It reads like a movie script, but that is exactly the kind of night it was. LaSalle’s 38-36 homecoming win over Montgomery on Friday, Oct. 2, went from an all-time low to an all-time high in one game.
The Tigers fell behind by more than 20 points before the midpoint of the first quarter and lost a key senior leader, one of their best players on both offense and defense. They won it on a walkoff touchdown by another senior who could hardly walk without a limp before kickoff. Tiger fans, and everyone who saw the countless social media posts, will be talking about what happened between the first whistle and the last for years to come.
Opening scene: the nightmare
A lively, packed homecoming crowd roared as the game began, then fell quiet two plays in when Montgomery hit a 50-plus-yard touchdown pass to lead 6-0.
LaSalle answered immediately. Sophomore Brayden Tannehill burst loose for a 36-yard touchdown run to tie it 6-6, the start of a big night for the young playmaker. Montgomery replied on its next offensive play with a 60-yard touchdown run and a two-point conversion for a 14-6 lead.
Then the plot turned. Montgomery recovered a long onside kick, and another long touchdown pass made it 20-6 after a failed two-point try. On the third play of LaSalle’s next drive, the Tigers fumbled, and Montgomery scooped the ball up off one bounce and ran it in. The two-point conversion made it 28-6 with 6:30 left in the first quarter.
You could have heard a pin drop. But nobody left. From the Class of ‘66 to the Class of ‘16, the homecoming crowd stayed put, waiting to see how its Tigers would respond.
LaSalle turned to the man it always turns to, senior running back and linebacker Wyatt King. He took handoff after handoff, carrying 11 times and averaging 6 yards a carry while bulldozing defenders down the field before punching it in at the goal line. He ran in the two-point conversion too, cutting the deficit to 28-14.
Junior Jonathan Wilhite’s work on special teams then paid off, as LaSalle recovered a perfectly executed onside kick. The Tigers went back to King, but after a late shove following a play, officials ruled that King had punched an opposing player and ejected him. The ruling was controversial, and it ended the first quarter on a sour note.
The Tigers didn’t let it derail them. They turned an unnecessary roughness penalty into points when Tannehill ran it in from 15 yards out to make the score 28-20.
Plot twists
Montgomery marched into the red zone, but sophomore Kasen Maxwell leaped in front of a pass in the end zone for a timely interception that gave the defense the confidence it needed for the rest of the night.
LaSalle drove to the 2-yard line before a facemask penalty on the offense stalled the possession. Then came a stroke of luck. A Montgomery pass ricocheted off a receiver’s helmet and into the diving hands of sophomore quarterback Luke Lasiter. A facemask penalty on Montgomery moved the Tigers closer, and Lasiter hit Maxwell for a 25-yard touchdown to make it 28-26 at halftime.
The second half turned into a defensive struggle, with punts and turnovers on downs for both teams. Late in the third quarter, Montgomery turned a screen pass into another 50-plus-yard touchdown and a two-point conversion, pushing its lead to an apparently out-of-reach 36-26.
With 4:00 left, the Tigers needed a spark. Lasiter delivered, firing a 75-yard bomb to Maxwell to make it 36-32. Montgomery needed only a first down to end it, but the Tiger defense refused to let that happen. An incomplete pass stopped the clock and left LaSalle with 1:00, one timeout and the length of the field.
The final reel
Lasiter kept taking shots downfield, drawing pass interference calls and hitting timely out routes to stop the clock. The Tigers reached the 20-yard line with 11 seconds left, and injured senior Alex Richmond asked to go in for one play.
The snap hit the ground. Lasiter scooped it up and fired a strike to Richmond, who was in position to take a few yards, get down and set up one last shot. Instead, Richmond chose to follow his heart over the pain in his foot. He broke four tackles and dove into the end zone with a defender on his back as the clock hit zero.
The walk-off touchdown made it 38-36, and the crowd went as wild as it has ever gone in Olla. From 28-6 to 38-36, it was a game that will live on in a lifetime of “remember when?” stories.
The Tigers are riding as high as they ever have and hope to carry that momentum into district play. The fun continues Thursday at Delhi at 7 p.m. Bring the noise. Go Tigers!
