Lyons did not win its high school football playoff game in Illinois on Saturday. However, the Lions had one of the most viral moments of the entire season when they tried a 104-yard field goal from their own end zone.
It served as a punt.
This unusual approach to special teams is only allowed in high school football. The specific rule does not apply to college football or the NFL!
Lyons lost its Illinois high school football playoff game.
Lyons High School is located in La Grange, Illinois, a western suburb of Chicago. It enrolls approximately 3,700 students in Grades 9-12 across a two-campus system. Bolingbrook High School is located in Bolingbrook, Illinois. It enrolls approximately 3,300 students in Grades 9-12.
Both high school football programs compete in Class 8A of the Illinois High School Association. The Lions finished the regular season at 8-4. The Raiders finished the regular season at 10-1. They met in the first round of the playoffs on Saturday night.
It was a competitive game through the first 36 minutes. Lyons took a 14-13 lead with just over three minutes remaining in the third quarter on a long scoring drive that resulted in a 10-yard touchdown.
Bolingbrook took back the lead with eight minutes left in the fourth quarter.
It later added to its total with a field goal. The Raiders defeated the Lions by a final score of 22-14.
However, the biggest story of the evening had nothing to do with the result.
The Lions attempted a 104-yard field goal! (Kind of…)
Lyons faced a 4th down and long from its own six-yard-line. Most high school football teams would choose to punt in that situation but the Lions took a very different approach, as they have all season.
Instead of punting, Lyons always kicks a field goal. The distance does not matter and the goal is not always to get the ball through the uprights.
Per NFHS rules for high school football, a missed field goal is treated the same as a punt. If the missed kick comes to rest untouched in the field of play, the receiving team gets the ball at that exact resting spot. The receiving team can also return the missed kick if it chooses to do so. If the missed kicked goes out of bounds in the field of play, the receiving takes over at the exact spot where the ball went out of bounds.
That is not the case for college football or the NFL. In college or the NFL, if a field goal is unsuccessful and not caught out of the air in the field of play, the ball is placed right back at the previous line of scrimmage.
In high school, a missed field goal effectively serves as a punt so the Lions do not punt. Maybe they don’t have a player who is capable. Perhaps they do not have a long snapper who can get the ball deep enough into the backfield for a punt. I don’t know.
For whatever reason, Lyons does not punt. As captured on video by The Daily Herald, the Lions attempted a 104-yard field goal during its first-round playoff game against Bolingbrook. Their kicker lined up in the end zone to boot the ball away on fourth down.
Got to love a 104-yard FG attempt. (Lyons does this instead of punting) pic.twitter.com/kDGnhuE06k
— Daily Herald Preps (@dhpreps) November 8, 2026
If this happened in the NFL or college, the Raiders would’ve taken over on offense at the original line of scrimmage. Because this happened in high school, the Raiders took over on offense at the exact spot where the missed field goal went out of bounds.