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INDIANAPOLIS – This doesn’t happen without 4-5. There’s what you take home this night, along with the smiles and whoops and family hugs, the blue ribbons and the big trophy and the legacy longer than Matt Lindsay’s silences.
“I’ve run out of words,” he said Friday night, after Bishop Luers came from 10 down to beat Monrovia 24-17 in the Class 2A state title game.
Eight times now – seven as head coach – he’s stood on the big field and tried to tell us how it felt to be the last man standing on Thanksgiving weekend. And this time, maybe, it was harder than all the other times combined.
Who saw it coming, after all, when Wayne clocked them by 18 points, and Concordia stuck 42 on them, and Dwenger embarrassed them 62-0 in the last game of the regular season?
Lindsay never showed his team that game tape. They all behaved as if it never happened. And, wonder of wonders, they never lost again.
Who sees that coming?
“Our team matured so much immensely,” senior lineman Tim Kawiecki said. “Our quarterback (James Knapke), he handled the pressure well, and during the playoffs, he stepped up. He’s the biggest guy that made the difference in this playoff run.”
That was Knapke you saw two weeks ago at Lewis Cass, leading the Knights out of a three-touchdown hole to win in double overtime. That was him you saw out there Friday, completing 10 of 16 passes for 140 yards, including a big fourth-quarter throw to Kameron Mack on third-and-6 that kept the clock gushing seconds.
Maybe that play doesn’t happen if Cass doesn’t happen. Maybe Jordan Presley doesn’t tackle Monrovia’s Garrett Johnson two steps from the tying score with 6:32 to play. And maybe Luers doesn’t claw its way back if it hadn’t had to do it on that other Friday night.
“Cass, that was unbelievable. It showed us we could beat a quality team at their place, and that’s when it really started to come together,” Knapke said.
“That’s carried us ever since, I think,” Lindsay said.
And you, Kenny Mullen? “Ever since that day, I knew we would make it to this day,” he said.
And so when Monrovia scored to go up 17-7 with 1:56 to play in the first half, Knapke ran for 5 yards and threw to Mullen for 22 and threw to Michael Rogers twice for 9 more.
Then he hit Quyuan Mattox for 12.
Finally, Mullen rolled in from the 2 with 17 seconds showing, that all the lessons of 4-5 had been applied.
“After that,” Lindsay said later, “we went to the locker room thinking we’re gonna win. We came back how we have been doing it all tournament – guts, heart and hard work.”
And who didn’t see that coming, after seeing everything else?
