O’Gorman defense leads 21-point turnaround in fourth quarter to beat Harrisburg 24-20

O’Gorman head coach Jayson Poppinga thought the Knights “blew their chance.” A Knights field goal to tie the game missed a few plays prior and with 1:14 left in the game, O’Gorman called its final timeout.

“If we can get one more three-and-out,” Poppinga said, “we'd get one more chance.”

Harrisburg faced a third down, but at best, the Knights would stop the run, they’d take the ball back on a punt and use perhaps the 20 seconds left to try for a miracle. And on third down, the Tigers did run. Quarterback Dylan Elrod took it himself, snuck to the outside and an O’Gorman tackle came into the backfield to make the stop. Everything was going according to plan. But then the ball fell to the ground.

And that’s all it took. Just a fumble stood between O’Gorman (7-2) and the No. 2 seed in the playoffs. Senior linebacker Nate Ratzlaff scooped it and ran into the end zone to finish off an incredible 21-point turnaround in the fourth quarter in a 24-20 win for O’Gorman over Harrisburg (7-2) at McEneaney Field on Thursday.

The win was propelled by defense the whole game. Junior defensive back Hayden Groos led the defense with two interceptions in a game where the Knights had five takeaways. Ratzlaff, who recovered the game-winning fumble-returned-for-a-touchdown, picked off a pass earlier in the game and junior defensive back Sam Marsh picked off another one after O’Gorman’s last score to further dampen Harrisburg’s comeback chances.

“It feels like a movie right now,” Groos said. “The atmosphere’s insane.”

Rally gives Knights big boost entering postseason

The win for the Knights flips their postseason seed with the Tigers, which Poppinga said, from a schedule standpoint, isn’t much of a difference. But the Knights lost star running back Maverick Jones to injury early in the game, were missing two more and still found a way to win. The boost to their momentum heading into the postseason is unquantifiable.

"That's a huge victory,” Poppinga said. “I'm just really proud of how our defense played tonight.”

At the start of the game, it was all Harrisburg. O’Gorman took the ball first, but its offense didn’t play first. The Tigers kicked to the Knights, and on first contact, the ball popped loose. A hoard of Harrisburg players jumped on the ball and, suddenly, the Tigers had a red zone chance.

O’Gorman didn’t make it easy, though. It forced a fourth down before Gavin Ross capped off a seven-play drive to score his first touchdown of the year after suffering an injury in the season-opener against Jefferson. But the Knights were able to respond with a field goal, and on the next Tigers drive, O’Gorman senior linebacker Nate Ratzlaff jumped a pass over the middle for an interception.

It was one of two interceptions in the first half by the Knights, including one by junior defensive back Hayden Groos to stop a Harrisburg red zone push with under a minute to play in the second quarter. But after Tigers quarterback Dylan Elrod hit wide receiver Tytan Tryon tip-toeing the left-corner of the end zone with 3:31 left in the half to make it 14-3, the takeaways served only to make the game closer against a Harrisburg team that’s won seven-straight and was on the verge of utter domination.

And in the third quarter, it seemed like that’s the way the game would go. O’Gorman, again, kept things close with its defense, but the offense couldn’t get anything. Elrod hit wide receiver Max Carlson for a 27-yard touchdown over the middle of the field to make it 20-3 before the end of the third quarter and, when it turned to the fourth quarter, Harrisburg junior defensive back Trevor Wehde picked off a pass at the end of the Knights' drive to the red zone.

“We’re not gonna get 17 points back in just one play,” Groos said. “Every time they got the ball back we just focused on the next stop. Didn't matter where they had the ball. We just wanted a stop.”

They got one. And then, finally, the offense made some plays. Knights quarterback Bennett Dannenbring hit Ryland Satter up over the middle of the field for a short pass, but he carried the entire Harrisburg defense an additional 15 yards. Satter rushed for a touchdown to make it 20-10. The Tigers got the ball back and went for it on fourth down to put it away with 4:55 left, but the Knights defense stopped them again.

Just 16 seconds later, Dannenbring found an open Satter over the middle and Satter kept running. He stiff-armed defenders and beat Harrisburg on an 86-yard touchdown. Suddenly, it was a one-possession game with four minutes left. The Knights' defense just needed to give its team a chance.

Groos undercut a route over the middle of the field. That was one. “Now I gotta take this to the house," he thought. But he was tripped up after a few-yard return. But O’Gorman could only move a few yards to set up a long field goal, which missed. They were running out of time. A win seemed far away. Harrisburg would get the No. 2 seed. The Knights would be the last to fall against a Tigers' team that won eight-straight at the end of the season. O’Gorman said after the game that they’ll, likely, have to play Harrisburg in the second round of the playoffs, anyway.

All of that was about to happen. But then the ball fell to the ground. Ratzlaff heard the crowd, felt the adrenaline, “picked that ball up” and, after that, “you run.”

Senior year, last regular-season home game,” Ratzlaff said. “The opportunity comes up, and you just take it all the way.”

Follow Sioux Falls Argus Leader reporter Michael McCleary on Twitter @mikejmccleary.

This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: Sioux Falls O’Gorman defense leads 21-point turnaround in 4th quarter