| Friday, September 14, 2007 11:46 PM CDT |
Late rally lifts Pontiac over U High
PONTIAC — Sam Mackinson felt responsible for a ending a possible scoring drive.
Early in the fourth quarter Friday night, the Pontiac High School receiver jumped too soon on a pass from Michael Panno, allowing University High defensive back Vince Chiodo to intercept it and preserve a 10-0 lead.
Mackinson knew he had to find a way to save his team from a second consecutive loss.
“After that play, I had to redeem myself,” he said. “I had to make a play.”
He did in a big way.
Mackinson’s two touchdown receptions over the final 3 minutes, 19 seconds allowed Pontiac to escape Williamson Field with a 13-10 Corn Belt Conference victory over the Pioneers.
“It’s awesome,” the senior said.
Trailing 10-0 late in the fourth quarter, Pontiac (3-1 overall, 2-1 in the Corn Belt) received the ball on the Pioneer 16 after a 12-yard punt return by Panno. On first down, Panno heaved a pass down the middle of the field to Mackinson, who beat his defender to catch the touchdown and cut the deficit to 10-6.
“It was huge,” Mackinson said. “Big plays like that bring a lot of momentum to a team.”
It certainly did. Following a three-and-out by U High (1-3, 1-3), the Indians had the ball on their own 43. With only two minutes remaining, Pontiac went into a quick-strike offense, which worked to perfection.
The Indians only needed two plays to march 57 yards when Mackinson caught a 21-yard fade pattern for the go-ahead touchdown.
“It was a perfect ball,” said Mackinson, who caught a 35-yard pass to set up the score. “Nothing is going through your head. You just got to focus on catching it.”
U High still had 1:35 remaining to tie the game, but backup quarterback Jake Todino, who was in place of starter T.J. Smith after he injured his throwing hand, was intercepted by Patrick Miller, sealing the deal on a second consecutive tough loss for the Pioneers.
“We just couldn’t finish the deal,” said U High coach Kurt Olson, whose team hasn’t beaten Pontiac since the second round of the 1995 playoffs. “We were right there in the end.”
The Pioneers finished with 265 yards of total offense, but only 47 in the second half. Pontiac compiled 192 yards of offense over the final 24 minutes.
“We’ve got to make plays when we’ve got opportunities, and we got a couple opportunities tonight and that was enough,” Pontiac coach David Young said.
Meanwhile, the Pioneers are still left searching for answers after letting a fourth-quarter lead slip.
“One of these days we’re going to pull one of these out,” Olson said.
Get area high school sports scores and statistics at Varsity Sports.
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bewildered wrote on Sep 20, 2007 2:13 PM:
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