Senior running back Justin Hall had no doubt the play was going to work.
“Coach ‘Buzz’ (Buzea) asked us if we were confident we could run this play during the timeout,” Hall said. “I said, ‘Heck yeah.’ I was confident, the quarterback was confident.”
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Trailing 31-28, the Vikings faced a third-and-goal from the Naperville Central 9-yard line with 42.6 seconds remaining in the game.
The play called for Hall, a Northern Illinois recruit, to accept a direct snap and run to his left. He would then pitch the ball to sophomore Dominick Jones on a reverse. Jones was then supposed to find a receiver in the end zone.
A Naperville Central defender, however, hit Jones just as he was releasing the football. That caused the pass to float high in the air and allowed Mike Oliver to grab the interception to secure a 31-28 win for the visiting Redhawks in the second round of the Class 8A playoffs.
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Naperville Central (9-2) will play the winner of Saturday’s second-round game between Maine South and Warren in the 8A quarterfinals.
“We end every practice with that play,” H-F coach Craig Buzea said. “We tell ourselves if we’re ever going to be in this position, that’s the play we’re going to run. We missed a block up front and they got penetration.”
“Unfortunately, we couldn’t run the play how we wanted to,” Hall said. “This hurts. We thought we were going to score.”
The Vikings (9-2) did, in fact, score during that drive. Quarterback Kellyn Gerenstein hit Ryan Flournoy with a 37-yard touchdown pass with 2:04 left that seemingly gave the Vikings a 34-31 lead.
The TD, however, was nullified by a penalty.
“I don’t know how that call was made,” Buzea said of the Vikings having an ineligible player downfield. “I’ve never seen anything like it. We were in shock how that would be called a penalty.”
“We thought we had the lead,” Gerenstein said. “We were able to regroup and keep the drive going. We expected to score again.”
Gerenstein delivered a superb effort. After missing eight weeks with a stress fracture in his spine, he returned in Week 9 and split time at quarterback with Jones, a sophomore.
A 5-foot-11, 170-pound senior, Gerenstein completed 7 of 8 passes for 97 yards. He also ran for 62 yards and a TD on 12 carries.
Gerenstein’s 9-yard TD run with 3:52 left in the third quarter brought the Vikings within 24-21.
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“We never panicked,” Gerenstein said. “We just wanted to get the ball back and score.”
Hall had a final game befitting his remarkable career. He rushed for 154 yards on 32 carries and caught a 42-yard TD pass from Jones.
“I didn’t think I was going to get the ball that much,” Hall said. “But it was working out so well, I kept getting the ball.”
H-F senior Marcell Ellis had a 38-yard TD run that tied the game 14-14 with 1:10 to go in the first half.
The Vikings’ defense, led by linebackers Opeyemi Fatuki and Mario Wright and lineman Isaiah Coe, came up with big stops.
The Redhawks, however, hit on three big plays: TD passes of 24 and 55 yards and a 55-yard pick-six by Western Michigan recruit Jayden Reed.
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“Usually I would cry after a game like this,” Gerenstein said. “But I know we did everything we could.”
Twitter @disabato