The Llano Yellow Jackets shocked the heavily favored Goliad Tigers Friday night at Ferris Complex in San Antonio 30-29 with only 17 seconds left on the clock. The Regional game will go down in LHS history as one of the most exciting and heart stopping football games of all times.

The heart stopping for this observer was not just the winning of the football game, but the details in the makings of the last 8 minutes of the game. Never has so much happened in such a short period of time.

But I digress. Let’s go to the beginning. Goliad kicked off to the Jackets. Sophomore Cash Lynch returned the ball 12 yards to the 30 yard line. First play…sophomore quarterback Luke Davis threw to senior wide receiver RJ Coplin to the outside, and RJ’s speed got 44 yards out of the play. Llano first down on Goliad’s 23 yard line. End of series. Luke threw 3 incomplete passes and the Jackets turned the ball over to the Tigers.

Tigers first down on the 28 yard line. First play….72 yards and a burst of speed….Tigers take a 7-0 lead. Next play…Llano fumbles. Next play…on the Jacket 34 yard line…34 yards and a burst of speed….Tigers 13-0…thank goodness to junior JD Friday’s blocking of the extra point.

The Jackets next possession was some better. Five plays. Luke runs twice for 18 yards. Senior running back Trey Mote picks up 6 more. Luke then throws a strike to junior wide receiver Graham Prokop for 11 yards and a first down. On the Tigers 27 yard line, Luke throws the rare interception.

Holy Cow, here comes that slot T offense again. But the Jackets are slowly getting their footing against this very tough running game. Strong tackles by Gavin Hays and Tate Morgan. Junior Jose Sillas at linebacker makes several stops. Carsten Hays is getting out of the blocks, and making stops. But Goliad has a strong 8 play drive down to the 41 Jacket yard line. There we make our stand, and the Tigers are forced to punt. But he Jackets stall. Other than a good catch by senior Heith Rhea and a 10 yard gain, Llano’s Sillas punts. Quarter Ends….

Goliad has the ball starting on the 39 yard line. Five plays later they are standing in the end zone. 19-0. But take note. Goliad decides to go for two points. The Tigers have yet to throw a pass. But this play, they throw a very short lob pass…and the ball falls threw the receivers hands….19-0.

The awaking of the ole bear…I mean Jackets…RJ takes the kick off up to the 31 yard line. 10 yards for a first down with Luke hitting Trey. Trey four runs for 11 yards…Luke hits Cash for 9 yards and a first down. Another run by Luke to the 35 yard line. A 15 yard penalty on the Tigers. 20 yard run by Trey, and the final 4 yards for Llano’s firsts score. The score is 19-7 with 6:42 left in the first quarter.

Llano attempts an on side kick, but the Tigers recover in good field position. First play…27 yards to the Llano 30 yard line. A pass! 12 yards and another first down. The Jackets hold and on fourth down the Tigers kick a 27 yard field goal. Senior Carter Bickett at safety, and junior Austin Humphries are tightening up the defense. Senior Logan Van Pelt is learning the blocking technique of the Tigers. The score is now 22-7. Take Note: Llano takes the kick off and Cash brings it to the 36 yard line. Luke completes three straight passes….20 yards to RJ…9 more to RJ…and a four yard completion to junior tight end Konrad Zwicke. But at the five yard line…the drive goes no further…so the Jackets try their own field goal by junior Francisco Parravano with seconds left in the half. Field goal easily blocked…easily blocked…it looked like 3 or 4 Tigers were at the point of the kick before the ball was even set down…half time…22-7.

The third quarter was nearly a sleeper. Each team traded punts. Good cover by Llano with senior Wesley Whitaker and junior Niko Arms down field covering. A Llano fumble and a 15 yard penalty actually work in the Jackets favor. Now the Tigers fumble. Luke runs for 15 yards. Jose catches a 7 yard third down pass from Luke. Then Luke finds Jose for a 14 yard pass and catch down to the 7 yard line. Trey runs…Luke runs…and then Luke hits RJ for the TD pass with :59 seconds left in the third quarter. Score 14 Llano….Goliad 22.

Into the first four series of the fourth quarter….the Jacket defense has forced 3 punts and forced a fumble on the last four possessions of the Tigers. Senior Colton Bailey and sophomore Cole Kennedy are making big stops. In four possessions, the Tigers have 15 yards of offense.

