was a bench warmer for the Sages but I remember this game because it was the first game that I ever went to that was not in Monticello. Seneca was one of the top programs in the state t the time and this was a signature win for the Sages and HUD Venerable.

2002 - Monticello vs St. Teresa - this was the year after I graduated but I followed my former teammates pretty closely. I cannot express how much I hate St. Teresa and that hatred ran through Monticello. In my senior year we were down 20-0 at half and came back to beat them in the final minutes of the game, it was one of the more memorable moments of my playing days. This was a close game from the start, game tied 7-7, 4 minutes to go, Coach Beccue calls an inside dive play and RB takes it to the house. Here is a video of the play.

https://youtu.be/Pk5YVzTV-Yw

Would you have been involved in the 2009, (I think I have the year correct) Wilmington at Illini West game. One of the best I've seen as a spectator.

2000
Pontiac @ Holy Cross

I was an 8th grader at this time. HC had arguably their best team ever going into this game at 11-0. The Crusaders had travelled down to Jerseyville the weekend before, and came back with a 35-21 win. However, a kid named Santos Gonzales ran all over Holy Cross. Pontiac ended up losing a close one to JCA in the semis of 4A. Cross ended up in the Prep Bowl playoffs, but lost to Marian Catholic, who ended up winning the Prep Bowl over Simeon.

wolverine55 wrote:
Would you have been involved in the 2009, (I think I have the year correct) Wilmington at Illini West game. One of the best I've seen as a spectator.

My only involvement was getting a thorough beat down by Wilmo when I was an assistant at Peotone.

I was also at the game and it will definitely be on the memorable thread since it was a semi final game. Definitely one of the best games I've ever seen.

dusty7 wrote:

wolverine55 wrote:
Would you have been involved in the 2009, (I think I have the year correct) Wilmington at Illini West game. One of the best I've seen as a spectator.

My only involvement was getting a thorough beat down by Wilmo when I was an assistant at Peotone.

I was also at the game and it will definitely be on the memorable thread since it was a semi final game. Definitely one of the best games I've ever seen.

Ah, I was thinking it was quarters as well.

guerin wrote:2000
Pontiac @ Holy Cross

I was an 8th grader at this time. HC had arguably their best team ever going into this game at 11-0. The Crusaders had travelled down to Jerseyville the weekend before, and came back with a 35-21 win. However, a kid named Santos Gonzales ran all over Holy Cross. Pontiac ended up losing a close one to JCA in the semis of 4A. Cross ended up in the Prep Bowl playoffs, but lost to Marian Catholic, who ended up winning the Prep Bowl over Simeon.

Santos Gonzales was a Stud I remember him as a Freshman at Bishop Dullaghan Camp at Wheaton College in 1997. He was tearing people up then. He had a great career for Pontiac.

guerin wrote:However, a kid named Santos Gonzales ran all over Holy Cross. Pontiac ended up losing a close one to JCA in the semis of 4A.

As a senior, Santos was a total animal. More of a skinnier guy with not the greatest hands freshman through junior year in my opinion. But he ran like a mother as a senior.

guerin wrote:2000
Pontiac @ Holy Cross

I was an 8th grader at this time. HC had arguably their best team ever going into this game at 11-0. The Crusaders had travelled down to Jerseyville the weekend before, and came back with a 35-21 win. However, a kid named Santos Gonzales ran all over Holy Cross. Pontiac ended up losing a close one to JCA in the semis of 4A. Cross ended up in the Prep Bowl playoffs, but lost to Marian Catholic, who ended up winning the Prep Bowl over Simeon.

In 1999 I was at Mahomet and Pontiac came to play us. Had heard all about Gonzales, but hadn't really seen him (I was a volunteer freshman coach and didn't watch varsity film- hell, I kept stats during varsity games). They were leaving the locker room and this little guy walked by me and one of the players said "That's him". That little guy is who you're all worried about I said.

