For most teams, a one-point playoff win set up by an opponent’s erratic punt snap in the final two minutes would be an easy choice as the season’s most exciting game.
For St. Laurence, it’s merely in the discussion.
The Vikings have made a habit of straight-out-of-a-movie finishes, with the aforementioned 41-40 win against Crete-Monee in the Class 6A second round the latest acclaimed sequel.
“We just don’t give up,” senior quarterback Romello Washington said. “We know we can step up when it’s crunch time because we’ve done it so many times.”
The Vikings (8-3) defeated three teams, McNamara, Lake Forest Academy and Leo, by a combined score of 130-15. The cumulative total of St. Laurence’s other eight games, including five wins, is Vikings 260, opponents 265.
St. Laurence trailed 40-28 against Crete-Monee with fewer than 5 minutes left. Romello Washington’s touchdown pass to Keshawn Douglas cut the deficit to 40-35. The Warriors’ bad punt snap gave the ball back to the Vikings inside Crete’s 10-yard line, and star running back Fayezon Smart scored the winning TD from 4 yards with 1:44 left.
“We weren’t running the ball well all game and we were passing the ball all over the place,” St. Laurence coach Harold Blackmon said. “So my first thought was I didn’t know if we had enough room to operate. But if you can get a play like that to go in your favor, of course you take it.”
In the first round, Richards missed a 47-yard tying field goal attempt with 24 seconds left for a 31-28 Vikings win. St. Laurence took the lead on a Smart TD with 4:58 to play.
The Vikings were tied in the fourth quarter against eventual 2-7 finisher Aurora Christian in Week 8 before a Levy Hamer 79-yard scoring reception accounted for the final margin in a 35-28 win.
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In the season-opener against current 7A quarterfinalist Benet, St. Laurence led 17-6, then fell behind 21-17 early in the fourth quarter before rushing TDs by Smart and Kevin Williams pulled out a 31-21 win.
“Earlier in the season I was getting frustrated about it,” Blackmon said. “We should have figured out ways to put a lot of these teams away earlier. But I’ve been around football long enough to know how hard winning is. Whether it’s by 1 or 40 points, it’s hard to win a football game.”
The Vikings’ most improbable feat might have been its 45-42 win against St. Rita in Week 4. Washington’s pass to a Viking on fourth-and-10 was deflected into the hands of Hamer for a 44-yard touchdown with 28 seconds left. It was St. Laurence’s first win against the Mustangs since 1987 after 12 straight losses.
“That was obviously a great win for our program, but we lost our sense of direction after that,” Blackmon said. “Other teams saw that and started stepping up to play St. Laurence. We had trouble matching that.”
Smart, the team’s leading rusher with 1,071 yards on 170 carries, missed four weeks with a leg injury. The Vikings uncharacteristically lost two close ones, 21-12 at Marmion and 16-9 vs. St. Ignatius. Blackmon felt that stretch was a disguised blessing.
“Fayezon being out helped Romello come into his own,” Blackmon said. “Fayezon is our heart and soul, but Romello’s the reason we’re in the third round.”
The Vikings host No. 16 Lemont (11-0) in the 6A quarterfinals at 5 p.m. Saturday. A win would put them in Week 13 for the second straight year after a trip to the 5A semifinals in 2015.
“We just have to play our game,” said Washington, who has passed for 1,732 yards with 16 touchdowns and six interceptions. “Fast, fun and physical, and fight all the way to the end.”
Twitter: @Larkin_Will