CHESTER, Ill. — The undefeated portion of Dupo’s wonderful football season ended Friday night with some tears, a coach blaming himself and the Tigers perhaps learning they could do some damage in the Class 1A playoffs.
Overcoming an 18-point deficit in the third quarter, Dupo tied the game, gave up the go-ahead touchdown and then scored with 1.4 seconds left. But a 2-point pass for the win was knocked away as Chester escaped its homecoming with a 38-37 win that gives it control of the Cahokia Conference Illinois Division.
“It really hurts,†said Tigers quarterback Deegan Prater, who threw for 317 yards and three touchdowns. “We’ve been working towards this goal since this summer. We knew there was a lot on the line.
“We just came up short. We’ve bought in and we want to succeed this year. We’re all hurt by this, but I think we’ll learn from this. We don’t want to feel this way again.â€
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Prater and Dupo (6-1 overall, 3-1 league) drove 60 yards in 53.6 seconds after Tray Peters found Trey McCartney for a 13-yard touchdown pass that gave the Yellow Jackets (6-1, 4-0) a 38-31 advantage.
Prater fired a 43-yard strike to a streaking Carter Lumpkins down the right sideline to set up first-and-goal at Chester's 6-yard line with just under 13 seconds left. A 3-yard run by Prater preceded the Tigers’ final timeout with 7.0 ticks on the clock.
After the timeout, Prater lofted a touchdown to Thinh Staggs to cut the margin to one. There was no doubt in Dupo coach Zach Klaustermeier’s mind that he was going for two and the win if his team found the end zone.
The problem, according to Klaustermeier, was himself.
“Should have given it to my quarterback,†he said. “He’s our best player.â€
Not that the play Dupo ran was a bad one. Prater and Staggs tried to repeat their touchdown pass and the throw was right there. But Chester defensive back Peters, who intercepted two passes earlier in the quarter, got his 6-foot-2 frame over Staggs’ helmet and knocked the ball away.
“Same play we ran to beat Wesclin,†Prater said. “I trusted Thinh, and I thought he was going to catch it. But it just didn’t work out for us.â€
A lot of things worked out for the Tigers in their dramatic comeback. Brady Portell started it with a 91-yard kickoff return with 2:29 left in the third quarter. A safety after the Jackets were flagged for holding in the end zone at the 10:17 mark of the fourth quarter made it a one-score game.
Prater scored on a 1-yard run with 4:51 remaining, then barged in for two points and a tie. However, Chester's Peters, who threw for four touchdowns and ran for a fifth, came up with the winning plays to end a thriller.
An old-fashioned shootout was expected as both teams came into the contest averaging more than 40 points per game. But Dupo spent most of the first half on defense as Chester hogged the ball with a two-dimensional attack.
The Yellow Jackets chewed up the game’s first 7:34 with a 16-play, 80-yard drive, scoring on a spectacular 13-yard touchdown catch by McCartney. He somehow hauled in Peters’ high-arcing throw while keeping a foot just inside the back right corner of the end zone for a 7-0 lead.
Peters made it 14-0 with an 11-yard keeper at the 10:33 mark of the second quarter, making a nice cut from left to right to elude a defender just past the scrimmage line and skirting to the right corner to score.
When backup quarterback Alex Blechle pulled up on an apparent reverse and hit TaShawn Palacio for a 34-yard touchdown 58 seconds before the half, Chester led 21-0. It appeared the best thing that could happen for the Tigers would be halftime.
Until Prater struck back with a beautiful 65-yard scoring strike to Portell, who smoked his defender by five yards down the left side on the numbers. Suddenly, after a half of mostly being dominated, Dupo was down 21-7 with momentum.
“In the past, if we get down 21-0, it’s game over and we lose 56-6,†Klaustermeier said. “But this team doesn’t quit.â€
