Otto Young fumbled a punt in the PIAA Class 4A football semifinal against Cardinal O’Hara and nearly fumbled away a ball after making a catch on what turned out to be the game-winning drive.
The Southern Lehigh junior had an opportunity to fold.
Instead, he took advantage of his chances to contribute during Thursday night’s state final and became one of the Spartans’ many heroes. He hauled in two touchdown catches in a 43-21 victory over District 3 champion Twin Valley.
“Last game, I knew I didn’t play well,” Young said, “so I knew I had to step up and make some plays.”
Southern Lehigh had many opportunities to let things go south during its first state final.
Twin Valley needed less than two minutes to move 69 yards on the game’s first possession to take a 7-0 lead.
Southern Lehigh responded with a touchdown drive of its own to tie the game.
The Spartans appeared to have a stop in the red zone on their second defensive series but were flagged for a hold, giving the Raiders another shot at the end zone. But linebacker Jacoby Jacobs stuffed Twin Valley standout running back Drew Engle on third down to force a field goal attempt that was partially blocked to keep the score tied.
Southern Lehigh made its first field goal of the year to take its first lead 10-7, but Twin Valley needed only 52 seconds to regain the advantage on a 64-yard touchdown pass.
The Spartans again responded, with a 26-yard TD run by Sean Steckert on fourth down to take a 17-14 lead at halftime.
“I wasn’t expecting that,” head coach Phil Sams said. “I was expecting to have to call a couple pass plays and call a timeout to try to get in [to the end zone]. It couldn’t have worked out any better. A lot easier.”
Southern Lehigh never relinquished the lead again in capturing the school’s first state title by any boys program. But there was still enough second-half drama to keep Sams’ heart rate up.
Steckert and the offensive line kept the chains moving throughout the last two quarters. He set a 4A state final record with his 301 rushing yards and four touchdowns, finishing off an unbelievable senior season with 3,212 yards and 45 TDs.
“You try to get a little creative with [the running game],” Sams said, “but it’s difficult. We use different formations, but that’s how good the line is. Everyone knows who is getting the ball and where’s he going. But you still have to stop him. That’s a fun thing to have as a coach.”
What also worked out well for Southern Lehigh is that its passing game is better than most, including that of Twin Valley. It was evident and pivotal in the second half.
The Raiders became more aggressive defensively in an attempt to thwart the Spartans’ run game. That was clear on the first two plays of the third quarter when Steckert was stopped for a 2-yard gain and no gain to put Southern Lehigh in third-and-8.
Colton Sams hit Luke Kawczenski for a 9-yard gain for a first down. It was the first of three consecutive completions, the third being a 40-yard touchdown strike to Young for a 24-14 lead.
Adam Fritts then caught a deflected pass off the hands of Engle for the first interception of the season by Twin Valley quarterback Maverik Foster.
Five play later, Southern Lehigh had a 30-14 lead.
It appeared the Spartans were rolling until a third-down pass interference call extended the Raiders ensuing drive. The District 3 champions cashed in on Engle’s 4-yard TD run.
A pass interference call in the state semifinal against District 12 champion Cardinal O’Hara nearly derailed Southern Lehigh. It went from up 21-0 to trailing 24-21 in that game before rallying in the final minute.
This time, however, the Spartans responded immediately with an eight-play, 72-yard drive that included three Sams completions, including a 30-yard scoring strike to Young, who had no problem catching and holding onto the ball in the cold weather.
“The cold makes your hands cold, makes it trickier to catch,” he said. “But it wasn’t too bad.”
Southern Lehigh didn’t have any dropped passes and Sams was accurate all night. He was 13-of-18 with three of the incompletions being throwaways when he was scrambling and no one was open. Another was a ball that Darius Roman nearly scraped off the ground for a first-half touchdown.
Sams finished the season with 2,688 passing yards and 36 touchdowns compared with only six interceptions.
Foster entered the game with a 70.7% completion rate, highest in the Lancaster-Lebanon League, and zero interceptions. He completed his first five passes Thursday night for 87 yards and a touchdown. He was 0-for-6 with three interceptions after that.
“That second half, they stopped the run a little bit,” Sams said. “The linebackers became very aggressive, started blitzing, so we’re like, ‘OK, let’s start throwing the ball.’ That’s something that’s underrated all year for us. We can throw the ball. We just have the best back around. You give it to the best back.
“Colton has been very successful. Otto Young is our No. 3 receiver who came up with both those touchdown passes. It’s nice to see your No. 3 receiver come up with two big touchdown catches. We could probably sling it 35 times a game if we wanted to. But in high school football, you want to run the ball a little bit more often and impose your will. You could see that toward the end of the game how we did that. I feel like they kind of quit toward the end.”
Up 36-21 early in the fourth quarter, Southern Lehigh’s defense did the rest. It forced a punt then intercepted passes on Twin Valley’s last two series, the first was Fritts’ second of the game followed by one from Jack Pavis.
Steckert’s last TD run capped off a near flawless performance considering the circumstances.
Southern Lehigh never punted against a previously unbeaten Twin Valley team that mercy ruled 10 of its first 14 opponents.
The Spartans converted five of 11 times on third down and four of five times on fourth down. They scored 19 more points than any previous Raiders opponent this season.
And, Southern Lehigh’s defense limited Twin Valley to its fewest point total of the year.
“The ball hit me right in the face when I caught [the second interception],” Fritts said laughing. “It’s all good. Still got it in my hands. Adversity, we’ve been dealing with it since August. It came down to this moment, and we got it done. We forced them to go lateral. They were really good going down hill. We had to have our D-ends and corners spill it, so that forced them to pass it and get our offense back on the field.”
The result was a dream finish to a dream season.
“Crazy,” Fritts said. “Personally, I didn’t think we’d be able to do this at the beginning of the year. I feel like our team was really good last year. Our team [showed] that it’s really good this year, too.”
Senior writer Tom Housenick can be reached at thousenick@mcall.com
Colonial-Schuylkill League football standings
Team (Overall record); Division record; Points for; Points against
Red Division
x-Northwestern Lehigh (15-1); 8-0; 692; 231
Southern Lehigh (15-1); 7-1; 642; 248
North Schuylkill (8-4); 6-2; 399; 259
Blue Mountain (7-5); 5-3; 346; 282
Lehighton (5-6); 4-4; 269; 240
Jim Thorpe (4-7); 2-6; 222; 311
Pottsville (3-8); 2-6; 167; 284
Tamaqua (4-7); 2-6; 181; 290
Bangor (0-11); 0-9; 119; 400
White Division
x-Notre Dame-GP (12-1); 8-0; 542; 137
Northern Lehigh (8-4); 6-2; 336; 322
Palisades (7-4); 6-2; 353; 219
Pen Argyl (7-4); 5-3; 263; 276
Saucon Valley (5-6); 4-4; 245; 248
Catasauqua (4-7); 3-5; 220; 360
Palmerton (3-8); 3-5; 152; 281
Salisbury (2-9); 1-7; 148; 321
Wilson (1-10); 0-8; 81; 409
Blue Division
x-Schuylkill Haven (12-1); 9-0; 694; 189
Williams Valley (12-2); 8-1; 578; 232
Minersville (9-3); 7-2; 468; 241
Marian Catholic (7-4); 6-3; 274; 235
Tri-Valley (7-5); 5-4; 328; 203
Panther Valley (4-7); 4-5; 194; 334
Nativity BVM (4-7); 3-6; 195; 276
Mahanoy Area (2-8); 2-7; 98; 361
Pine Grove (1-9); 1-8; 68; 352
Shenandoah Valley (0-10); 0-9; 132; 404
x-division champion
