Fairfield defeated Porta during the high school football playoffs in Illinois by a final score of 8-6. However, game officials awarded the losing team with an extra fifth down to kick a walk-off field goal.
The Bluejays were allowed to advance to the second round even though the Mules were wronged.
This major high school football controversy allowed the wrong team to advance to the second round of the playoffs. The losing team is still playing. The winning team saw its season come to an end.
Fairfield played Porta/AC-Central/Greenview in the Illinois high school football playoffs.
Fairfield Community High School is located in Fairfield, Illinois, 120 miles southeast of St. Louis. It enrolls approximately 500 students in Grades 9-12.
Porta High School, Ashland-Chandlerville Central High School and Greenview Community Unit School are all located within about 50 miles of each other, right outside of Springfield. They each enroll approximately 100/150 students in Grades 9-12.
Because those three schools are so small, they join forces for football with a co-op program known as PORTA/AC-Central/Greenview, Petersburg (where the school is located) or just Porta.
The first-round matchup came down to the wire.
Fairfield secured the No. 9 seed at 6-3. Porta secured the No. 8 seed, also at 6-3. It was an even match for the first round of the Class 3A high school football playoffs in Illinois!
The Mules held an 8-6 lead with less than one minute left in the fourth quarter. The Bluejays were on offense.
They drove down the field to set up 1st-and-goal from the 10-yard-line. Porta spiked the ball with 23.4 seconds left to stop the clock for 2nd-and-goal from the 10.
An handoff went for three yards on second down set up 3rd-and-7. And then disaster struck.
The Bluejays’ quarterback went to spike the ball and stop the clock but he accidentally took a knee instead. The clock kept running so the offense had to hurry right back up to the line for fourth down.
They spiked it with one second left on the clock. Turnover on downs. Game over.
Fairfield won the game 8-6 because Porta spiked the ball on fourth down. Even if there was one second left on the clock, the Mules just needed to take a knee. Game over.
Officials awarded a fifth down.
Even though the Bluejays exhausted all four downs on a spike, handoff, knee and spike, the Illinois high school football officiating crew wrongly gave them an extra down. They kicked a walk-off field goal as time expired on a fifth down that never should’ve happened.
Fairfield lost, Porta won, and the result is final. Illinois High School Association executive director Craig Anderson released the following statement:
On the final drive of Saturday’s IHSA Class 3A Football First Round Playoff game between PORTA and Fairfield, it appears that an error was made by the officiating crew, which resulted in PORTA receiving an extra down.
On the perceived extra down, PORTA kicked a field goal to win the contest 9-8.
IHSA by-law 6.033 clearly states that ‘the decisions of game officials shall be final; protests against the decision of a game official shall not be reviewed by the Board of Directors.’
Given that by-law, neither the IHSA Executive Director, nor the IHSA Board of Directors have the ability to alter the outcome of a contest that has been determined on the field. The contest result shall remain final with PORTA Coop advancing to the Second Round of the IHSA Class 3A Football Playoffs.
On behalf of the IHSA, I express my sincerest apologies to Coach Townsend and his players and coaching staff, as well as to the entire Fairfield administration and community.
Coach (Justin) Townsend and the school administration deserve recognition for the integrity and tact they have shown in the face of this difficult result. A core principle of education-based athletics are the life lessons that are learned through participation in high school sports. I recognize that these student-athletes have worked diligently with the goal of victory in mind for every game, especially in the postseason. I acknowledge that it is going to be difficult to find a silver lining in this particular situation, but I do hope they take pride in all they accomplished this season.
I recognize that there will be calls for the game result to be changed, or for PORTA to forfeit, but neither option is a possibility within the IHSA by-law structure. I believe it is important to understand why IHSA by-law 6.033 is in place to prevent such a situation. In this particular game, the call-in-question occurred on the final play of the game, and is spotlighted as a result. However, with the gift of hindsight, it could potentially be argued that myriad contests could or would have had different outcomes based on actual or perceived missed calls by game officials throughout the course of a contest.
What occurred on the field in the waning moments of the contest appears to be a simple case of human error, something that occurs in all levels of sport.
The crew assigned to officiate this contest by the IHSA understands that there will be an assessment and review of their performance and this situation as a result.
The IHSA will continue to be proactive in our efforts to educate our officials, while also working with our membership and Board of Directors to evaluate IHSA by-laws and policy related to officiating.
— Illinois High School Association
Even though the Bluejays were wrongly awarded the win, the Mules will not advance to the second round of the playoffs. Their season is over.
Meanwhile, Porta was allowed to advance to the second round even though it lost. It will face No. 1 seed Williamsville on Saturday afternoon.