He absolutely tore us to shreds. I distinctly remember a play where we crowded him toward the sideline and 98% of backs would run out of bounds. He planted, cut the other direction, ran back to about midfield laterally and was just gone. I've only seen 3 people capable of making that run- Gonzales, Carey Bender from Coe who played a little for the Bills and Steve Isbell for us at CGB.

That season, against Olympia I think, he had a game where he had 6 carries, 300yds and 4 or 5 TDs.

2009 Wilmington @ Illini West was indeed a quarterfinal. It was a hell of a game.

Doctor D wrote:2009 Wilmington @ Illini West was indeed a quarterfinal. It was a hell of a game.

You guys are indeed correct, I went back and looked it was a Quarterfinal game. The kids played like it was a championship game.

2005 Bishop Mac @ SHG Any time you play Rich Zinanni's team you can expect a hard hitting affair. SHG was ahead at half though not by a lot. Finally in the 4th quarter they appeared to be in control as SHG lead 34-14 and were driving. They had 1st and goal at the 1. I'm thinking that we punch this one in it's 41-14 and it's game over. On the ensuing play our RB fumbled before crossing the goal line and the ball rolled into the end zone. A Bishop Mac DB picked it up and ran 102 yards for a TD. Now it's 34-21. We start the ensuing possession at our 25. First play our same RB who had fumbled previously fumbles again. Bishop Mac recovers and has the ball on a short field. They had a good RB that year. Up to this point we had done a good job controlling him. Three plays later he scores and it's 34-28. That ended up being the final score. I don't recall seeing another game in which the momentum flipped so quickly. It flipped from a blowout to a competitive game in just a couple of minutes.

OSUBucks wrote:2005 Bishop Mac @ SHG Any time you play Rich Zinanni's team you can expect a hard hitting affair. SHG was ahead at half though not by a lot. Finally in the 4th quarter they appeared to be in control as SHG lead 34-14 and were driving. They had 1st and goal at the 1. I'm thinking that we punch this one in it's 41-14 and it's game over. On the ensuing play our RB fumbled before crossing the goal line and the ball rolled into the end zone. A Bishop Mac DB picked it up and ran 102 yards for a TD. Now it's 34-21. We start the ensuing possession at our 25. First play our same RB who had fumbled previously fumbles again. Bishop Mac recovers and has the ball on a short field. They had a good RB that year. Up to this point we had done a good job controlling him. Three plays later he scores and it's 34-28. That ended up being the final score. I don't recall seeing another game in which the momentum flipped so quickly. It flipped from a blowout to a competitive game in just a couple of minutes.

1995 - SHG vs. Bethalto, the coldest game I was ever involved in. It rained all Friday and Friday night/Saturday morning, it snowed and got very cold. The field was wet but was covered by a couple of inches of snow with a crust. the temperature was 20 with a a wind chill in the -teens. We did not have any heaters on the sideline because the head coach felt the players would be more worried about keeping warm than the game. Both offenses struggled. Civic ran flexbone option with a lot of motion, We ran I - Iso, power, GT, Power, belly option, we adjusted better to the conditions well. Defensively, I was very proud of our defense. They shut down a style of offense we had never seen. In the 3rd quarter, we fumbled on our 10 and Civic had a chance to pull within one score. We held and they failed to convert on a 4th/goal from the 35. SHG won 13-0.
2010 - Rochester at QND, we had beaten a very good QND team in the 2009 quarterfinals. The 2010 QND team was not as talented on offense as in 2009, but they were big, physical, and talented on defense. It was cold, windy, rained the night before, they were at home, the field was terrible, their crowd was large and loud, and they wanted payback. Hell of an atmosphere for a quarter final game. QND defended our offense better than anyone else that season. We were down at halftime. Our starting Sam LB, John Gilson, hurt his knee right before the half. He was a big loss both on defense and special teams. His back-up, was a sophomore who had seen action on special teams, mop up duty at the end of games. At halftime we told him he was in. He did not blink and said he was ready. He had hell of a 2nd half - a couple of sacks, a tackle for a loss, batted pass, and a pass break up. The replacement, , Garrett Dooley, gave us added depth the next two games, had a great career at Rochester and Wisconsin where he was a two year starter on some great Badger defenses. At the end of the 4th quarter, our FS, Mike Gunter (current DB coach at IWU), had his 9th int nd third pick 6 of the season. That sealed it for Rochester, a 25-21 victory.

