3A high school football championship: Key defensive stops by Hurricane kept Juan Diego from pulling away

It's easy for Hurricane fans to look at two defensive lapses as the reason the Tigers are not state 3A champions, or at the very least had a chance to take the championship game into overtime.

In reality, however, Hurricane's defense was the main reason the Tigers even had a chance at all. Without some key defensive stops in the first half, Juan Diego easily could have taken a three-touchdown lead into the locker room. And another key stop late in the fourth quarter gave Hurricane its final game-tying possession.

"That's how we've played all year," Hurricane coach Chris Homer said. "We've got great leadership on this team so that didn't surprise me at all."

After Cory Edwards' 23-yard field goal with nine seconds left in the half cut Juan Diego's lead to 6-3, a 97-yard kickoff return by the Soaring Eagle's Lars Gunderson was a crushing blow to the Tigers heading into the break.

"That's going to be in my mind for a long time, because that was a special teams thing, and you never want to lose on a special teams play," Homer said.

But the one fans will remember the most was the 55-yard screen-pass run by Tana Vea with 14.5 seconds remaining that set up the game-winning field goal.

"We just didn't come up and make the play," Homer said. "We've done it all year, but we didn't do it one time."

For most of the game, however, Hurricane's defense came up big in the tough situations — keeping Juan Diego off the scoreboard on 3-of-6 redzone possessions. On the Soaring Eagle's second possession they reached Hurricane's 9-yard line before the Tigers forced a fumble, which Danan Wood recovered. Early in the second Juan Diego again got inside Hurricane's 10 before the Tigers stopped the Soaring Eagle on a fourth-and-eight.

When Juan Diego began a possession inside Hurricane territory midway through the fourth, leading by eight, things looked pretty bleak for the Tigers. But holding the Soaring Eagle on a fourth-and-one at the 40-yard line gave the Tigers one final chance, which they capitalized on.

Actually, when the Soaring Eagle reached the Tigers' 2-yard line on that final possession, a stop at the goal line by the Tigers forced Juan Diego into exactly what Hurricane was hoping for — a field-goal try. Unfortunately for Hurricane, the fourth time turned out to be the charm for Juan Diego kicker Jaron Bentrude.

"They just made one more play than we did," Homer said. "But what's interesting about a championship game is you either win it or you lose it."

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E-mail: jimr@desnews.com