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Final Play Touchdown Lifts Spartans to Class 5 State Football title
BY JIM WIENERS
“The catch has replaced the tackle” –Hazelwood East Coach Mike Jones.
Last Friday at the Edward Jones Dome, St. Louis, Hazelwood East interim head football coach Mike Jones was watching the final play of the Class Five Championship game that brought back memories of the final play of Super Bowl XXXIV when he was a player for the St. Louis Rams.
Jones saw Eric Brown heave a 29-yard pass that was caught in the corner of the end zone by Tarrell Downing with a Raytown South defender covering. The touchdown pass with no time left enabled Hazelwood East to a 39-34 victory over Raytown South. In Super Bowl XXXIV Jones tackled Tennessee Titan receiver Kevin Dyson one yard short of the end zone with no time left to preserve a Super Bowl Championship for the Rams.
“The catch has replaced the tackle,” Jones said. It was the third state football title for the Spartans, the first since 1995, the first for the Suburban North Conference since Riverview Gardens won Class 5A in 1998 and it was the 17th Missouri State High School Activities Association championship in all sports for East. While winning a Super Bowl was great as a player “winning the state championship (as a head coach) is an equivalent,” Jones said.
“I saw the ball and I came down on it,” said Downing, who caught 3 passes for 124 yards and had two punts for 91 yards. “I felt someone behind me and I fought for control.” FOX Sports Midwest replays showed Downing’s back on the ground and the ball in his grasp and no extra point was attempted.
Brown and Downing, both seniors, opened the scoring with a 64-yard pass play on the second play from scrimmage 43 seconds into the game but Downing’s extra point was blocked. They connected on a two-point conversion pass after senior Dejuan Owens ran for his second touchdown with 1:04 in the first half that gave the 11-3 Spartans a 27-24 lead. Owens, who ran the ball 21 times for 90 yards scored the other touchdown in the first quarter and Downing added the extra point for a 13-7 lead.
Brown completed 12 out of 22 passes for 287 yards and three touchdowns, including a 26-yard pass to senior Courtney Ward with 2:41 in the game that gave the Spartans a 33-28 lead. That came after Raytown South had taken a 28-27 lead in the third quarter with a pair of Ronnell Garner touchdowns—an 89-yard run with 16 seconds left in the first half and caught a 15-yard scoring pass from Dennis Tanner in the first 2:53 of the second half.
Raytown South took a 34-33 lead with 30 seconds left in the game on a three-yard run by Sean Wheaton but the Cardinals failed on a two-point conversion which set the stage for the winning touchdown drive by the Spartans, which took four plays for 50 yards in 21 seconds when Downing returned the kickoff 15 yards from the East 35.
“Their player made the big play,” said Jones, “our player made a big play.”
Defense also scored for the Spartans as senior Dominic Nixon picked up a loose ball, that was fumbled by Raytown South’s Dajuan Beard, at the East 48 and returned it 52 yards with 7:51 left in the first half. Tanner passed for two Cardinal touchdowns, including a second-quarter play to Courtney Green, and ran for a first-quarter touchdown.
Last May Raytown South won the Class Four Boys Track title while Hazelwood East finish second and Hazelwood Central was third. “Raytown South is very athletic, very fast,” Jones said. “We knew it was going to be a challenge (so) we we’re fortunate to have the ball last.”
