A surreal final 35 seconds Friday of penalties, timeouts and championship celebrations that were and then weren’t left onlookers at losses for how to put the chaos into worthy words.
For coach Wayne Stein and his players, the explanation of St. Charles Catholic’s wild, 23-21 comeback to stun reigning champion Archbishop Shaw for the Division-II Select title was clear: divine intervention.
The No. 1 Comets (13-1) said their late special teams and strength coach John Talley, who passed away at the end of last season, had a clear hand in the final steps of their climb back to the mountain top for the first time since 2022 right to the game-winning 44-yard field goal drilled by senior kicker Tyler Milioto with five seconds remaining.
“After our kids honored him, we started to go to work, and we said that we were going to dedicate the season to coach Talley,” Stein said. “We were very careful that that didn’t mean it was going to be a championship. We knew the type of schedule we had and knew the division we were in. We wanted to honor him in the way the way that we prepared every day and competed and played with toughness, because he was a tough sucker.
“And just things have happened to us lately. Last week, we beat U-High, we blocked an extra-point to get to overtime. I don’t know if you believe in those things, but it was John Talley’s 62nd birthday last Friday. And somehow his intervention was there again tonight. I can not say enough, though, about my kids.”
The largely new-look No. 7 Eagles (9-5) after graduating 17 of last season’s starters appeared to be authoring their own storybook season.
Archbishop Shaw built a 21-14 lead on a pair of third-quarter touchdown runs by junior quarterback Allen “Red” Shaw III, a converted defensive back, and more than 24 straight minutes of shutout defense.
After three punts and an interception to start the second half, St. Charles Catholic pieced together an 11-play, 82-yard drive — its best of the game — for a hard-fought Skyler Edwards touchdown on the goal line with 35 seconds remaining.
But the typically reliable Milioto’s extra-point kick shanked wide left and appeared to leave the Comets’ rally a point shy.
“They did drive 80 yards to cut the lead to one,” Archbishop Shaw coach Hank Tierney said. “And then having really great special teams like they do, it’s very unusual for them to miss the extra point, and they did. And actually when that happened, the game was over. We should’ve won the game.
“But I’ve been a head coach for 40-plus years, and I’ve seen a lot of crazy endings to games and have lost games tough a lot of times, but this was absolutely the toughest loss I’ve ever taken as a coach. I have had my share of good times and bad times, but I really feel bad for these young men because they worked so hard.”
The Eagles recovered the ensuing onside kick attempt and prepared to run out the clock with St. Charles Catholic down to two timeouts.
Stein hesitated momentarily deciding whether to call timeout, and an Archbishop Shaw player removed his helmet to begin celebrating his team’s apparent repeat championship.
“I wasn’t sure if I was just gonna shake hands after the first kneel-down,” Stein said. “That’s why, if you noticed, it took me four seconds to call timeout. Luckily, divine intervention: helmet comes off, and I called the timeout after that. That’s how I was awarded my timeout back. So I guess it’s a whole lot of divine intervention going on between that and coaching decisions as well.”
The penalty stopped the clock after first down and preserved the Comets’ timeouts for second and third to force a punt with 20 seconds remaining.
Milioto’s kicking net on the sideline had already been taken down and his tees was lost by the time St. Charles Catholic coaches realized he needed to begin preparing for a potential shot at redemption.
“I’m looking everywhere, and I can’t find (the tees), and I realize someone picked ’em up because they thought the game was over, so I go back and get the tee out,” he said. “And they’re trying to put the net back together, but it’s not easy to put together. It’s a lot of pieces. So then they just picked up the net and were holding it, and while I was kicking it, I was hitting somebody. Somebody was holding it from the middle, and every time I would kick it, I was kicking ’em right in the back.”
Archbishop Shaw’s punt shot quickly out of bounds left for just 8 yards and set St. Charles Catholic up at the 32-yard line with 17 seconds now on the clock.
Junior quarterback Landree LeBlanc hit senior receiver Ethan Gros on a quick out to the right side to set up a 44-yard game-winning opportunity for Milioto.
And confusion only further mounted as officials mistakenly flagged Tierney for calling a timeout before the kick.
“They dropped a flag at the end. We had a timeout. They picked it up, and they didn’t move it 5 yards,” he explained. “That was a big ol’ controversy, ‘Oh, we told you you didn’t have a timeout.’ We had a timeout. I’m not very smart, but I can count to three.”
Milioto stepped up and drove the ball through the uprights this time for his team’s first lead since early in the half.
And the Comets closed out the win with a kickoff and one last defensive stop.
“I just think it had to be God,” Milioto said. “I mean, I’ve never seen that. The game was over. They just had to kneel the game out, someone takes their helmet off, now we get another chance, and then they shank the punt, and now we’ve still gotta make the field goal. And I felt like it was kinda going out, and then it just curled back in and went down the middle.”
This story will be updated…