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Changing it up a little bit here, let’s talk High School football. Some say football at the High School level is the purest football, mostly because no one ever passes. I am a High School student and my school’s football team, the Bellarmine Bells, played the St. Francis Lancers yesterday for the CCS league championship. A little bit of background on the game, this was not a normal championship game.

The Bells were looking to win the league championship for the 2nd straight year. This year’s team didn’t have the stars of last year’s 12-1 team, which sent 4 players to Division 1 schools to play football, including linebacker Michael Clay who is a key reserve and long snapper for the Rose Bowl bound Oregon Ducks this season, quarterback Austin Carta Samuels now of Wyoming who won Mountain West rookie of the year this season, and running back Usua Amanam (who won’t accept my Facebook friend request!) and offensive tackle Kevin Dancer, both now of Stanford. However, what this year’s team lacked in stars, they made up for in teamwork and entered the CCS title game with a record of 10-1 with one tie.

Bellarmine and St. Francis are also huge, huge rivals. Bellarmine has had St. Francis’ number over the past few years, beating them in the regular season in 4 straight years for the first time ever in the 62 past matchups of the  rivalry and I, as part of the senior class of 2010, was there for all 4. St. Francis’ coach Michael Mitchell was looking for his 100th career win in his final game in his 14 year career as coach of the Lancers and to end the team’s losing streak against the Bells with a win in the title game.

The Bells trailed 16-7 at half time, but the Bells scored two touchdowns early in the 2nd half, one on a 64 yard run by junior running back Kris Olugbode and another on a 21 yard pass from senior quarterback Mike McGovern to senior tight end Hendee Wall which gave the Bells a 21-16 lead.

However, Lancer senior quarterback Kyle Miller led the team on a drive down field for a touchdown. The Lancers would try for and fail on a 2 point conversion. The Lancers led 22-21. The Bells answered after not getting very far on the following kickoff return with a 86 yard drive led by senior running back Kyle Olugbode, who is Kris’ older brother. Kyle had runs of 5, 6, 14, 18 and a 33 yard touchdown run. He finished with 128 yards and a score on 18 carries. The Bells would fail to convert the 2 point conversion and the Bells held a slim 5 point led, 27-22 with 2:28 left.

Kyle Miller led the Lancers down to about midfield, when he threw a mistake desperation throw which was picked off by Kyle Olugbode, who also plays cornerback. It looked as if that was the last throw of Miller’s high school career, but the Bells went three and out, giving Miller one last shot with a minute and 14 seconds left and zero timeouts.

Miller completed passes of 37 and 10 quickly on the next drive and would finish with 259 yards passing, 3 touchdowns, 2 threw the air and one on the ground, on 11 of 20. However, he would get sacked on 2nd down in the red zone, forcing third down, and then make a questionable decision to spike it with 40 seconds left on the clock, forcing 4th and 11 on the Bells 22 yard line.

His next throw would be his last as a Lancer. It was broken up by Bell senior cornerback Calvin Hemington. The Bells took over possession on the failed 4th down and would kneel down for the victory. As a fan, it was amazing. To be a Bell watching our team go 5-0 against our rival in the time I was a student, winning the 5th one in dramatic fashion to win our 2nd straight CCS title, was amazing.

The bleachers erupted in mass chaos and celebratory shoving. I have three giant lumps on my legs from being caught up in the chaos of victory and I didn’t even play in the game. I stood in the bleachers the whole time. I call them my battle wounds. I got a Bellarmine “terrible towel” during the game, a towel I had to physically pry out of my friend’s hands, almost tearing it in the process. The towel now sits hung above my bed and reads “Go Bel ls” thanks to a bit of stretching as a reminder of this game, my last football game as a student.