University Lab finally got one last late shot Wednesday after Zachary Junior Broncos Elite had appeared poised to close out the hard-fought battle of unbeaten middle-school teams with a two-point stop and a couple of first downs.
The Cubs finally corralled a fourth-down stop at their own 49-yard line with 33 seconds left, and a second-down pass from Henry Barham to Ryder Leach for a catch, broken tackles and run down to the 26 swiftly escalated the intensity toward a thrilling finish.
With two seconds remaining, coach Aaron Ernest had the perfect trick up his sleeve: a double-pass play from Callum Mays to Barham and then deep to Jordy “Bubs” Templet in the back corner of the end zone for the 18-14 victory.
“Super, super, super proud of this group,” said Ernest, the decorated former LSU track star. “I told ’em, ‘We just need one stop. Don’t let the two-point conversion be the end of this game. It’s four minutes left, five minutes left. They may get a first down or two, but we have three timeouts. We can get the ball back.’
“And that’s really, really good. We’re missing two of our starting offensive linemen. We lost our starting running back, who has 10-plus touchdowns for the season and lost our other backup running back as well. So to come in against a really, really good Zachary team that we always struggle with and get a tough victory on the road like that, it shows the great group of guys we have. They showed great heart. And the coaches did a great job coaching these guys up as well.”
Both defenses started strong with a shutout first quarter and continued to come up with more steps than scores allowed, including a third-quarter Junior Broncos interception by Braylon Poydras that set up quarterback Carter Jackson‘s second rushing touchdown for the 14-6 lead.
Leach and Templet had been among the the key weapons for the Cubs, including the former’s two rushing touchdowns to put his team ahead, 6-0, early in the second quarter and pull it back within 14-12 late.
And both came up big again when University needed them most in their final precious snaps.
“Our defense was phenomenal,” said Leach, catching his breath from the Cubs’ celebratory run off the field. “We were lock-down the whole game. We brought physicality to that game. A lot of people didn’t think that we would win. We hadn’t been playing great… but our quarterback, he did a great job right there. Our offensive line made crazy gaps for me to run. I just thank God so much.”
Barham smiled and admitted the final play wasn’t one on which University had worked this season
Last year’s team had used the double-pass, Ernest said, and the play came to mind on the spot as a way to mitigate the pressure he expected to Junior Broncos to bring and buy Barham more time and space to get off an end-zone heave and his receivers more time to get downfield.
From the snap — Mays’ first of the night — to both throws and both catches, the Cubs couldn’t have executed the play more confidently if they had repped it 100 times before.
“I didn’t even know what was going on,” Barham shook his head almost still in disbelief. “It was crazy. We never ran that play before, and it was just — after Callum snapped it, he threw it to me, and nothing was going through my mind except throw it downfield. And I threw it to Bubs, and he caught it and scored, and it was just crazy.”
Said Templet: “He threw it to the back of the end zone, and I was just like, ‘Basket catch, don’t drop it,’ and ended up getting it, and it was a really nice experience.”
The thrilling finish for the University sidelined was a difficult spoiler to a good night in many ways, including several top performers, for Zachary Elite for more than 31 minutes of game time.
“U-High has a great coaching staff, so I love those guys and love playing those guys,” Junior Broncos coach Ralph Walker Jr. said. “It’s really a class act. It definitely lived up to the billing. We knew it would be a tough game. It always is. Every year. That’s why we love fighting with these guys. It came down to one play, which they drew up a good play and were able to execute it, so I’m good with that. But overall, as far are our guys, we didn’t do a bad job at all. I thought we fought hard.”
[ MORE ON THE ZACHARY JUNIOR BRONCOS ELITE PROGRAM ]
Walker credited the Cubs’ pressure for contributing to Zachary’s trouble ever finding a rhythm in the passing game, but Jackson and the running backs were able to find room to run behind their big offensive line.
And several players had big moments, in many cases in extensive action on both sides of the ball, such as standout Ashton Williams, whose defensive highlights included the disruptive tackle for loss on the Cubs’ late two-point attempt to preserve the lead, while he also helped provide key blocks for his teammates throughout the night on offense.
“I’m proud of all of our guys,” Walker said. “Ashton Williams, Braylon, Zayden Quebedeaux, Micah Payton, these guys played with a high motor. They played a majority of the game They played with courage, played physical. They’re all guys that I’m proud of and looking forward to see what they do at the next level.”
