Bennett County will advance to the high school football championship game in South Dakota after a historic win over Kimball/White Lake on Friday night. The Warriors ran a fake incomplete pass on the final play of regulation to score the game-winning touchdown.
It may or may not have been on purpose.
Either way, it is a testament to the victorious high school football players for knowing what is and is not a live ball. Their opponent thought the game was over and stopped playing!
The South Dakota high school football playoff game was decided on the final play.
Bennett County High School is located in the small town of Martin, South Dakota right in the middle of the state. It enrolls approximately 125 students in Grades 9-12.
Kimball High School is even smaller. It enrolls less than 100 students in Grades 9-12. Nearby White Lake High School is even smaller. It enrolls less than 50 students in Grades 9-12 and less than 150 students in total across the entire K-12 district.
Because they are so small, Kimball and White Lake join together as a co-op team for high school football. The two campuses are separated by 15 miles. Students travel back and forth for practice during the week.
However, even as a co-op team, Kimball/White Lake does not have enough players to play an 11-man high school football game. It and Bennett County both play 9-man football in Class 9A of the South Dakota High School Activities Association. The Wildkats compete in the Southeastern region. The Warriors compete in the Western Great Plains region.
Kimball/White Lake traveled to Bennett County on Friday for the third round of the South Dakota high school football playoffs, which also serves as the semifinals. The Wildkats earned the No. 8 seed. The Warriors earned the No. 5 seed.
They played to an instant classic. It was decided on the final play of the game.
Bennett County ran a fake incomplete pass to score a walk-off touchdown.
Kimball/White Lake held a one-point lead with six seconds remaining in the fourth quarter. Bennett County had the ball on offense at their own 34-yard-line. There was only enough time for one more play. What happened next was a miracle.
The Warriors broke the huddle with only two options: a 65-yard Hail Mary or pitchy-pitch-woo-woo. They went with the latter.
Bennett County’s quarterback took the snap out of the shot gun and passed over the middle of the field to his wide receiver. The wide receiver took a few steps, turned back toward the line of scrimmage and threw a backwards pass back to his quarterback. The quarterback caught the backwards pass behind the original line of scrimmage and scrambled around in the backfield for a few seconds before he threw another backwards pass to his teammate split out to the right. His teammate threw right back.
This is where it gets crazy. (If it wasn’t already!)
The Warriors quarterback did not catch the second pass from his teammate. He let it bounce off of the grass. Game over. Kimball/White Lake celebrated the win.
Except it was not game over! Bennett County did not throw a forward pass, which means it was a live ball. The quarterback paused for a moment and then he took off running. The Wildkats were completely caught off guard and unprepared.
As a result of the lackadaisical defense, the Warriors’ quarterback was able to run 66 yards for the game-tying touchdown. He crossed the goal line as time expired to set up the game-winning extra point.
Bennett County will head to the Dakota Dome to play the South Dakota Class 9A high school football championship game for the first time in school history. I do not know whether it was a designed play or an extremely fortunate sequence of events but the Warriors used a fake incomplete pass to defeat the Wildkats of Kimball/White Lake on the final play of the game!