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Sports

Late Heroics Give Francis Howell North Edge Over Fort Zumwalt East

Onside kick sets up come-from-behind victory for Knights.

ST. CHARLES – A lot of things had to go right for the to pull off a win Friday night.

With just under three minutes to play, Howell North found itself down 23-14 to with a fourth down standing between the Knights and failure. Senior kicker Brady Hawkes managed to put a 28 yard kick through the uprights to keep the Knights' hopes alive.

Francis Howell North relied on Hawkes once again to extend the game, and he did not disappoint. Hawkes laid down a bouncing onside kick that found its way into the arms of a teammate, giving the Knights another possession.

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“The onside kick was one of the best I've seen from a high school kicker,” Francis Howell North coach John Brune said of the play.

Soon, however, the Knights were on the verge of taking another loss when an incomplete pass brought up third-and-28. Sophomore quarterback Justin Hayden took the snap and fired a quick pass to senior running back Terron Givens, who used speed and evasiveness to force his way into the end zone for a spectacular 65-yard touchdown, tying the game at 23.

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At the end of the play Givens performed a Reggie Bush like dive into the grass—a move that cost his team 15 yards on the point-after attempt for excessive celebration.

“I've been playing too much Madden or something,” Givens said. “It was like in a second my body left my mind. I just did it.”

Despite the penalty, Hawkes was able to send the kick home and give Francis Howell North (1-2) a 24-23 victory over the visiting Lions (1-2).

Givens scored all three of the Knights' touchdowns and had a total of 154 all-purpose yards. His first score came on a 13-yard scamper to put Howell North up 7-0 in the first quarter.

Zumwalt East quickly tied the game and took control until the fourth quarter. Despite the pouring rain, Lions' senior quarterback Brandon Barrett was not afraid to throw the ball. With 2:17 left in the first, he connected with sophomore wide reciever Tommy Bryan for a 53 yard score to tie the game.

Barrett would threw another touchdown—a 33-yard bomb to senior wide receiver Mike Mahoney—and rush for one to help his team go into the final minutes with a 23-14 lead.

Fort Zumwalt East head coach Scott Eacret said the team's offensive success stemmed from the defensive scheme presented by the opposition.

“We caught them in a coverage problem,” Eacret said. “We had a matchup we liked and we took advantage of that. They made some adjustments defensively though, so it's a chess match.”

After their final score, the Lions defense couldn't keep Francis Howell North's offense from coming back. The Knights' running game managed to slip tackles and get extra yards until Givens' final push.

Eacret said a lack of defensive fundamentals factored into the end result.

“We had opportunities and let them off the hook,” Eacret said. “We made some mistakes. We struggled tackling tonight.

“We struggled fielding the onside kick. If we got that onside kick it would have iced the game away. We just didn't do the things we should do to win a ballgame.”

For Brune, the victory validated the work that his team did in practice before the game.

“I knew we could do some things offensively so I expected to get back on track a little bit today,” Brune said. “The kids played hard. We had our moments of doing things well and we had moments where they got the best of us, but in the end we made the plays necessary to pull off a win.”

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