"I'm extremely proud of this team," Chris Hentges said with a smile wider than a football field is long. "These captains (Jake Weaver, Dylan Kopp, Ethan Holzhauser, Isaac Lopez, who were with seated with their coach in the interview room) and this entire senior class took it upon themselves --- this was going to be their goal, this was going to be accomplished."

Mission accomplished.

"They worked their tails off all summer long and throughout the season," Chris continued. "They just kept battling and battling."

This isn't the first perfect moment we've enjoyed in this forgettable year, it just seems like it.

"Everybody's been saying it," Hentges said, "what an interesting year 2020 has been from start to finish."

Interesting, but certainly not in a good way. However, it made this moment even sweeter.

"It makes it more special," said senior quarterback Weaver, who completed a stellar season by rushing for a game-high 131 yards and two touchdowns and passing for 139 yards and a score.

"Our first game (this season) was against Lutheran: St. Charles and coach told us that this could be our only game all season. Then the next week, he told us to play our hearts out every single week because we didn't know what would happen.

"We could wake up the next morning and Covid could cancel the season."

But thankfully --- and despite of our country gripped by the chaos of the virus --- it didn't.

And here they are.

"We really thought that with the nucleus we had coming back and this hard-working senior class, this was an achievable goal for us," Hentges said. "They never worried about their stat line or who was getting all the praise or glory, they just worked as a team."

Now, back to the sweatshirt.

"I kept it in my closet for 22 years," Hentges said. "I saw it today (Friday) and I put it on just to have that little good luck charm."

Good call on the good luck charm. But with this team, no luck was required.

They're simply the best.

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YOU ALWAYS HOPE A CHAMPIONSHIP GAME will feature two good teams who produce one great game, but it often doesn't happen. Friday night, it did.

"This was a great high school football game," Hentges said, "Very-well played by two really good teams going at it."

We'll start near the finish.

The game basically was a tale of two critical 4th-and-2 plays. One didn't work and changed the game; the other did and ended it.

The top-ranked Crusaders (14-0) had a 28-23 lead over the Rams (7-1), who missed the first six games of the season due to Covid concerns in the St. Louis area.

Early in the fourth, the Rams faced 4th-and-2 from their own 28 ... and went for it.

"We thought they might punt," Hentges said. "But their thought was kinda like our thought, both teams went for a lot of fourth downs.

"This was an offensive game, I thought they just didn't want to give it back to us."

It was a pass play, no less.

"We felt like we had a really good play to steal those two yards," MICDS coach Fred Bouchard said.

Instead, the pass attempt skipped short of the receiver, and the Crusaders got it at the 28 with 10:41 left.

"That stop, I think, was the difference in the ball game," Hentges said.

Six plays later, Weaver scored on a 4-yard run and it was 35-23 with 7:40 left. That turned out to be the winning touchdown, because the Rams answered with a quick eight-play, 73-yard burst to make it 35-30 on junior quarterback Reagan Andrew's 6-yard run with 4:50 left.

The Crusaders weren't lined up for the ensuing onside-kick, but they still recovered the squib at their own 41. The Rams had two timeouts left.

On third-and-1 from midfield, Weaver gained two yards to extend the drive and continue running the clock. The Rams still had two timeouts left.

On third-and-2 from the MICDS 40, Weaver gained three yards to extend the drive and continue running the clock. The Rams still had two timeouts left.

The Crusaders were making the crucial conversions, while the Rams were running out of time.

"We had a good week of practice and the coaches had (a great game plan) for us," Weaver said. "We knew what had to be done, the offensive just clicked tonight."

After a 3-yard run by Alex Clement on first down, the Rams took their first timeout with 1:27 left. Weaver gained four yards on second down but went out of bounds, before Clement was stopped a yard short of the first down on third down. The Rams took their last timeout with 1:11 left.

Whoever won the next play would likely win the state championship, because the Rams were moving the ball at will and in big chunks in the second half.

The handoff went to Clement who was hit at the line of scrimmage ... but kept churning his legs. And churning his legs. And moving forward. Until he got the first down by a narrow margin.

It was a championship effort on a play that secured the state championship.

Now, the Helias offense had the pleasure of ending it in the victory formation.

"That's the best play in football," Weaver smiled. "We knew we won the ball game, it's just a great feeling."

This is indeed a dream come true for this senior class ... a dream that goes a lot farther back than the start of their senior years.

"We've been talking about this since we were in fifth grade," said senior linebacker Ethan Holzhauser. "We were going to win a state championship together."

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TWO DOWN-TO-THE-WIRE games the last two weeks helped the Crusaders get ready for what was coming.

"In the regular season, the starters would be done by halftime or the third quarter," senior lineman Dylan Kopp said. "But this whole playoff season, it's been a fourth-quarter grind. It's been a dogfight.

"That's what we like, playing with your brothers out there until the last whistle."

On this night, going for it fourth down was the rule, not the exception --- it happened nine times. Number of punts? Zero.

"We have a lot of respect for their offense," Hentges said, "so when we got in third down, I kept telling our offensive coordinator Zach Rockers, 'We've got two downs, we've got two downs.'

"We had that fourth-down mentality, and (MICDS) did, too."

And both were good at it --- a combined 7-of-9 fourth-down conversions, with the Crusaders going 4-for-5.

Helias took a 7-0 lead late in the first quarter, and bumped it to 14-3 when Weaver finished a massive 16-play drive on a 2-yard run with just 80 seconds left in the first half.

But MICDS then set the tone for the rest of the game by going 74 yards in just six plays and 59 seconds to make it 14-10 at the half, as Andrew scored on a 1-yard run.

The game that had only 10 total points scored in the first one quarter and 10 minutes and 40 seconds, produced 55 points in the last two quarters and 80 seconds.

To start the second half, the Crusaders bumped it back to 21-10 on Clement's 15-yard run --- when he once again fought through several tackles --- before the Rams scored touchdowns on consecutive possessions to gain their first --- and only --- lead of the game at 23-21.

Helias regained a 28-23 lead on Clement's 2-yard run with just 26 seconds left in the third, setting the stage for the fantastic finish in the fourth.

"We knew they had an outstanding football team and they were really battle-tested with the schedule they played," Bouchard said. "We also knew in a game like this, every possession is absolutely cherished.

"At the end of the day, you just have to tip your hat to Helias, they just made one or two plays more than we did."

Tip your hat, indeed.

"No team in Helias history had ever finished the season holding the trophy with an undefeated record," Hentges said., "so this is a legendary football team.

"We talked about that throughout the season --- be legendary, be remembered. Establish that standard for Helias football that others will aspire to live up to."

Perfection.

Loeffler's Link

Chris Leuckel

Crusaders looking to

make forgettable 2020

forever memorable