MADISON — After a thrilling two days of state high school football action at Camp Randall, the final game, the Division 1 state championship did not disappoint.
The battle between the reigning champ Bay Port and Arrowhead came down to the final play.
Instead of kicking a field goal to tie the game, Bay Port went for the touchdown from Arrowhead's 11-yard line with one second left and Matt Stevens pass fell incomplete in the end zone.
"They wanted to go for it so we wanted to try and win the game right there and it came down to one play — 10 yards and in for the state championship and tip the cap they made a great play," Pirates head coach Steven Jorgensen said of his decision that he made with his players. "Obviously, I'll think about that decision for a long time, but I don't really want to second guess it because that's they wanted to do, that's what I wanted to do and we went for it and we just came up short."
After Bay Port took a 15-12 lead with under a minute left, on the ensuing kickoff Warhawks' Ryan Heiman returned it 76 yards for a touchdown.
The Pirates uncharacteristically had 4 turnovers, three fumbles and an interception. The Warhawks also bottled up Pirates star running back Brady Moon, who finished with 75 yards on 20 carries (3.8 ypc). He averaged over 8 yards per attempt on the season.
"It's been amazing with these guys, with this group of seniors and all my teammates. It's been amazing. I love them so much. I'm going to miss them a lot," Moon said.
"I can't be anymore proud of this team," Jorgensen said. "The just 15 seniors that we have, I'm going to miss those tremendously. I'm extremely blessed and so is this staff to just get to work with these great young men. I'm just sad I don't get to coach them anymore. That's all."
