PREP FOOTBALL: Schlarman Academy rallies, wins on Hail Mary

Sep. 27—DANVILLE — Schlarman Academy quarterback Owen Jones knew exactly what he was doing.

With the final seconds ticking off the clock and the Hilltoppers trailing the Ashton-Franklin Center Raiders 52-48, the junior made sure everyone was lined up properly before calling for the shotgun snap.

"I was waiting for the clock to hit 1 second to snap the ball and then I just let my receivers do their work," he said.

Jones patiently waited for those receivers to get into the end zone. He first looked left to Jerry Reed, who had six receptions for 186 yards and three touchdowns, but Ashton-Franklin Center had two defensive backs on his side of the field.

Jones then turned his attention to right sideline where freshman Jerrious Atkinson was matched up 1-on-1 with a Raiders' defensive back.

"Jerrious was the first one that I saw hit the end zone," Jones said. "I just put it up there and he made the play. I knew he would be able to outjump the other player."

Atkinson outjumped the defensive back, catching the ball at its highest point before coming down in the end zone with the game-winning touchdown, giving Schlarman a 54-52 win in its Homecoming game.

"They had been playing off of him almost all game. He got behind the defender and Owen laid a perfect pass in there for him," said first-year coach Bob Lehmann. "I thought we almost had an illegal procedure penalty on that. I'm so glad they picked that up."

Originally, the officials threw a flag at the snap but after a discussion, they picked up the flag, ruling that Schlarman ran a legal play.

When Lehmann was asked if this ending was fun?

He responded, "maybe for you."

It was certainly a lot of fun for the Schlarman faithful at Drummy Field, especially considering this program wasn't able to field a team last fall.

"It's amazing. Going from not having a season last year to coming back to this. We are on our A game this year," said Jones, who threw for 272 yards and four touchdowns, while also rushing for two scores. "We need to keep winning games to make the playoffs."

With Saturday's victory, the Hilltoppers improve to 3-2 overall with their third straight victory while the Raiders fall to 2-3.

Schlarman's last-second victory was actually their second comeback on Saturday.

Ashton-Franklin Center led 30-16 at halftime as the Raiders converted a 28-yard touchdown pass from Carson Rueff to Zane Murphy right at the halftime horn.

"When we went into the locker room, we just had to get the guys to calm down," Lehmann said. "Having the longer halftime because of Homecoming helped. I told my guys that we got them. Things were clicking and working, we just had a couple of bad breaks."

The Hilltoppers scored twice within five minutes of the second half as Reed had a 67-yard touchdown reception followed by a 25-yard touchdown reception.

"I can't say enough about Jerry," Lehmann said. "When he is clicking, everything clicks for us."

Reed would have an 84-yard touchdown reception in the fourth quarter and with 4 minutes, 23 seconds left, Schlarman led 48-36 on a 6-yard touchdown run from Jones.

But things quickly turned.

Ashton-Franklin Center cut it to 48-44 with a 60-yard touchdown pass from Rueff to Murphy, who finished the game with 202 receiving yards on seven reception.

The Raiders then recovered the onside kick and seven plays later, they had a 52-48 lead on a 2-yard touchdown run by Rueff with 59 seconds left.

But that was more than enough time for Schlarman.

"We've been in every game that we have played this year," said Lehmann. "They just have to keep plugging away. We preach that to them every single day in practice. It's about hustle, intensity and playing smart."

The Hilltoppers opened their game-winning drive with a hook-and-lateral play that got them into Raiders territory.

After an 11-yard pass to Lincoln Cravens, Jones scrambled for a 3-yard run to set up the game-winning touchdown.

"We knew that we still had time left," Jones said. "We knew that our coaches would come through with the right plays. We knew that we could work together for something like this."

Schlarman Academy is at home again this Saturday as the Hilltoppers will host the Champaign St. Thomas More Sabers in a 3 p.m. contest at Drummy Field.