The W is All That Matters

The last 3 minutes of this Saturday's game versus Universite de Montreal seemed like the longest last 3 minutes I've ever experienced. After leading 10-2 at half-time and completely shutting down their offense, we allowed them to take the lead early in the second half, and they were seemingly in position to win the game. It became even more discouraging when, what I thought would be our last possession failed, and we had to punt the ball away. Montreal picked up a first down, and ran the clock out as much as they could, but were forced to punt the ball back to us with about a minute left. 2 penalties on the initial punt, an illegal substitution and a no-yards penalty, forced the referees to a lengthy conference to figure out the result of the play. At this point, I had pretty much abandoned hope, and was just waiting for the fourth quarter to expire. Montreal ended up having to punt again though, which would have pinned us deep in our own end had it not been for a personal foul that advanced the ball fifteen yards. Liam and the offense took the ball with less than a minute left and no time-outs. Time was running down when Liam connected with Mike Donnelly over the middle for a first down, leaving 1.8 seconds on the clock. With only 1 play left, Liam took the ball at midfield was forced from the pocket. After hurdling a Montreal defender who had forced him to the sidelines, Liam threw a pass that was much shorter than expected, to Sanchez Deschamps who was underneath most of the coverage. Deschamps turned upfield though, and cut across the flow against all of the Montreal defenders who had completely over-pursued. I had lost sight of the play at this point, standing behind some of my teammates on the sidelines, only to see Deschamps re-emerge into my vision with a clear path to the endzone in front of him. Never before had I experienced such an immediate change in emotion, from a feeling of pure disgust to a feeling of pure exhilaration. After scrambling to get our whole team off the field, we kicked the convert to win the game by a single point. I can't wait to see the play again on film, as I'm still in shock over how we were able to win that game.