Coach53 wrote:All I remember is a Glenwood fan laughing at our team after the game and mocking us and my father telling that guy to "Shut the hell up"

too bad he wasn't on the docket the following week.

net wrote:

Coach53 wrote:All I remember is a Glenwood fan laughing at our team after the game and mocking us and my father telling that guy to "Shut the hell up"

too bad he wasn't on the docket the following week.

He was already VERY retired at this point

Horsefeather wrote:2001:  Morris @ Triad:  We made the four our trek south to play Triad.  We got there super early & for whatever reason, Coach Darlington (HC at the time) didn't want us to leave the locker room.  So, as we're sitting in the hall, a couple of their players walk by.  We notice their wearing turf shoes & elbow pads for rollerblading.  I remember us thinking that was really odd... until we went to the field.  They had just had some massive rains and they rolled the field afterward to pack it a bit, I assume.  Anyway, it was like playing on concrete, our spikes were slipping all over the place.  Then the game started & Triad played incredibly dirty.  Late hits, players headhunting off the ball, they even had one kid who took our starting tackle and just grabbed him by the collar and slammed him into the ground repeatedly.  We made it out with the win, but it was a crazy afternoon.

I dive for a ball that would have been a no gain. Don’t catch it and separate my shoulder. Most games I didn’t get a play off. Drove the four hours to play ten minutes. I wake up with numbness in my arm to this day from that Saturday afternoon. And, needless to say they played dirty. I have never seen anything else like it in my coaching/playing career.

2012 Newman @ Wilmington.  This was the one of those special groups that played way above their actual talent level.  Game was back and forth the whole time, we score 1 TD on a fumble that literally lands in the hands of or DT who runs it back. We are leading late and Wilmington drives to score and we have to stop them on a 2 pt conversion for the win. They put a huge OL in the backfield to lead block on a power play.  Our backside OLB comes all the way around and stops the RB short. Was one heckuva game!  Wilmington is a Great Place to for a HS football game!!

Two best quarterfinal games I've ever witnessed both involved Wilmington losses.

2004 Driscoll 14 @ Wilmington 11
This was the closest anyone came to knocking out Driscoll during their incredible streak, and it was the year that they dropped down to 3A.  Side note:  Wilmington's neighboring rival Reed-Custer upset Manteno 24-23 week 9 to knock Manteno out of the playoffs and allow Driscoll to be the largest 3A school.
These two defenses might have been the finest I've ever seen at the small school level.  Driscoll won despite having less than 100 yards of offense.  Scored on a long fumble return and another time where they recovered a fumble inside the 5.  Wilmington scored on a late blocked FG return and a made FG.  Wilmington's two time all state RB/LB was knocked out of the game in the 2nd quarter.  Most people believe that was the difference as after he was forced out, they could no longer run the ball.  Wilmington just barely overthrew a wide open fly route in the final minute that would have won it.  

2009 Wilmington 41 @ Illini West 43
IW had an amazing triple option game and that Ser Whitaker kid was absolutely greased lightning.  IW first two offensive plays were bombs over the top for TDs.  IW eventually took a 21-7 lead until Wilmington started their comeback.  Wilmo had decent balance on O and a pair of very good RB's that the opposition couldn't key one. Game is back and forth most of the 2nd half.  Wilmington takes a late lead to go up 35-28.  IW has the ball back with about a minute or two.  Eventually they are facing a 4th and forever after a couple sacks.  Shovel pass to Whitaker, he makes a couple kids miss and he's off to the races.  I think that kid became a sprinter for Iowa.  IW kicker doinks in the PAT and it goes into OT.  IW scores and get the 2 pointer.  Wilmington scores and IW stops the conversion.  Tough loss, but entertaining as hell and worth the long drive.

https://www.mcdonoughvoice.com/article/20091115/NEWS/311159998