Kapaun uses late FG to top West

For 36 straight minutes of Friday’s game against West, Kapaun Mount Carmel hid behind the lead it built in the first quarter with a barrage of 28 points.

During those 36 minutes, West was so dominant running the football that it came back and believed if it got the ball back with a little over two minutes remaining in the game that the game-tying touchdown was inevitable.

Faced with a fourth down at the West 29-yard line, Kapaun could hide no longer. It was either punt the ball and give West a shot to rally or trust sophomore Preston Williams with a field goal attempt. From 47 yards out. In the rain.

Kapaun coach Dan Adelhardt chose Williams and the sophomore left-footed kicker delivered, drilling the 47-yard field goal in the light drizzle at Cessna Stadium to seal Kapaun’s 31-21 victory over West that improved the Crusaders to 2-2.

“If we don’t make that, people are going, ‘What are you doing kicking a 47-yarder in the rain with a slick ball?’” Adelhardt said. “But Preston really has a good foot on him and we practice that.”

Heroics didn’t seem necessary in the first quarter when quarterback Brock Monty and tailback Alexander Norris moved the ball up the field at will. Monty connected on a 16-yard touchdown pass to Michael Tomblin on the game’s third play, then Norris added two touchdown runs on the next two drives, and Nick Channel took a swing pass from Monty and broke free for a 70-yard touchdown.

Ten minutes in and West had given up 258 yards (over 11 yards per snap), gained 13 yards on its own, and trailed 28-0.

“We weren’t tackling, we weren’t blocking, we weren’t coaching,” West coach Weston Schartz said. “You can blame that loss on everybody from the players to the coaches. We blew it.”

But Kapaun’s offense would fall silent for the remainder of the game, totaling just 114 yards on its next nine drives.

Meanwhile, West was finding success giving D’Anthony Andrews the ball and letting the 210-pound senior’s bruising style wear down Kapaun. He would finish with 31 rushes for 234 yards.

The comeback was steady, as the first touchdown drive came early in the second quarter. West marched 98 yards right before halftime to trim the lead to 28-13. A 32-yard strike from Chaz Capps to Abonjah Metcalf on fourth down made it 28-21 in the third quarter.

West would have three drives where it could have tied, but penalties sunk two of them and an interception in the end zone ended the other.

“We gave that game to them,” Schartz said. “And I’m angry about it.”

West may have had a fourth chance if not for Williams, the kicker who has earned the trust and respect from the Kapaun program with his consistency in practice. Adelhardt said he regularly drills 50-yarders and seeing that every day in practice made the decision an easy one in his mind.

The snap from Matt Knoff was on target, the hold from Colter Hullings was perfect, and Williams drove the ball off his left foot like he has done so many times in practice.

“Oh, that’s in,” Williams said he thought after he kicked it.

“I don’t know what to say. It was just the greatest feeling ever.”

This story was originally published September 26, 2015 at 12:26 AM with the headline "Kapaun uses late FG to top West."