Seconds after his team won the 5A state championship, Skyline coach Roger Dupaix made a somber walk across the field. Somewhere near the 10-yard line, he embraced Fremont coach Blaine Monkres.
"I felt some emotion for him," Dupaix said after a dropped pass gave the Eagles a 21-20 overtime victory. "But it was our turn, I guess."Streaking toward the left corner of the end zone for a game-winning two-point conversion, Fremont receiver Jake Brian lost the handle on a pass from Olin Hannum. The ball fell to the ground and sent the Eagles soaring - sort of. Players from both teams first tried to console the Silver Wolf senior, a likely all-state honoree.
"You've just got to pick him up and pat him on the back," said Monkres, one of the first to reach Brian. "We'd be 3-9 without him. He's the one that got us here."
The heart-wrenching ending gave Skyline its ninth state championship, the Eagles' second in three years, and denied Fremont a spot in the record books - the Silver Wolves were seeking to become the first second-year school to ever win a state football title.
"I feel sorry for the kids," said Monkres. "They worked real hard, but they had a great season."
Twelve straight victories and another gold trophy has Skyline feeling a bit more satisfied.
"It feels great. Emotionally I'm drained right now," Skyline quarterback Gus Papanikolas said before describing the final sequence as "a low and then the highest high ever."
Trailing 14-3 with nine minutes to play, the Eagles forced overtime after Richard Critchfield's 48-yard field goal, Jared Brockman's 25-yard touchdown reception and Papanikolas' two-point conversion down the stretch.
"You keep plugging away and hope good things happen," said Dupaix. "It was unbelievable. My hat's off to them, all the mistakes we made and they just hung in there."
Plagued by five fumbles and an interception, Skyline rallied after Fremont missed two field goal attempts and failed to convert on a short fourth down situation late in the fourth quarter.
"We thought maybe we could put it away there," Monkres said of the decision that gave Skyline the ball on the Fremont 40 - setting up what proved to be the game-tying score.
"We never really thought it was over," said Papnikolas. "We just played through it."
Skyline took its first lead, since 3-0 (a 26-yard field goal by Critchfield), in overtime when Papanikolas scored on a 3-yard run on second down. Critchfield added the extra point - setting the stage for Fremont's final charge.
Enter Hannum, who finished with 20 completions for 308 yards.
Faced with being sacked on first down, the right-handed quarterback switched to his left and completed a three-yard strike to Bary Hadley. Two incompletions followed leaving the Silver Wolves down to one last play. After eluding two defenders in the backfield, Hannum rolled to his left, twisted away from more Eagles, the line of scrimmage and sideline before unloading a scoring strike to Kip Nielson.
"Isn't he unbelievable?," said Dupaix. "He's good."
Hannum, who connected on scoring strikes to Shawn Van Tassell (3 yards) and Nielson (20 yards) earlier in the game, had just one request after the ensuing two-point conversion failed.
"One game better is all we can ask for," he said, while noting the "team decision" to go for the win in overtime. "We thought we could get it."