Luis Alvarado skipped into the end zone with a go-ahead, 33-yard score for Plano deep into the fourth quarter, the kind of touchdown that generally cues the end of drama in any game.
Except for one problem, the same quandary that faced two other players who had scored in the last six minutes of the Class 3A title game Saturday: There was still time left on the clock.
In an exhausting, exhilarating 47-42 Plano victory over St. Joseph-Ogden, this was no small matter. But Alvarado and the Reapers (14-0) held for one final possession, putting an end to a madness-fraught contest in which the Spartans (13-1) rallied from a three-touchdown deficit, took their first lead with three minutes left, then watched it slip away 90 seconds later.
“The whole game was like, ‘This isn’t happening,'” Plano’s Nick Nasti said. “It was just like our second-round game: We score, they score. We score, they score.”
The offensive numbers were staggering. The teams combined for 938 yards of offense and 89 points, both title-game records for all classes.
Plano rushed for 532 yards on 60 attempts to shatter the old 3A title game record of 525 rushing yards set by Kankakee McNamara against Stanford Olympia in 1985. The two teams set a new state championship game record by combining for 938 yards of total offense, breaking the old mark of 914 yards set in the 1998 Class 6A title game by Wheaton-Warrenville South and Barrington.
St. Joseph-Ogden quarterback Isaiah Olson threw for 265 yards and three scores, including 14 completions on 18 second-half attempts. Mark Gones rushed for 103 yards and two TDs and threw for another.
Ultimately, though, Alvarado’s 33-yard run with 1:46 left sealed it.
“I couldn’t believe I got so wide open,” he said. “There was nobody around me.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report