Llano has the ball on the 32 yard line. Cash gets four yards on a pass from Luke. Luke gets 13 more on runs. Luke hits RJ for 11 yards, and then Graham for 10 more and a first down. And Trey starts to take over. A 30 yard run down to the 10 yard line. Two runs by Luke to the one…and Trey score with 7:08 left in the game. Llano goes for two…and Luke throws to Trey and the catch brings the score tied 22-22.

There is 7:08 left in the game.

Goliad has a good return on the kick off, up to the 41 yard line. The slot-t does what the slot t does best. Takes time off the clock. I turn to my super wife, Kay and tell her that “Llano is going to win this game”. Great friend Bozo Hoskins (Carter Bickett’s Grandfather) sits to my right. I think I said to Bozo “we got this” But here come the Tigers. Goliad puts together its longest drive of the game. 12 plays….59 yards…and wasting time between each play….everyone on Llano side was watching the clock…each tick….pretty sure they took over 1 full minute to run their last two plays. Then on the Jacket one yard line, Goliad scores. Kicks their extra point….score is 29-22 with 1:20 left in the game.

The Jackets were coming off the field. Players were slapping each other on their pads….clapping…Coaches were clapping….I thought…we’re going to win this game I have no idea how…but we are. I turned to Kay and said…”we’re going to win”. Look at our sidelines. We have two time outs left…and I turned to Bozo and said this is where RJ runs our trick play.

Goliad kicks off deep….and Jose catches and runs left…stops and throws perfectly, clear across the field to RJ, who catches the ball and with blocks, gets the ball out to the 46 yard line. First play…Luke throws to Trey for 4 yards, up to the 50. Second play… Luke throws to RJ for 11 yards. Third play. Luke throws an incomplete pass. On the next pass, Luke is forced to run and picks up 11 yard and first down. There are 32 seconds left on the clock. On the fifth play, Llano calls a run!!!! Trey picks up 4 to the 30 yard line….27 seconds left…Second down…Luke rolls right and before the rush can get him, fires a strike to Cash on the Jacket sideline…Cash throws off one defender and races to the end zone, diving for the touchdown!! Score is 29-28…23 seconds.

I am writing…with my head own…I can’t see anyhow, as all Jacket fans are standing up. The conservative me…said we would kick the extra point and play for over time. Bozo leans over and says” we’re going for two!!”.. I said something I can’t write here. But as shocked as I was…Goliad for sure can’t believe Llano is lining up to go for two….setting up on the left hash mark are the Jackets. Goliad calls a time out. I actually thought the Jacket Coaches were doing this to make the Tigers stop to think for a moment….as they had blocked our last kick (The FG try in the end of the 3rd Qt). But when time was called for teams to get back on the field, Luke lined his team up for the two point try.

Out from under the senior center Will Landers, solid blocking from Jaxon Johnson, Konrad, and Marshall Henderson, Luke waste no time…fires the strike to Cash as he sprints from right to left. A picture that was sent to me shows Cash three feet above the defenders head. Llano wins 30-29. For a moment…there was a hush…then unbelievable crazy screaming by all.( Well, not Goliad)….Plenty of time….17 seconds left in the game.

Senior Colton Bailey had to finally bring this game to a close. Goliad trying to pass, found Colton instead, and his interception brought his Jackets to a 12-1 record.

Just some interesting notes. I had Goliad with 59 total yards in the second half. Trey got his 100 yards rushing. Luke nearly 200 yards passing. 8 Yellow Jackets caught passes. Pass blocking was superb…again. Defense kept Llano in the game the second half. Llano only scored its second TD with 59 seconds left in the third quarter. Goliad was picked to win by two different ratings services by 10-12 points. Goliad was a very good football team. But they left 1:20 on the clock after they went ahead 29-22. Plenty of time for the Jackets!!

Llano now has won 11 games in a row. This week at Hero Stadium Friday night, we play Edna…they are ranked # 6 in Max Prep, and # 2 by Harris Ratings. There are only two teams in 3AAA, Division I with better records than Llano. Malakoff and Edna with 13-0 records. There are only 8 teams left playing football in 3AAA, Division I. The Jackets have proven they can play with anyone. Would be a bit nicer if we started a little faster, but there was nothing wrong with the quick finish. The Jackets never gave up. Pretty sure it never even was a thought. And the Llano Coaches showed the confidence they had in this team. Llano Coaches never blinked…and the players showed their faith in their Coaches. It is so great to be a part of Yellow Jacket Nation.

Llano 28 Edna 21