The Eagles celebrate their 32-26 overtime win in the DIAA Division I state high school tournament championship game at Delaware Stadium Saturday.
The Eagles celebrate their 32-26 overtime win in the DIAA Division I state high school tournament championship game at Delaware Stadium Saturday.
Smyrna’s Will Knight celebrates the Eagles’ 32-26 overtime win in the DIAA Division I state high school tournament championship game at Delaware Stadium Saturday.
The Eagles celebrate their 32-26 overtime win in the DIAA Division I state high school tournament championship game at Delaware Stadium Saturday.
Smyrna’s Will Knight steps into the end zone from one-yard out for the only score of overtime in the Eagles’ 32-26 overtime win in the DIAA Division I state high school tournament championship game at Delaware Stadium Saturday.
Smyrna’s Jamal Powell makes sure Salesianum’s Jeremy Ryan doesn’t catch a fourth quarter pass in the Eagles’ 32-26 overtime win in the DIAA Division I state high school tournament championship game at Delaware Stadium Saturday.
Salesianum running back Colby Reeder is stopped by the Smyrna defense at the goal line on third down in overtime of the Eagles’ 32-26 overtime win in the DIAA Division I state high school tournament championship game at Delaware Stadium Saturday. The Eagles stopped Reeder again on fourth down to claim the title.
Smyrna receives the championship trophy after the Eagles’ 32-26 overtime win against Salesianum in the DIAA Division I state high school tournament final game at Delaware Stadium Saturday.
NEWARK – On Sept. 25, the Smyrna defense gave up more than 700 yards and 76 points against Salesianum.
On Saturday, on fourth-and-goal from inside the 1 in overtime of the DIAA Division I championship game, the Eagles didn’t give an inch.
Linebacker Eli Hutchinson timed the snap perfectly and crushed tailback Colby Reeder for a 3-yard loss, and Smyrna won its first state football title with a heart-pounding, 32-26 victory over the Sals at Delaware Stadium.
“I knew where the ball was going. I knew they were going to power it up and give it to their player, 28, Colby Reeder,” Hutchinson said. “I was really hoping that we didn’t get a flag, because I realized that I thought I went offsides. I timed it up so much.”
Hutchinson’s timing couldn’t have been better, and the third-seeded Eagles (12-1) ran to midfield in a wild celebration.
“He just sniffed it out and shot a gap and let his instincts take over,” Smyrna coach Mike Judy said of his linebacker. “It helps when you run a 4.5 40 like he does.”
Top-seeded Salesianum (10-2) got three touchdown passes from sophomore Zach Gwynn in his first career start. But after Reeder rushed 34 times for 408 yards and seven touchdowns the first time against Smyrna, the Eagles held the 6-foot-4, 225-pound battering ram to 94 yards on 32 carries this time.
“We felt that if we could stop Reeder, obviously nothing against Sallies, we just didn’t think they had enough to beat us anywhere else,” Judy said. “They hurt us early in the game with a couple of bad plays on our part where they scored on passes.”
The first pass came on the Sals’ first possession, on third-and-12. Gwynn hit Jeremy Ryan perfectly on a slant pattern for a 21-yard score and a 6-0 lead.
Smyrna answered with a 15-play, 69-yard drive. Charlie Taylor took Nolan Henderson’s last-second lateral and scored from the 3 to tie it at 6 with 3:16 remaining in the first quarter.
Tresolini: Eagles thrill home fans with state title win
The second quarter belonged to Sallies. With Reeder out for one play, fullback Zach Jarome blasted off right tackle for a 38-yard touchdown run.
On their next drive, Sals coach Bill DiNardo called for a two-tight end formation. One of them – Kyle Cathers – went deep and hauled in Gwynn’s arcing toss for a 42-yard score with 3:51 left in the half.
Smyrna’s Jamal Powell intercepted Gwynn at the 1 on the next-to-last play of the half, but Sallies still took an 18-6 lead into the locker room.
It got tighter on the Eagles’ first possession of the second half, as Henderson floated an 86-yard touchdown pass to Taylor to pull Smyrna within 18-12.
The Sals were loaded up to stop superb Smyrna running back Will Knight, holding him to 61 yards on 27 carries. But that left them susceptible to the big pass play.
“We had to beat them with our outside, our skill players,” Henderson said. “They were trying to plug holes and stop the run, so we just had to step up in a different way.”
The Sals’ Griffin Salvo intercepted a pass and returned it 20 yards to the Smyrna 6, and Ryan outwrestled a defender to make a tumbling catch for an 11-yard score. With 4:08 left in the third quarter, Sallies had a 26-12 lead and all the momentum.
That evaporated in 13 seconds, as Taylor returned the ensuing kickoff for an 88-yard touchdown.
Then the teams traded punts until Knight took a pitch from Henderson, pulled up and found Jared Gillis over the middle. The senior receiver zigzagged for 68 yards to the Sals 6, and Knight scored on a 6-yard toss sweep three plays later. A false start penalty moved the two-point try back to the 8, and Knight’s run came up short to leave the game tied at 26 with 10:12 to play.
The Sals drove to a first-and-goal at the 10, but a holding penalty set them back and they eventually turned it over on downs at the 24. That was as close as either team would come during the rest of regulation, so the game went to overtime.
Both teams received four downs from the 10 in the extra period. A holding penalty pushed Smyrna back to the 20, but Henderson completed a 19-yard toss to Brandon Bishop on third down and Knight scored from the 1 on fourth down. Sallies’ Jamal Whittlesey snuffed the two-point run, leaving the Eagles with a 32-26 lead.
Reeder gained 5 on first down. Then Jarome picked up 1 and Reeder plunged ahead for 4. But on fourth down, Salesianum couldn’t convert.
“The kids played their hearts out. I’m so proud of them,” DiNardo said. “We made a lot of mistakes, a lot of things we didn’t get done that we should’ve gotten done. But Smyrna made the plays when they had to. It was a fantastic game.”
After all the talk about offense – after all, Salesianum won the first meeting 76-56 – the championship was ultimately decided on defense.
“Who would have thought it would come down to that in overtime?” Judy said. “Again, I think it’s just a testament to what our team is. It’s not just a high-scoring offense. We were a very underrated defense.
“We took our lumps when we saw Sallies at the beginning of the year, and I think it was a good thing we were underrated. It allowed us to just do our damage, and nobody really talked about us.”
Everyone will be talking about the Smyrna defense forever now.
Contact Brad Myers at bmyers@delawareonline.com. Follow on Twitter: @BradMyersTNJ