Dwight/GSW touchdown with 2.8 seconds left sends Trojans to third round for first time

DWIGHT – The Dwight/Gardner-South Wilmington football program has never made it to the third round of the IHSA playoffs.

When the host Trojans punched their ticket to Class 2A’s Elite Eight with a 12-6 victory over visiting Elmwood-Brimfield on Saturday, they certainly included plenty of drama in the historic moment.

A 14-yard Philly Special completion from RB Dylan Crouch to QB Collin Bachand, an unintentional delay of game that equated to trading 5 yards for a fourth timeout and a game-winning Bachand-to-Evan Cox 6-yard touchdown pass with 2.8 seconds remaining in a contest that was tied for all but 5 ½ minutes of game clock closed out Dwight/GSW’s first second-round playoff victory in history and propelled the Trojans on to host undefeated Farmington in the 2A quarterfinals.

“It feels great, man,” Dwight/GSW coach Luke Standiford said. “It’s been a roller-coaster of a season, winning three, losing three, then going on a five-game win streak here. It just goes back to the character of this football team ... and right now we’re playing our best football.”

While Dwight/GSW (8-3) had more success offensively than Elmwood-Brimfield (9-2) on Saturday — outgaining the other Trojans 257-170 in yards from scrimmage, nearly all of those for both teams coming on the ground – neither team exactly lit up the scoreboard.

Punts by Elmwood-Brimfield, giveaway turnovers by Dwight/GSW and middle-of-the-field turnovers on downs by both teams were much more common than scoring drives in a game that was tied 0-0 at halftime and 6-6 heading into the fourth quarter. Cox on a sweep left scored the hosts’ third-quarter touchdown, the Elmwood-Brimfield defense biting hard on Bachand’s inside fake to oft-used Ayden Collom.

A Dwight/GSW fumble at its own 20-yard line, however, gave the visiting Trojans and a power running game that averaged only 3.5 yards per carry on the day the break they were looking for. Set up by the running of Bo Windish – with 120 yards on 23 carries, the only runner to top 100 yards in a game that had five ballcarriers with a dozen or more carries – fellow E-B running back Matthew Glenn broke in from 5 yards out with 42.5 seconds left in the third quarter.

Like Dwight/GSW’s some five minutes before, the PAT kick was blocked, and the contest was tied again 6-6 going into the eventful fourth quarter.

Both teams drove to midfield once and punted twice in the final period. After forcing an Elmwood-Brimfield three-and-out at the visitors’ own 30-yard line, Dwight/GSW took over at its own 28 with 1:23 remaining. The way the game had gone to that point, overtime seemed the likeliest outcome.

Instead, the host Trojans mounted a 10-play, 72-yard drive. It featured two double-digit yardage runs from Cox (17 carries for 90 yards on the day), the aforementioned RB-to-QB pass from Crouch (28 yards rushing on 12 attempts) to Bachand (6 yards on 2-of-7 passing, 31 rushing) for the game’s first positive-yardage completion for either team and a Collom (17 carries, 73 yards; 2½ tackles for loss defensively) run down to the 1-yard line with time ticking down.

Dwight/GSW spiked the ball, then huddled up on its sideline seemingly oblivious that the play clock – if not the game clock – was still running. A 5-yard delay of game penalty pushed the hosts back to the 6, but the delay had allowed them to catch their breath and call a couple of plays.

“That was a coaching error,” Standiford said. “It actually ended up working out for us, because I ended up getting the play that I wanted ... but that whole time we were on the sideline, I thought that [Elmwood-Brimfield] had called a timeout. Young coach, I’ll learn from it.”

The second of those plays was the game-winner, Bachand finding Cox alone on the left wing to waltz into the end zone and start the celebration.

“Coach called that, and I was wide open,” Cox said.

“[Advancing to the third round] feels great right now. I’ve never done it, obviously, because no one at our school has ever done it. So it feels great.”