Last-Second TD Lifts Springstead Over Lecanto in ‘Crazy Game’

SPRING HILL – Springstead has some season-defining football games on the horizon.

The Eagles finish their regular season next Friday with what amounts to a district championship matchup against Gaither. After that comes the postseason.

So, the outcome of Friday night’s contest at Booster Stadium against Lecanto didn’t necessarily mean a great deal in the grand scheme. In fact, both teams are presumably headed to the playoffs. That didn’t stop them from putting on an instant classic.

After the visiting Panthers took the lead with a little over a minute left, the Eagles drove down the field and scored a touchdown with three seconds to play, then connected on a 2-point conversion to pull out a 39-38 victory.

“It was nerve-wracking, heart-racing,” Springstead head coach Mike Garofano said. “I think I had three heart attacks. Just unbelievable. Unbelievable game.”

The Springstead (8-1) offense came out strong on the game-opening drive, needing seven plays to move 66 yards, capped by a 10-yard pass over the middle into the end zone from Gio Martinez to Tyree Davis. Connor McCazzio ran in the 2-point conversion to make it 8-0.

But the Panthers (6-4) took advantage of a short kickoff and ended up getting a 15-yard touchdown pass from J.T. Tipton to Armani Santos to pull within 8-7.
The Eagles ended their second possession with a 4-yard touchdown run from Martinez, though he couldn’t cash in on another 2-point run to leave it 14-7 in the final seconds of the first quarter.

Lecanto followed with a 30-yard field goal by Alexander Paul and a 16-yard touchdown pass from Tipton to Kez Joseph to take its first lead, 17-14, as 36.9 seconds remained in the half.

Springstead returned the kickoff to midfield and was able to get off a 44-yard field goal by Raul Maldonado to tie the game as the halftime horn sounded.

The Panthers went back in front on the first possession of the second half on a 7-yard run by Delonzo Washington. The Eagles tied it right back up on a 6-yard scamper up the middle by McCazzio, then forced a rare punt that resulted in a bad snap that gave them the ball on the Lecanto 15-yard line.

Jadon Jaimes punctuated that drive with a 1-yard touchdown run, putting the Eagles on top 31-24 at the 1:02 mark of the third quarter.

A bizarre play early in the fourth quarter allowed the Panthers to knot it up again. On a fourth-down play, Tipton attempted a quick kick that was blocked and recovered by the Eagles. However, the ball was fumbled and Lecanto regained possession at midfield.

That new drive resulted in a 6-yard rushing touchdown by Tipton to make it 31-31 as 8:44 remained.

Lecanto then forced Springstead into its only punt of the night and went 92 yards on 11 plays, scoring on a 4-yard run by Washington. That drive ate up nearly all the remaining time, but 1:11 was still on the clock.

Beginning at the Lecanto 28 with 1:04 to go, Martinez completed two throws for a combined 20 yards before two incompletions. A 12-yard pass to Davis on third down kept the drive alive with 24.4 seconds left.

Following a spike to stop the clock, Martinez and Chadiell Echavarria hooked up on a 35-yard pass to get down to the 5-yard line. Martinez ran down to the 1 but was stopped to force a timeout with 7 seconds remaining.

On the next play, Martinez rolled to his right and found Echavarria open in the end zone. Springstead opted to go for the win and again, it was Echavarria coming down with a tipped pass by Martinez.

“Patience and faith and believing in brothers, and my ’dawg Chadiell,” Martinez said. “We stay after practice every day for about 20 minutes just throwing. He had three of the same catches for us to win. It’s a blessing.

“We called a play (on the final touchdown) that we always run in 7-on-7 and stuff. Me and Chady practice it every day and just wide open, beautiful. … They set a blitz up (on the 2-pointer). I seen the outside linebacker coming in, he’s 1-on-1 with (Echavarria) and I liked the matchup. So he came, he tipped the ball up. Chadiell came down one hand right behind him and scored. Crazy play.”

Martinez completed 16 of 20 passes for 201 yards to go with his two touchdown passes. Xylus Pastrana had five receptions for 74 yards, while Echavarria caught five passes for 73 yards.

“It’s long-awaited for,” Echavarria said of making the winning catches. “We practice it a lot every day. And I was just waiting for my time. And right now I have a sprained shoulder, so I catch with one hand. But it’s just chemistry, team chemistry.

“… I was just trying to win. I was just thinking if I catch this, we win the game. I was playing the moment through my head hours ago and it happened.”
Three seconds had been put back on the clock following that last score and Lecanto ended up with one more play from scrimmage, a long completion that came up well short of the end zone.

“We really finished both halves really well,” Garofano said. “All those points matter. At the end of the game, what we have about a minute left and two timeouts? And we practice these things. I told Coach (Shawn) Fisher before we started our drive, I said, ‘We’re going for 2, so think of your 2-point play when we score.’

“Credit to the players of fighting the whole time, not going giving up when we were down. Go down and score with short time. They executed, did what they had to do. Clock stops, spiking the ball, getting out of bounds, executing on passes, executing the 2-point play on a backside slant to Chadiell. What a crazy, back-and-forth, crazy game.”