Maybe Dontae Pope was losing his voice.
Maybe Merrillville’s senior quarterback was choking up with emotion.
Maybe it was a combination of the two.
No matter the reason, Pope needed to collect himself momentarily.
“I never thought I would be in this moment, honestly,” he said. “I never thought I’d be in this situation right now. But it’s awesome to be in this situation, knowing my teammates had my back the entire time, the fact we were able to fight through no matter what the situation.”
Pope, who sat out last season after transferring from West Side, scored the go-ahead touchdown Friday night as the Pirates rallied from a 10-point deficit early in the fourth quarter to upend visiting Valparaiso 24-20 in a Class 5A regional championship game.
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Pope’s 16-yarder with 2:22 left was his second rushing TD of the game. The 6-foot-1, 170-pounder also threw a TD pass and finished with 162 yards passing and 36 yards rushing for the Pirates (10-2), who ended the regular season ranked No. 6 in the state by both The Associated Press and coaches and will travel to No. 2 Fort Wayne Snider (11-1) for semistate.
“Huge for him to make the throws he needed to make, and he got one with his feet at the end,” Merrillville coach Brad Seiss said. “I’m just happy for him because he’s been through a lot, and he’s done a hell of a job.”
Senior defensive back Trey Stephens broke up a pass with a massive hit in the end zone as time expired to seal Merrillville’s heart-pounding win against the No. 4 Vikings (9-3), who won the 5A state title last year. Valparaiso had reached the 9-yard line with 7.0 seconds left.
“That was really just instincts,” Stephens said of the final play. “I was playing man, and I saw the ball thrown that way. It just so happened my man took me that way toward where the ball was thrown. That’s what made me get that hit.
“Every emotion in the world. As soon as that ball came loose, I was so happy.”
Seiss wasn’t surprised Stephens, who said he hurt his left collarbone on a carry earlier in the game when he landed “awkwardly” on his shoulder, came through in the clutch.
“He’s our guy,” Seiss said. “He has a banged-up shoulder. He was hurting. But that’s what he does. He’s the hit-stick guy for us. Guy was open, he saw him there and made a huge hit. Huge play for us. Awesome way to finish the game for us.”
Merrillville might have looked finished when junior Drayden Wilcox kicked a 38-yard field goal, his second of the game, to give Valparaiso a 20-10 lead with 9:12 left in the fourth quarter. Junior wide receiver Julian Stokes had caught a 30-yard TD pass from senior quarterback Justin Clark to snap a 10-10 tie with 9:37 left in the third.
“I trusted the process,” Pope said of the comeback. “We worked this whole summer and whole year working for this time. That and knowing the defense had our backs no matter what, it helped us step up.”
Indeed, Pope threw a 1-yard TD pass to junior wide receiver Xamere Martin with 5:46 left in the game to make it 20-17.
Pope set up his go-ahead TD run with a 30-yard completion to junior John Peters, trusting his receiver to speed to the ball to catch the lofted pass.
“Me and Javeoin Gills had a conversation,” Pope said of his decisive TD. “He said, ‘Follow me, I got you. I’ll meet you to the promised land.’ I said, ‘All right, let’s do it.'”
Seiss liked his team’s resilience.
“We’ve had some wild ones with these guys really for a while now, starting in ’19 when they came back from a big lead,” he said. “It’s nice to be on the good side of a wild one. Huge testament to the kids.
“When we went down 10 with nine minutes to go, it’d be easy to think it was over. But we scored that quick touchdown, and the defense came alive. It was a great team win for everybody. I’m happy for the kids. They did awesome.”
Junior running back Thomas Burda rushed for 116 yards and a 26-yard TD for Valparaiso’s first points after Pope scored on a 12-yard run on the game’s opening possession. Clark passed for 143 yards and ran for 72.
Merrillville won its fourth regional title in five seasons, with Valparaiso interrupting that string with a 15-14 win last year. The Vikings also edged the Pirates 26-24 in a Duneland Athletic Conference game on Sept. 29.
“That was a lot of motivation,” Stephens said. “Knowing we would’ve lost three times in a row, two times for (regionals) — man.”
Instead, Merrillville advances.
“I told the kids (Thursday), at the beginning of the year, a lot of people thought, ‘Oh, they’re a year away,’ because we start a lot of young kids,” Seiss said. “I told them, ‘Hey, guys, the time is now. You’re in the final eight. You’re home playing for a regional championship.’
“For us to seize the moment, it was time. The kids did a great job. It didn’t look pretty for a while. But we did it, and now we have a shot to go down to state.”
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